Ha! That's fantastic. At the beginning of COVID, I was looking at those homes in Channel Islands Marina. The beaches were closed here in LA, but if your backyard is a dock/slip in a marina, you can't be ticketed or arrested for enjoying that. The HOA for the homes I was browsing was only something like $4 per month! Heck, here's a 50 for the whole year. Keep the change.

You explained why it's hard to change, but why is it a problem?

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Saying your HOA fees has not changed since 1960 is not bragging, it's admitting you live in a dump. The thing most idiots don't understand is the HOA costs are SERVICES you receive. Why is it bad? Well, with no HOA fees, you get to fix your own potholes, fix the street lights yourself, plant your own shrubs, mow your own grass, clean the pool, plow your street yourself, burn your trash, no security guard, no pest control, etc.

I have a home in the Channel Islands harbor (Mandalay Bay). Yes the HOA fees are a whopping $50 per year, and it’s optional.

As it should be. Places that do all that for you are for the 55+ population that never did squat in the first place. They hired it done and now they don't even want to do that.

Dump? You're something else running your mouth like that. How would you know?

The laughable $85 or $7/mo. HOA fee?
Common sense?
You get what you pay for?

I make it a point to buy homes that are not part of an HOA. I have no desire to ask permission to do things to my own house/yard.

Surprisingly, I've always lived in really nice neighborhoods with good neighbors who take care of their homes.

You mean they don't require a three feet stack of rules to act responsibly? Must be a dump.

Since costs have gone up over the last few decades it's harder to cover costs. The HOA covers about 8,000 homes. The expenses are landscaping the common areas: parks, medians, road side easements; plus pools, tennis and basketball courts, and playgrounds to maintain; and salary for a property manager, maintenance guy and a couple of staff.

In case it's not obvious, I'm a trustee on the HOA board. I made sure there were no crazies on the board before I joined. My wife thinks it's dumb but I guess as I get older I feel the need to be more involved. As they say, "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem"

Our HOA switches from Developer Control to Resident Control this year and the one thing that prompted me to toss my hat in the ring is exactly this, keep the crazies away.

Oddly everyone whose been asking me to run also asks, "are you really sure you want to do this?..."

Honestly, no, I don't, but I feel like I have no choice.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K5uthSOYNEo" title="GEICO TV Commercial, 'HOA Cynthia Advises New Neighbors'" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Sadly some very dear friends of ours live in an HOA community and she has become Cynthia.

What a dickish snobby thing to say??? I’ll take no neighbors, no HOA every time. There’s already enough laws and rules and surveillance not to mention the gossip and the whole keeping up with the Jones’s BS.