Anyone on their HOA board? Or hold a position on their neighborhood HOA?

[Anonymous]

Small new build neighborhood approximately 40 homes total - transitioning from corporate outsourced HOA to the homeowners. Is it an absolute nightmare taking a role on the HOA? What’s your role? What has your experience been like?

[Anonymous]

Yes. It all depends on the personality of those involved. Some people are over the top about everything and others couldn’t care less.

[Anonymous]

I feel like when you are on the board you can push through your agenda. We belong to 2 HOA boards and there are some really unbelievable requests. I would never run to be on the board seems like ALOT of work.

[Anonymous]

My H was treasurer for our small (also about 40 homes) townhouse community about 20 years ago. It was relatively painless most of the time, I would help him print and stamp quarterly invoices. Most of our owners were genuinely nice people. However, just one a-hole can ruin everything in a community that small. We had the one a-hole who was a giant pain in the ass to deal with on everything, and bonus, was racist as well. Drove multiple decent people out of the community, unfortunately. So, the HOA can be relatively simple and a nice way to hang out with neighbors, unless there's a PITA in the group.

[Anonymous]

The pp is spot on. Its pretty much a thankless job. Everyone wants things to go well, and for everyone else to follow the rules. When you get that one PITA resident, it can drive up costs (frivolous law suits), and be difficult toward residents and board members, and making the volunteer officers miserable.

[Anonymous]

I’m the reluctant secretary of my 43 property HOA. We had a really bad board a few years back so we basically had to do a hostile takeover which is how I ended up in the role. I just take meeting minutes and send property disclosures when properties go under contract. I almost feel like a small community is more of a pain than a larger one would be because everyone knows everyone.

[Anonymous]

We are an 87 home hoa in moco with no amenities other than owned land.
Self managed for years and so it wasn’t fine right. No reserve fund etc.
when I joined the board we switched to using a management company to make sure we were doing things legally. Our dues all went up which irked a lot of people but no one wants to volunteer to help.
I really think small hoa’s are a scam by the company and developers. There is no need for every street with new houses to be an hoa.

[Anonymous]

Take it over and disband it.

[Anonymous]

The HOA can be useful for one very good thing: prohibiting airbnbs and other nuisance properties.

[Anonymous]

I just got roped into one and am sure it's going to suck.

[Anonymous]

I am on an HOA board of directors for a large TH community. Do you have management or does the HOA do everything? I’d be reluctant to take it on without a management company/agent. We have contracts for snow, landscaping, maintenance, refuse etc that I would never, ever want to manage myself in addition to my FT job.

It is a job best for retirees who need something to do, otherwise it can be too much work. But unfortunately, retirees who need something to do, can go really overboard and terrorize ppl, which is why myself and some others ran for Board spots

[Anonymous]

I was on an HOA for over 200 homes. Its a thankless, volunteer job with more criticism and complaints than appreciation. Goal is to strike a balance between community harmony and property values and individual preferences. Ideally you work things out in private, but unfortunately that is not always the case.

[Anonymous]

It can be a bit of a pain. Our community is still undergoing the handoff from the builder and we have a management company. Tbh the management company seems useless because we still need separate legal counsel go do things right and the builder drags their feet on repairs. We had growing pains the first 2 years. Now 5 years out the HOA does a good job but the problems are different and somewhat smaller

Just want to shoutout my HOA board in Rockville.

I appreciate all the work they do to inform the community and to do deep dives as to why some stuff is not working as intended. Our treasurer went over line item by line item during a budget discussion and while it was long, it was tremendously helpful to get a sense of what’s unlikely to be decreased and what is subject to change. It’s the little things.

[Anonymous]

My DH is on our HOA board for a community of 30 homes.It is a lot of work and when it comes time for the next election everyone wants to quit, but it is hard to get others to volunteer. From here outside I don't think there is a massive amount of drama in our community but there is some. Mostly though it is just dealing with issues like managing the landscaping/snow removal contracts and dealing with other issues that come up like repainting curbs, tree planting, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The HOA can be useful for one very good thing: prohibiting airbnbs and other nuisance properties.

I wish that was true. In my community we haven't been able to successfully stop the airbnbs or the azzhats who are renting out basements/rooms. We have one home where some guy is renting out every single room - not just bedrooms - in his house.