Since they paid their money to buy the property, they can paint their house whatever color they damn well please, IMO.

I mean I don't think they should be any rules really, I'm just pointing out that a lot of people who would be very free thinking before hand become very "Not In My Back Yard" about it as soon as they have skin in the game.

If there’s an HOA, they probably agreed not to.

If they’re my neighbor, they’re probably not in an HOA. (Though that would be an amusing experience to live in the first property outside the HOA wire.)

One of my cousins got in to a fight with the neighboring HOA over something (think the developers were trying to force them to sell to own the whole track) so they set out to be as annoying as possible — pink plastic flamingos, broken down cars &etc.

Maybe we shouldn't think about housing as an investment

Maybe we shouldn't try to control people, including what they think, in such an authoritarian manner.

Who's being authoritarian? I'm suggesting changing how we think about housing

There’s nothing authoritarian about entering a contractor voluntarily

Agree completely

Which is why I no longer live in a place with an HOA