We sold our house 6 weeks ago or so ago (significant cash out) and moved across the country, and we decided to rent for a bit and gamble that the market would collapse more. But we hate renting and we are already capitulating and putting an offer on a house we found and love. Even with our cash the mortgage will be about the same as before, due to the interest rates. So now we will be gambling that the interest rates will not continue up for long, and that they will decrease below their current level within a couple years. It feels wrong from an investment perspective, but it feels right from a life decision perspective, and it feels right from a security perspective (owning a place we can secure, and where we can grow a garden, etc.), and in the event of a currency crisis it would be bad to be super long cash. Side note: we don't have kids or pets, so it's just my wife and me; and we both have family nearby.
What would you do? And why?
AVOID HOAs. I cannot stress enough the sheer idiocy that HOAs can be. I found my home a little over 5 years ago. Not really aware of what an HOA was, outside of a search online, I decided at the time to blindly accept their non negotiable offer. Sign here, agree to things and also agree to pay a nominal $75 yr. for the common area maintenance.
Fuck All Anons.... That small yearly fee has crept up every year without fail. The board has changed hands four times in five years. Money mismanagement along with over reaching rules, I'm fully convinced that HOAs are created by liberals who only want to push their own wants onto everyone else. Whether I'm not allowed to have a garden without their permission, no chickens, cannot have a fire pit, must cut lawn before they decide it's too long it your getting fined, cannot leave garbage cans in Street more than 12 hours before or after pickup, must put cans in garage and not outside, to changing rules mid stream to suit their own machinations.
The kicker..... There's about 140 homes in this HOA. About 130 of those homes are normal people who just don't give a fuck and don't attend the stupid meetings etc. Guess what?? The 10 that do show up all vote, and since their the majority of those who showed up then they can arbitrarily make new rules....
Seriously, AVOID THE HOA AT ALL COSTS. Even as in my case, if you found that perfect home, in your price range and your all giddy.. the HOA will absolutely shit all over you and force their ideals onto you, if you decide to fight back good luck. The fuckheads that run them are all wanna be mayors and sheriff's, they will be Petty and act like the Gestapo.
Sorry for the rant... Go ahead and buy a home. Just avoid agreeing to open terms with an HOA. You will always always lose. Unless your one of those people, in which case your not reading this here anyways.
Carry On!!!!
Thanks man. This has been weighing on us also. We came from an HOA and we swore we would never get into another one because it was exactly the nightmare that you're describing, we spent thousands of dollars getting a front door that we liked and then the HOA tried to get us to fucking change it because it didn't match the original guidelines, even though everybody loved it and it matched the neighborhood perfectly, bunch of fucking liberal weasels sneaking around behind our backs trying to Wreck us. We thought back and won, but it put a really bad taste in her mouth. The problem is, sometimes the trade-off is worth it. Even though it was a fucking nightmare dealing with those assholes, the neighborhood was great and the green spaces were great and there was a lot of good things about it. It's really tough trying to figure out what to do. The HOA that we are looking at now is very cheap, just like how you were started, whereas ours where we left was seven times more expensive per month.
BTW, I just calculated, the HOA where we were for five years went up over 25% in that five years, and when we got there it included cable Internet and TV, and when we left it did not.