I dunno, while I'm in no real rush to paint them all with a broad brush, there's certainly some validity to the some of the ire towards HOAs that the HOAs themselves rightly earned. The one I'm under certainly has. They wont be missed.
If you can't coordinate with your neighbors directly, and resort to the courts, you're likely to end up in the same place when you can't coordinate with your neighbors as HOA. Although, sometimes, having established procedures can smooth things over.
Single family detached homes without an HOA may not scale (probably doesn't), as you say in another comment, but that doesn't mean we only think we don't like the options that would scale. I haven't lived in a condo, or in an HOA, because I have had choices and I'm not going to pick a choice I've got enough information to determine I'll dislike.
You've been duped by the loud anti-HOA crowd and their scary stories, then. For most people, living in a condo is hassle-free. It's cheaper to be many when doing repairs. And someone else coordinates everything so one doesn't have to think about maintenance.
Is that someone else going to move my stuff out of the way when the repairmen come to fix the ceiling under the leaky roof? Will that someone else actually let me know when they'll be swinging by? Will they use a quality repairperson or their cousin? Will it take them so long to get someone out to fix the roof, that more rooms need ceiling repair? How are we paying for this coordinator's time?
Oops, I wasn't supposed to think about this.
But yeah, no one can stop you from dreaming up weird scenarios in your head. Doesn't mean you have a point, though..
Apparently no one cares enough so we ate the cost of re routing. Fuck HOA’s
Having a private garden is great, not crossing people when getting home is great, not hearing people around you is great, not having to deal with the useless administration is great, not having to pay them fees is great.
The thing that bothers me the most about where I live is that even detached houses don't tend to have big plots (makes sense in a developer driven market: buy a ton of land and cram as many houses as you can in there), so you're still too close to other houses.
I understand it's a luxury but it's one I'm happy to put all my money in
Ofc, occasional loud situations, but that is no different from monsters that have parties outside their house.
You are at the mercy of the average members of your group and the average person let’s things decay until it falls down around them.
My grandparents had a condo once and because the people in the association didn't want to pay, they endlessly deferred maintenance until it was 40K a unit. All because they didn't want to fix leaky windows 10 years beforehand.
My home city is filled with examples of this kick it to the next year approach to maintenance.
Most people are that way. They view a bucket as a solution to water dripping in through the roof.
1) They don't appreciate like houses do (and depreciate faster than houses do).
2) A lot of "condos" are converted apartment buildings. This sucks because the construction is much worse (hardly any sound dampening, etc.).