First Experience In An HOA

Our family has owned 3 homes over the last 16 years. Our first house was a victorian built in 1886 in the town of North Attleboro, MA. We spent a number of years there, did a lot of improvements, and eventually sold the house and bought a new construction home in Northbridge MA in 2020. Going from a house over 100 years old to a new construction home taught us a lot about home ownership and the responsibility that goes along with it. It’s not just the sticker price of buying a home, but also the cost of ongoing maintenance and improvements. Even if you’re buying new construction there is always maintenance (of the preventative kind), that as a homeowner, you’re responsible for.

When we bought our newly built home in Northbridge, we enjoyed the opportunity our independent builder afforded us to customize it and truly make it ours. We did so with the intention that this would be our last move (but alas it wasn’t). Our Northbridge MA home sat on .62 acres at the end of a cul-de-sac on the top of a hill. It truly was luck that we ended up with such a nice lot. Here are some pictures of our Northbridge home: (notice that BEAUTIFUL lawn!)

I even got to paint my door color whatever color I wanted, as a unique way to express our taste and personality. When you pay nearly a million dollars for your home, you should have the right to add a personal touch:

Moving from MA to NC and into a Taylor Morrison community in this crazy market afforded us absolutely NO latitude to customize anything in the build, as we were told “these are spec homes… if you’re not interested, there’s half a dozen people ready to put in an offer… if you want it, it’s as spec“. To us who were just coming from a house we truly made our own in every way, this was a huge disappointment and let down. In this market, they could do whatever the hell they liked and get away with it – why should they care? In a different market, I imagine they would have been more willing to allow changes. We were under the gun in needing a place to settle since my wife had started a new job in NC, which is what necessitated the move from our Northbridge MA home.

The neighborhood we moved from in Northbridge was not governed by an HOA, but rather a small set of reasonable covenants, which were generally followed by all owners. We did not have notices from an HOA sent for persnickety things like a contractor placing a small sign in the front yard to let others know who did the job. We didn’t have HOA people ringing our doorbell. We didn’t get notices for moving our trash bins out of the garage to allow room for an electrician to work in the garage at our panel.

Since moving into an HOA governed community, we have had 3 notices for minor persnickety things within ONE MONTH such as:

• Temporarily placing our trash and recycling cans on our driveway just outside the door. We did this for SIX HOURS on the day the electrician was here working in our garage to install our EV charger and adding a power circuit on our panel. Otherwise we’ve always had our bins inside the garage at all times. Elite Management soon thereafter sent a broadcast email to owners about trashcan placement. I think this is a bit much for just 6 hours of the cans being just outside the garage door!
• We get a notice about the crabgrass which started to grow. Just 13 days prior to getting this notice, we had contacted a turf control company to attempt to address this. We’ve copied those emails from the lawn company as proof of our engagement to correct this. We’ve heard nothing back from Elite Management.
• Just yesterday, I had an outdoor lighting company install lights at our home as one of several planned improvements, and it just so happened that I did not catch the vendor leaving a small sign on our yard which was done to let others know who did the job. I had the president of the HOA Board at my door within 16 hours (see video from my NEST doorbell camera below):

I may be going a bit too far calling her a “Karen” as she was mostly polite, but for just around 2 months after moving in and paying 3 months of HOA dues PLUS a $1000 capital contribution upfront, in addition to our cash to close, this is a bit frustrating and feels unwelcoming as we settle into our new home and get things unpacked and established. It takes time to move in, get unpacked, find vendors/contractors for doing yard work and maintenance. You would think the HOA would have a grace period of a little forgiveness to get these things in order upon just moving in. I may even go as far to say it already kind of feels like bullying. If I were a person who habitually left his garbage out for days, or wanted to grow weeds instead of actual grass, I could understand the HOA’s concern, and rightfully so. HOAs exist to protect the investment everyone makes when they purchase a lot in such a community. I get it. I just think a little grace would go a long way. I do not complain about all the items I see:

• lots of “contractor trash and rubbish” strewn across the empty lots on the other side of Trautz Ln in front of our house.
• Community pools not being maintained – I endured a horrific sunburn attempting to clean the two pools at the community center so my kids and I could enjoy them. Why are the pools not being cleaned at least once a week? My HOA fee is supposed to be providing for this.

If someone asked me “How has living in an HOA been for you?” I’d be less inclined to offer a positive comment based on what I’ve experienced thus far.

UPDATE:

Our lawn care provider was nice enough to issue this letter to help us inform the HOA that we are working with them to try to address the weed issue. We have sent this letter to the HOA.