A homeowner association is an organization established mainly to manage, market, and sell homes to interested parties who must become members of the association through the signing of contracts and treaties for one to access their services. Before buying into HOA, you need to consider several matters of concern that will affect acquiring a home from the association.

 Cost

 As a member of the HOAs, you will be required to pay monthly fees, which vary depending on the home’s size and location. This fee caters to the maintenance of the homes, the properties, or the land in which the home is located.

 Restrictions and Rules

 According to the HOAs, you as a member will be restricted by a document that has in it the covenants, conditions, and restrictions which you are supposed to abide by and in some cases may be rendered illegal or unfair such as the document might prohibit the sale of homes to certain racial groups. You might not get to customize or improvise or even add some developments on your property or home due to restrictions. You need to understand the rules and regulations clearly.

 Board Decisions

 The homeowner board association can impose additional fees on members without the members’ consent which is a violation of the members’ rights as far as homeownership is concerned. People can easily embezzle the association’s money due to dishonesty and mistrust of the board members in other occurrences.

 Power

 The board has powers that will largely affect the way you plan on generating income from your property. The HOAs may have conditions in which a member can’t rent the property out until they have owned it for two years or more.

 Conflicts Management

 As a homeowner association member, disagreements are inevitable with planned development, and sometimes, the enforcement of rules may not favor you fully. You need to know that strict rules ought to be followed and where conflicts arise, the board should be able to solve them without bias.

 Insurance Policies

 You need to check if the HOAs provide any extra or additional insurance for the homes or property.

 The Reputation of the HOA

 You as an individual have to look into how the HOA has established itself, whether it’s authentic or not. Is it administered professionally? Are the members content with the services being offered? Does the HOA management have any cases of harassing members and violating their rights?

 Reliability of the Association

 Even though you’ve paid the monthly membership fee and agreed to the covenant and regulations, certain HOAs will not be reliable to their members; some may even fail to maintain the homes of their members. The reliability of the association matters a lot.

 Meetings

 You ought to know whether the HOA members have a say in the designing of regulations and covenant laws. During the levy, debt collection, and tax laws, do the members’ votes count?

 Also, you need to know whether the members are allowed to go through the minutes of the board’s meetings.

 In conclusion

 Buying into an HOA (or buying a home in general) has both advantages and disadvantages; therefore, the knowledge of which property you want to purchase, its location and the cost, as well as knowing the reputation and the reliability of the HOA of your preference, will help you minimize the disadvantages and even losses.

 If you need any help or advice with the HOA process, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. (720) 352-7704, [email protected].