Author: Morton Weatherly

Earned praised for my work lecturing about soap scum in Suffolk, NY. Once had a dream of buying and selling crickets with no outside help. At the moment I'm merchandising bongos in Edison, NJ. Spent childhood developing fried chicken in Ohio.

9 Things to Know About Homeowners Associations

When you plan to buy a building, complex or apartment in a planned development, you must join a community called Home Owners Association (HOA). You have to pay monthly or annual Home Owner Association fees for the maintenance of common areas.About one in six U.S. homes belongs to the HOA.

Home owner associations are so common, it is highly possible that you will come across HOA in your home search. However, it depends on where you live. If we talk about the areas,then, about six in 10 Nevada homes are in an HOA, whilst just two in 100 are in Georgia.

If you are planning to purchase a property that is governed by an HOA, then you should thoroughly understand how these associations work before you purchase. Home Owner Associations can affect not your finances, but also your quality of life.

9 things which are important for you to know if you are going to buy a property in a community that has a Home Owner Association. Discussing one by one below:

 1. Learn the Home Owner Association’s Rules

You may be able to find a Home Owner Association’s online. You find on the internet some information about what happens if you violate the rules. If you violate the rules you can be fined, sued or having the Home Owner Association place a lien on your home.If you cannot find this information on the internet, ask your real estate agent to acquire these documents for you or you can contact the HOA.

Pay genuine attention to whether the Home Owner Association can take possession of your property for non-payment of HOA dues or non-payment of fines resulting from CC&R violations. Also, keenly learn about the process for changing or adding rules. Attend Home Owner Association meetings when you will be able to attend. If the rules are too restrictive for you, then the best decision is to consider buying property elsewhere.

2. Find Out whether the Home is Compliance or not

Buying home into an existing problem can be a problem. So, try to find out whether you will have to make changes to the home to comply with Home Owner Association rules. Is it in need of repainting? Is the landscaping dry or overgrown? Is the interior required? You may be able to convince the owner to resolve the problems as part of the sale agreement.

Also, beware that Home Owner Associations are very considerably in terms of who fixes which problems. Each HOA community has its own CC&Rs. A gated community will have gate maintenance or there will be a Home Owner Association in place with a legal authority to manage more. Any authority typically will have legally granted in writing as part of the creation of a homeowner’s agreement.

3. Evaluate Environmental Practices

If you want to live in friendly environment, then it is important to you to learn about some Home Owner Associations environmental rules. Some Home Owner Associations dictate that you use fertilizers, pesticides, sprinkler systems to keep your lawn picture-perfect.Some of HOAs may not allow xeriscaping, a friendly environment form of landscaping in arid climates.

4. Think About Your Temperament

Are you a person who hates being told what to do? If yes, then living in a community with a Home Owner Association may be a very frustrating experience for you. HOAs rules can really interfere.

5. Learn Out About Fees

Fees of Home Owner Association are different for each community. So, you have to ask following questions from your prospective Home Owner Association.

  • How and when Home Owner Associations increase their fee?
  • May I get a print of history regarding all dues over the last 10 years?
  • What about the Home Owner Association’s reserve fund?
  • Can I get the record of past special assessment?
  • What about the monthly dues?

6. Get a Copy of the Minutes of Meeting

Always ask your Home Owner Association for the copy minutes of the meeting. In every meeting you will get to know about the policies of Home Owner Association. If you are unable to attend the meeting, then it is important for you to get the copy of the minutes of the meeting. The document will contain the past and current conflicts, resolving the conflicts, name of suing people, and any incident happened.

7. Watch for Under Management

Not all the Home Owner Associations are over-managed. Some HOAs have no interest in maintaining the building, making repairs, hearing resident grievances or being on the board. So,always consider that you are not picking up the under-management association

8. Do Question About Catastrophe Insurance

Catastrophe insurance is significant for townhouse purchase in an area where major natural disasters,such as floods, earthquakes, blizzards, wildfires, tornadoes or hurricanes happened. So, ask about the insurance and make sure the insurance of the building.

9. Consider the effect of Home Owner Association Fees on Your Finances

Always go with lower fees. Do not exceed the fees from your limit. Buy less expensive property if the fee is too high.

Advantage of Investing In Multifamily Real Estate

The good investment starts with a purchase of land or property in a low valued area. And when you are dealing with a multifamily property, you will not have to pay much for the walls, roofs and other areas of the property. In general the square-foot cost of a multifamily building is quite lower as compared to that of single family homes. Below mentioned are a few advantages that you will get with multifamily buildings.

Management and Security Costs

The cost of security and building management always takes a big chunk of the income that you earn from the property. If you are an owner of multifamily building, you will be able to avoid spending too much of the money in these areas. Moreover, you may not like the idea of traveling to your multiple single family homes no matter how close they are to your location. You will always have some difficulty in managing different single family homes as compared to managing one building with several units.

Costs for Maintenance, Repairs, and Upkeep

Although there is a bit of advantage with the single family homes that you can leave most of the maintenance tasks for the tenants, you are still going to get calls for maintenance; and you are going to have to fulfill those request. In comparison, there may be a bit more maintenance tasks that would come under your responsibility while renting out an apartment unit but you will have quite an ease dealing with those issues. Maintenance companies work in better way when they have one location to serve.

Builder Preparing Estimate For Exterior Home Improvement

Saving costs on finishes and fixtures

 When you have different single family homes, there are going to be different layout of every property. It means that the finishes and fixtures that work for one property may not work for the other. In this scenario, multifamily apartment provides you an ease along with the cost advantage. You will not have to buy different types of fixtures from different vendors. Instead, you can contact one vendor and ask for the fixtures in bulk.That will surely help you save the costs. Moreover, you will be able to save much while doing the finishing of the building because you will go with one design.

Lower taxes

Although this is not always the case, multifamily properties tend to provide you greater tax benefit as compared to single family homes. For instance, you will be able to build more rooms on a piece of land. Generally, a multifamily apartment can be built on the land of the size which may not be enough for two single family homes.