I would never buy a house that didn’t have an H.O.A. of some sort unless it was rural. I have never owned in a condo association and have heard some horror stories but from all of my experiences with sfr’s in and out of HOA’s, most of the sfr associations were pretty reasonable. I’ve spun the wheel of chance in a non HOA and lost, no more for me thanks. There will always be extremes, look into it before you buy. Most of my friends that complain about their HOA I wouldn’t want to live near once I see their house and their view of the situation is usually their own distorted perspective. Go to a ten or twenty year old development with and without an hoa and I bet the one with an hoa looks better. I am sure there are exceptions but it is always my luck that I will end up living next to the guy who likes year round christmas lights. The biggest drawback is that the non HOA houses advertise that fact and the nutjobs gravitate to those, if they would tell people there was an hoa and then not have one, that would weed out most of the crazies and lazies.
