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Author
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Topic: HOA's Pros/Cons
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rgtrahn
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Member # 7133
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posted
 
 
For those that live in a Home Owners Association (HOA), what do you like and what do you hate? Or even better yet, is there anyone that lives in Lincoln Crossing?
In my house hunt, I have been demoralized with the lack of inventory and how hard it it to find something I like and can afford. So, I have started looking in Lincoln Crossing. With that in mind, I realized the City of Lincoln is essentially bankrupt and city services (Fire/ police/ schools) suck and the city will likely go bankrupt.
However, on the other hand Lincoln qualifies for a USDA Loan which is 100% financing and $0 down @ a 3.75% interest... I could more less make money to move to a home in Lincoln (My realtor is gifting me 1% of sale price). The homes themselves are awesome. For example these are just three of the homes we are currently looking at...
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Lincoln/100-Danby-Ct-95648/home/19604155
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Lincoln/1054-Thornhill-Ln-95648/home/22436499
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Lincoln/1333-Seymour-Cir-95648/home/19596346
It's crazy how much more house you can get for a dollar in Lincoln compared to Roseville, Rocklin, Folsom.
Any thoughts on HOA on Lincoln are welcome and appreciated!
Oh one more thing... is PG&E really that much more than SMUD or Roseville Electric?
[ May 19, 2012, 08:51 AM: Message edited by: rgtrahn ]
Posts: 781 | From: Roseville | Registered: Oct 2006
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v-town coupe
fordologist
Member # 2771
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posted
some things to consider:
If you are buying a place and lets say your monthly payment is $1800.00 and HOA is $300. are you still living within your means? if so how close are you to the border line? If Hoa goes up can you still afford to live there? also what shape are these places in and how old are they? for example My Grand mother lives in a gated community with condos. One day they decided to redo "x" landscape ie: plant all new trees etc. which would drive the HOA, OR tell everyone all the places need to be painted causing folks to come out of pocket or for the really broke people to get a loan to get their house painted.
Also look into the By laws. I've seen some Hoa's post that you cannot work in your garage with the door open, you cannot park in the street ,or park in the street over night, the slightest drip of oil in your drive way will get you sighted, no cars allowed to park in your driveway.
Since your posting on a car sight make sure you can live with the limits of the HOA of where your looking to buy. sure not parking on the street doesnt sound bad but what do you do with visitors?
Pros of having an Hoa would be things like, your garbage bill is included , landscaping may be taken care of for you, leaving less work for you, Hoa's also help keep everything looking nice so your area doesnt look run down.
it all boils down to this, Can you afford it? Can you afford it if it goes up? are the Bi-laws ridiculous? can you live within their Bi-laws? If you are really considering a place just look at those and really think things through Cause the littlest things are what seems to catch people up and annoy the shit out of them. "you mean I can only buy these "X" windows if I want to upgrade?" "I get fined if my dog barks at night?", " my garbage sat out for three days because, Garbage is picked up on friday and I left for town for the weekend" Also If you do buy somewhere with Hoa's try and get on the board so that you have some say of what goes on! I'll leave it at that!
Posts: 4597 | From: the V-town | Registered: May 2003
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v-town coupe
fordologist
Member # 2771
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posted
Also look into the citys Rental rate. how much could you rent the place out for if you decide to live else where or get in a bind? also Are places actually renting? I know some people that ended up renting their place out and could only get their monthly payment, so they are stuck paying the Hoa fees.
Remember Hoa's Pay to kind of keep everything up and if there is lack of people living there who will be picking up the slack?
Posts: 4597 | From: the V-town | Registered: May 2003
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1996 GT
I'm Joe Yates
Member # 4992
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posted
Lincoln crossing's HOA is kinda of a joke. They do charge quite a bit and you do get Internet for the house, the clubhouse to use, the pool there and gym. But you also get tickets out the ass if you happen to park your car in front of your house. When I lived there, they ticketed your shit if you werent parked in your driveway or garage. This includes visitors and the HOA tries to charge like 100 bucks almost for each violation. You also have to get them to approve backyard changes and crap too. The houses are new and nice, but I'll never be a part of an HOA ever again because of my experience living there with their stupid rules.
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Posts: 9308 | Registered: Oct 2004
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adower
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Member # 5955
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Check out the hoa bylaws. Some you have to have a certain color blinds etc. I wouldn't live in an hoa. If your planning to have kids and what not then I wouldn't buy a house with horrible education system. Unless you plan on private school or something else.
It looks like your looking at the 250k range. Not sure if you've calculated bills but I am guessing monthly mortgage is around 1700$ plus tax etc you will be over 2k.
[ May 19, 2012, 11:13 AM: Message edited by: adower ]
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98 Cobra
Griggs
S Trim
HRE
Posts: 3327 | Registered: Aug 2005
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wilit
Mustang Messiah
Member # 3367
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I will never ever buy a house in an HOA ever again. Our dues went up $115 in 5 years from $205 to $320 with zero increase in services. Parking tickets for parking in front of your own place were common. Get enough of them and your car eventually gets towed. The HOA then is useless when a neighbor violates the master agreements by doing some sort of unauthorized home upgrade.
If you can avoid it, I would. It truly is a form of Communism that doesn't work.
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"If a man hasn't found something worth dying for, he isn't fit to live." - Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 4793 | From: 37.78514° North 122.40100° West | Registered: Oct 2003
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SantaClara_Cobra
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Member # 9488
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Hoa's only go up. parking tickets are redonkulous . they pay security guards to hand out parking tickets all day but i do have a two car garage. theres a waiting list to rent you place out because they want to keep an owner renter ratio. if you do then its 300 fine every month. but it is a start for me and my lady.
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18 Denali diesel
91 🦊
Posts: 1399 | From: San Jose | Registered: Sep 2009
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rgtrahn
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Member # 7133
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posted
Thanks for everyone's input. It's funny you mention the parking tickets. The HOA's have absolute power... I have a partner who has a take home patrol car. They slapped a parking ticket on his marked police car and have threatened to have it towed.
I think I am just being impatient and need to relax. I really want to live in Roseville, but the inventory is so low, I feel like it's never going to happen. My price range right now is $275k, but I get a $4 raise in September and my price range will go up to $315k... Having said that, I also don't want to be house poor and live to own a house.
My experience so far trying to buy a house has been an absolute nightmare. There was one house we put an offer in on...Come to find out so did over 49 other people. We were in escrow on another and it under appraised and we lost our appraisal fee. Not to mention every freak'n house is a short-sale!
Still, I feel very fortunate that I am able to be in the position I'm in... It could always be worse.
Posts: 781 | From: Roseville | Registered: Oct 2006
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1996 GT
I'm Joe Yates
Member # 4992
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posted
Hang in there, if you want to be in Roseville, HOLD OUT.
Lincoln is not like Roseville, the services suck, the water is disgusting, and the city is bankrupt.
Roseville as much as I hate driving through the town worrying about a cop pulling me over for bullshit, is a better neighborhood and have better schools and public services. Don't rush and get what you want, its like wanting a 2013 GT and settling for a 2010 GT, lol.
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Posts: 9308 | Registered: Oct 2004
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rgtrahn
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Member # 7133
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quote:
Originally posted by Cobra 93-4992:
Hang in there, if you want to be in Roseville, HOLD OUT.
Lincoln is not like Roseville, the services suck, the water is disgusting, and the city is bankrupt.
Roseville as much as I hate driving through the town worrying about a cop pulling me over for bullshit...
I wouldn't write you a ticket... ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Posts: 781 | From: Roseville | Registered: Oct 2006
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wilit
Mustang Messiah
Member # 3367
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Here's my take on home ownership. I've been jaded by the experience, so take it with a grain of salt. I probably would not own a house in CA again unless I won the lottery and paid cash for it.
My wife and I bought our place at the height of the market in 2005 for $452k. Our payments were close to $3k/mo (zero down, 5.9% on the 1st loan, 9.5% on the 2nd). Tack on our $300+ HOA dues and insurance and we were shelling out $3300/mo. We both HAD to work to maintain our mortgage. Then, tack on property taxes which were close to $5k a year.
People would say, "Yeah, but you own, it's an investment." Well... In a bull market, yeah, it could be. But in our current market it's not. If you look at an amortization schedule of what you pay over the course of 30 years, you realize it's not a good investment but more of a glorified savings account. For our loan, at the end of 30 years, the total we would have paid to the bank would have been $965k. That means, to BREAK EVEN on a sale our house would have needed to more than double in price. But wait, if you sell it, you have realtor commissions (6%), capital gains taxes, etc. So now to BREAK EVEN you're looking at a sale price of over a million dollars on a 2bd 2bth place in Hayward. Not likely going to happen. That doesn't include any taxes or home repairs you've made over the course of the 30 years either.
We're now renting a place that's half the cost, twice the size and in a much better neighborhood. My wife doesn't have to work (stay at home mom) and we're much happier.
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"If a man hasn't found something worth dying for, he isn't fit to live." - Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 4793 | From: 37.78514° North 122.40100° West | Registered: Oct 2003
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asskickn88
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Member # 4957
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posted
quote:
Originally posted by Cobra 93-4992:
Hang in there, if you want to be in Roseville, HOLD OUT.
Lincoln is not like Roseville, the services suck, the water is disgusting, and the city is bankrupt.
That's the truth right there. Here's the pros and cons of an HOA: cons: they suck, pros: nothing. I was tempted to buy in Lincoln myself just because of the houses and prices. We ended up in Fair Oaks with an older house, a big lot, a pool and no HOA to shove their big one up your ass every chance they get. My dad lives up above Folsom in El Dorado hills and went to the HOA when his neighbor wanted to plant trees along the fence that would block his view. he went in armed with all the proof showing the trees would grow too large and they allowed the dick to plant them anyway. I'd look elsewhere, skip the HOA BS and get a better house in an established neighborhood. I'm so happy we moved here instead of staying in Rocklin or going to Lincoln and we went from paying $1650 rent to $1300 and we get a husge tax brake.
[ May 19, 2012, 02:12 PM: Message edited by: asskickn88 ]
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Three 540 Bimmers and a 5.0 Explorer.... got a Ford back in the stable!
It's time for the country to do what Obama's own father did.
Abandon him.
Posts: 6069 | From: Rocklin, Ca | Registered: Oct 2004
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4eye5.0_sos
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Member # 11303
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quote:
Originally posted by wilit:
Here's my take on home ownership. I've been jaded by the experience, so take it with a grain of salt. I probably would not own a house in CA again unless I won the lottery and paid cash for it.
My wife and I bought our place at the height of the market in 2005 for $452k. Our payments were close to $3k/mo (zero down, 5.9% on the 1st loan, 9.5% on the 2nd). Tack on our $300+ HOA dues and insurance and we were shelling out $3300/mo. We both HAD to work to maintain our mortgage. Then, tack on property taxes which were close to $5k a year.
People would say, "Yeah, but you own, it's an investment." Well... In a bull market, yeah, it could be. But in our current market it's not. If you look at an amortization schedule of what you pay over the course of 30 years, you realize it's not a good investment but more of a glorified savings account. For our loan, at the end of 30 years, the total we would have paid to the bank would have been $965k. That means, to BREAK EVEN on a sale our house would have needed to more than double in price. But wait, if you sell it, you have realtor commissions (6%), capital gains taxes, etc. So now to BREAK EVEN you're looking at a sale price of over a million dollars on a 2bd 2bth place in Hayward. Not likely going to happen. That doesn't include any taxes or home repairs you've made over the course of the 30 years either.
We're now renting a place that's half the cost, twice the size and in a much better neighborhood. My wife doesn't have to work (stay at home mom) and we're much happier.
+1
Posts: 43 | From: rocklin | Registered: Sep 2011
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Hungry Hippo
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Member # 537
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posted
HOA's suck. Especially when there are parking restrictions.
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05 S4 Avant(wagon)
09 C6 H/C/I
Posts: 2959 | From: east bay | Registered: Nov 2001
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adower
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Member # 5955
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posted
quote:
Originally posted by rgtrahn:
Thanks for everyone's input. It's funny you mention the parking tickets. The HOA's have absolute power... I have a partner who has a take home patrol car. They slapped a parking ticket on his marked police car and have threatened to have it towed.
I think I am just being impatient and need to relax. I really want to live in Roseville, but the inventory is so low, I feel like it's never going to happen. My price range right now is $275k, but I get a $4 raise in September and my price range will go up to $315k... Having said that, I also don't want to be house poor and live to own a house.
My experience so far trying to buy a house has been an absolute nightmare. There was one house we put an offer in on...Come to find out so did over 49 other people. We were in escrow on another and it under appraised and we lost our appraisal fee. Not to mention every freak'n house is a short-sale!
Still, I feel very fortunate that I am able to be in the position I'm in... It could always be worse.
I am not sure of your personal financed but I know you are a Leo. I think your are over extending yourself looking at a 315k range. There are a ton of expenses that arise and you don't want to be a slave to your mortgage.
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98 Cobra
Griggs
S Trim
HRE
Posts: 3327 | Registered: Aug 2005
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coupedup
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Member # 9987
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posted
I have two houses, one is in a HOA and it's really not that bad. You have to understand that most HOA community's are run by older people and that's where all the weird rules regulations come from. Which I don't mind because I like having a quiet place I can go to in the summer time. V-Towncoupe pretty much touched all corners on the topic.
Posts: 4406 | From: Ca | Registered: May 2010
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