Best HOA Bang for your Buck?

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
irvinehomeowner said:
The 2011 Collection isn't IHOP this time around... no hotcakes and now TIC has to offer "coupons".
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That's good to know. I was thinking mostly of Woodbury 2010...those sold pretty fast, right?

I also drove by Laguna Altura last week, just out of curiosity. I couldn't picture where the location was, even though I'd seen it on the online map. I was surprised that there's nothing around there but hills and the 133. I was like, whoa, this location is awful, look at all these ugly yellow hills! But my husband thought it was great because there was nothing around...so go figure. Different strokes, I guess!

Although I do think the new stuff is overpriced and it's not my cup of tea, whatever makes people happy. So if someone buys a new house in Laguna Altura or wherever, if they are happy with it, then I'm happy for them and I hope they enjoy living there. I don't agree with Indie's point that buying a home should be solely a financial decision. I think it's a highly emotional experience, and that's okay...as long as you're still thinking rationally and not letting yourself get carried away.
 
traceimage said:
Some of the older areas of Irvine don't have HOAs at all.
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I know the older Northwood areas don't have HOA's but do they have amenities like pools or tennis courts?

Thank you for staying on topic btw  :)
 
The literature for all the homes in Stonegate lists the monthly assoc. dues "at buildout."  What does this mean?  The monthly dues are less until all the pools, parks etc are built?
 
couplebuyers said:
The literature for all the homes in Stonegate lists the monthly assoc. dues "at buildout."  What does this mean?  The monthly dues are less until all the pools, parks etc are built?
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"At buildout" means that all of the units are sold, occupied, and the homeowners are contributing to the cost (best estimate) of maintaining the association-covered areas by paying dues.

At the halfway point, there are only 50% of the homes (hopefully) paying into the costs of keeping up all of the community amenities, with the builder typically having to foot the balance of the bill.  Once everything is completed, the builder can step out of the way and let the homeowners run the show themselves.

-IrvineRealtor
 
Do these HOA's make a lot of profit?  I know they mail us the quarterly or annual reports but I wonder how much those people actually make?
 
NoSoup4U said:
traceimage said:
Some of the older areas of Irvine don't have HOAs at all.
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I know the older Northwood areas don't have HOA's but do they have amenities like pools or tennis courts?

Thank you for staying on topic btw  :)
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The areas I'm familiar with don't.
 
NoSoup4U said:
Do these HOA's make a lot of profit?  I know they mail us the quarterly or annual reports but I wonder how much those people actually make?
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They are non-profit organizations. Any dues that are collected that are in excess of the actual costs of the association, are put towards "reserve funds."  Reserves are used to budget for big-ticket items like repainting, re-roofing, resurfacing the pool, or slurry-sealing the roads, that don't happen every year.  this helps to avoid the dreaded "special assessment" fairy, who drops in on unprepared homeowners who haven't budgeted for time-decay of their investment.

-IrvineRealtor
 
Then why are the numbers so different between neighborhoods. cost of re painting/ re roofing/ slurry coat
etc should be about similar between similar neighborhoods.

I know monterey in WBE covers walls in insurance (Part of HO-6 is covered here). So any homeowners insurance individual buys is
for his own extra protection of upgrades/belongings. Do all attached properties have similar walls in coverage. if this part is
different for different neighborhoods then i can understand the difference in HOA fees.

I personally would actually prefer slightly higher monthly fee
and having it constant for prolonged period instead of it going up every year endlessly because of shortfall.

IrvineRealtor said:
NoSoup4U said:
Do these HOA's make a lot of profit?  I know they mail us the quarterly or annual reports but I wonder how much those people actually make?
Click to expand...

They are non-profit organizations. Any dues that are collected that are in excess of the actual costs of the association, are put towards "reserve funds."  Reserves are used to budget for big-ticket items like repainting, re-roofing, resurfacing the pool, or slurry-sealing the roads, that don't happen every year.  this helps to avoid the dreaded "special assessment" fairy, who drops in on unprepared homeowners who haven't budgeted for time-decay of their investment.

-IrvineRealtor
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NoSoup4U said:
Non profit?  I think I saw one of the HOA guys driving a Mercedes S65 AMG.
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I see the connection you're trying to make, but, I don't think these 2 events are correlated.  Non-profit doesn't mean non-paying.
 
Yeah, but it's 10x more entertaining to the thread if we enter into a discussion where a "shady HOA board member" is secretly siphoning money into his personal account to purchase German luxury cars.
 
Is there an institution that regulates these HOA's?  I was looking to buy a condo while back but there was a $20,000 lien from the HOA that any buyer would have to pay cash upon purchase.  I laughed because the previous owner was only delinquent for a year.  The rest were to pay the HOA "attorneys."  I smell a crook.
 
I was a board president of our Condo HOA in the mid 1990's. The developer had gone tits up (1993) and refused to finish the property. In 1997 after a recapitalization they wanted to restart the project as a SFD development, bogarting all of the existing units open parking spaces. It sure helped to have a strong, committed HOA to fight this builder from ruining the quality of life for those home buyers who purchased early on.

Parking was a huge issue in this high density development. Most homeowners put their boats or tanning beds in their garages, then stuck their two or three cars in the Visitor parking area. The HOA had a "Come to Jesus" meeting with all home owners and worked out a reasonable solution. Sure, there were HOA nazi's there complaining about everything - what HOA doesn't have them... - but in the end the community issues were taken care of. Bruised feelings faded. People moved on.

For me, the biggest issue with HOA's isn't the cost, but your own personal involvement. Leave an HOA to police itself, and you're assuming quite a bit about your fellow man. If you get involved you can cast aside the riff raff busy bodies as best as possible while building a strong community within the association. These HOA's aren't as bad as you might have heard, they just need your input to make them work.

My .02c

Soylent Green Is People.
 
sgip said:
I was a board president of our Condo HOA in the mid 1990's. The developer had gone tits up (1993) and refused to finish the property. In 1997 after a recapitalization they wanted to restart the project as a SFD development, bogarting all of the existing units open parking spaces. It sure helped to have a strong, committed HOA to fight this builder from ruining the quality of life for those home buyers who purchased early on.

Parking was a huge issue in this high density development. Most homeowners put their boats or tanning beds in their garages, then stuck their two or three cars in the Visitor parking area. The HOA had a "Come to Jesus" meeting with all home owners and worked out a reasonable solution. Sure, there were HOA nazi's there complaining about everything - what HOA doesn't have them... - but in the end the community issues were taken care of. Bruised feelings faded. People moved on.

For me, the biggest issue with HOA's isn't the cost, but your own personal involvement. Leave an HOA to police itself, and you're assuming quite a bit about your fellow man. If you get involved you can cast aside the riff raff busy bodies as best as possible while building a strong community within the association. These HOA's aren't as bad as you might have heard, they just need your input to make them work.

My .02c

Soylent Green Is People.
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So if somebody successfully negotiates this $20,000 lien amount to $10,000, will the current homeowners in the community end up paying for this?  If they take the money from the excess cash allocation to cover lost attorney fees, wouldn't that be the case?
 
NoSoup4U said:
So if somebody successfully negotiates this $20,000 lien amount to $10,000, will the current homeowners in the community end up paying for this?  If they take the money from the excess cash allocation to cover lost attorney fees, wouldn't that be the case?
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Not so much.

The presumed $20,000 lien would be made up of three different categories of costs:
1. Missed payments.
2. Late fees and penalties.
3. Legal expenses to cover attorney costs.

If it were "settled" at $10K, the association would likely get paid first (categories 1 and 2) with the remainder going to the attorney.
(This, of course, depends upon how the agreement  is set up between the HOA and the attorney, and it's specific language, but I think this is a fairly common setup.)
*Also note that the HOA doesn't have to settle, and can choose to go after the non-paying individual personally for the full amount - attaching wages, repossessing assets, etc...

-IrvineRealtor
 
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