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Getting Involved…

Because I don’t already have enough on my schedule, I’ve decided to join the building committee with my homeowner’s association. Why? Because I’ve always felt that if you don’t get involved, you have no right to complain when things don’t go your way. Think of it like this, I voted for a President and it wasn’t Bush, so I have every right to complain that he’s not doing what I want. Same thing with the community I live in, I can try to affect change and if it doesn’t happen, at least I’ll know I put my opinions in.

One of the reasons we bought in this community, rather than a few others, were the low homeowners association fees. There were other communities with more facilities and features, but that came with higher fees. We opted for the lower fees. Now the board has decided they are going to raise the fees 150% over the next couple of years and no one is happy about it. In my opinion, if they’re going to raise our fees that high, then they need to provide the residents something tactile for it, in the form of useful facilities like a fitness center or kids playlot, as well as drastic improvements to the buildings themselves.

We don’t exactly live in “da hood”, but it IS one of the oldest complexes in the city we live in. In fact, it may be the FIRST complex built in the city before there was really even a city. One of the biggest problems I have is that they association/management company chooses cheap/quick fixes rather than looking into long-term solutions and in the end, these quick fixes end up costing more in the long run. Also, they don’t really think about the big picture. For example, we have a few light poles that have been replaced with mismatched poles. So you walk around and nothing matches, giving the buildings an uneven, careless look. It annoys me to no end because I’m a stickler for consistency and detail. Ugh.

I’ve got a long laundry list of things they need to look into to justify a raise in fees. So, I’m adding one more thing to my schedule, but I think it will be fun. More importantly, the ideas that come out of this will impact the community I live in and result in higher property values.

Tags: hoa, homeowner's, association, fees, committee, dues

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