Homeowners’ associations are legal governing bodies that determine the Aesthetics of the property, uniformity, and oftentimes cover things like maintenance of the property, garbage sometimes sewer, water, and various other things. A Homeowner’s association is a legal entity what that means is that they have the ability to enforce the rules and the regulations of the association.

What this means…you’re looking at say a condominium, for example, condos sometimes can be challenging to lend on if the property is in litigation or if more than one entity owns more than 10% of the total units of the complex or if more than 50% of the total units of the complex are investor-owned.

Be sure to check with your lender. The other thing you might want to consider is the very fact the homework association has certain regulations in other words more red tape, that if you are not ok with could become problematic in the future. For example, if you were to build something that was not approved by them prior, they could fine you, and if you resisted they could put a lien on your property. So from a legal perspective, it’s something you need to pay close attention to. Such an example would be purchasing a backyard awning for example as a higher than the fence height. That depending on the situation might not be approved by the HOA or you have to get prior approval to make such improvements to your home.

Something else to consider and probably the most important thing as it relates to homework associations is the actual homework association payment. Some places can range as little as $20 a month and can go all the way up to $600 a month. The reason why this is particularly important is that if the HOA payment is several hundred on a monthly basis that can translate oftentimes to as much as $50ko of spending power depending on your area and in the market in which you’re looking to purchase a home in.

The relationship between an HOA payment to buying power can mean the difference between being able to forego a property that contains an association payment in lieu of acquiring a single-family house with no association payment. Monthly payments drive affordability and drive purchasing power. The reason this is important is that this way you can get the full gamut of what you’re looking for.  So in other words you could buy a single-family house potentially for the same down payment and the same total mortgage payment as a condo that has an association payment. The house would have a lot less red tape more than likely, but upkeep and more maintenance are on you financially whereas you give up that in exchange for having more red tape on a condo, but having a lot less maintenance to deal with in your life, so it really boils down to what your appetite for payment versus affordability truly is.

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