I’m not a fan of community gates.

At the townhome I was at, our HOA funds were debited often by having to fix it. The association president was called often to come manually open it. And it becomes a liability in trying to attract drive-bys when you go to sell it.

The semi-plusses: the illusion of security (robbers on foot could have jumped our 4′ side gate)–maybe there are other models that actually are more secure. “Gated community” sounds nice when you sell it. Less drive-through traffic, but that wasn’t a problem in the first place since the street leading into my community was an obvious dead end.

I think that cities like gated communities. It shifts the burden of street maintenance onto the private sector.

I hate gated commmunities. But I think that they’re the way new developments are going.

Nor_LA-Temcu-SD-Guy

HOA’s are a threat to america and a free way of life.

I HATE !!!! really HATE !!! HATE HATE HATE !!!

HOA’s !!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!

I purchased a townhome whose community was under development, the HOA dues was something like $50/month (7 years ago, can’t remember exact amount). At the time I didn’t really know how much HOA dues *should* be, and $50 didn’t look like anything to be worried about. Well, buyer beware. It went from $50 to $248 in 4 years, because 1. the HOA didn’t cover what needed to be covered. and 2. the community went through litigation due to defective building (on which we prevailed).

Lesson learned: HOA dues may be set artificially low on new communities so as to not scare away buyers, but will later get inceased at the discretion of the homeowners board according to the actual bills that need to get paid.

They didn’t fully finish my lot either. I happened to be the only lot that had a slope that was landscapable, but wasn’t landscaped, and of course it wasn’t irrigated. So when I did the work myself (getting permission from a president who then resigned), the association raised hell. So while I underwent harrassment from the neighbors while I wheelbarrowed two yards of dirt around the building, carried heavy landscaping bricks through my unit, and constructed retaining walls to finally complete my project. Took a while to bury the hatchet with the neighbors, and some of them actually told me I did a great job. I compromised by not promising to manually irrigate the new area (but hopefully the future owner will discover the irrigation valve and quietly start watering it off of the community system.)

Living in condos is nice for some, but you sure lose a lot of self-autonomy in the process–I’ll never do that again. People who actually *like* living in places like this are not expecting renegade neighbors such as myself and prefer HOAs to tend to every detail of their house.

You’re right, I am associating HOAs to condos when many new communities of any sort have them (everything has to get more expensive, one way or another). And by the way, I do support rules that help keep up the appearance of the neighborhood to protect investment and quality of life. I don’t know where one draws the line on what should and shouldn’t be, but I do think streets should not be used as salvage yards. This does entail some HOA oversight, but that can be done without dues.

I am also biased towards buying a property that needs renovation. Buying upgrades upfront, as discussed earlier in another thread, involves paying more than doing the work yourself and going with someone else’s taste. A better financing plan is to do this on a home equity loan, but of course that depends on having equity to start with.

It is ironic that most of the gated communities I see are in communities with extremely low crime rates. There should be no premium for the gated community; you pay for the perceived added security in the form of high monthly HOA fees. Seems I am preaching to the choir here, but the marginal benefit gained (less traffic, enhanced security) are more than offset by the silly restrictions, ie, “you can paint your home any one of these shades of beige”. I am renting in a gated community in Carmel Valley and the neighborhood teenagers are just as rowdy (if not more so) that I was growing up in an older community in the East County. I personally don’t see the benefit…fact is in places like Santa Luz, between Mello-Roos and HOA fees, you are $800-1000 out of pocket every month before you’ve even started to pay towards the mortgage and property taxes…just makes no sense to me.

Isn’t the current trend gated without gates?

The gate houses, entry way, and possibly even gate are built, but they are in the permenantly open position so that the gate maintenance and hassle is removed. The community has the appearance of a gate, without the hassle.

I think the reasoning is that the drive by trouble makers keep driving and the ones that’ll look close enough to see there’s no gate guard are coming in anyway.