Hey there, new to the board but been reading it for awhile. I’m in Hawaii and looking to relocate to SD in a year or so.
We pay two association fees, one for the town we live in (to utilize pools, rec centers etc), and a second one for the neighborhood due to our living in a single family home under condominium ownership. We always get hassled like being fined for putting up a swing set, even though we’ve had it for two years, and putting up a tarp in the front of our house for our kids birthday, which we hadn’t even had up for 24 hours. We never pay and the evil bastards eventually go away. However I have to say that we do get to go to the pools and take advantage of the rec centers, and our house structure is insured, all for 100 bucks a month so all in all it’s worth it in the end.
It also helps to have our entire culdesac volunteer to be the president, vice president, and treasurer of the neighborhood association so that we can have our way.