Two examples of why you should pay attention to your HOA’s decisions.
Today I want to talk about one of the more boring topics in real estate: homeowners associations. They have a lot of power in Arizona, so I want to share two examples of why you should care about your HOA.
I work with several clients in a townhome community in Greyhawk. This community sued the developer over the poorly-installed roofs 10 years ago. They got a huge sum of money, but they’re still having problems with those roofs today. The HOA also has one of the biggest HOA fees in Greyhawk. Guess what happened: The HOA just assessed every homeowner $6,000 to fix the roofs that have already been fixed twice.
My point is that you need to pay attention to the budget, management, and activities of your HOA, even though it can be boring. The communities of Greyhawk are some of the best-financed HOAs I’ve seen; there should be no reason for homeowners to be assessed. It goes to show that poor management can cost you more.
“You need to pay attention to your HOA and the decisions it’s making.”
The second example has to do with custom lots. I sell quite a few, and there’s one custom lot near Desert Mountain where I have multiple listings. Only half of this community is built out, and they used to have a 3,200 square foot minimum, which is a reasonable custom home size for high-end communities.
The residents decided that it would be great for their home values if they forced everyone to build bigger houses. They changed the minimum square foot requirement to 4,000, cutting out about 80% of the buyer pool for the remaining lots. I have two clients who were trying to sell custom lots, and when I informed them of the change, they were pissed. Unfortunately, they weren’t paying attention. The amendment had already passed, and they had no ability to go back and change it.
I’m not saying you need to join the board or become part of the HOA. Just keep in mind that your HOA can make decisions that affect your home value, so you need to pay attention to them. Pay special attention to anything that says “amendment” or “new CCNRs.”
If you have any questions about HOAs or real estate in general, feel free to call or email my team and me. We would love to hear from you.
