When you buy a new home in northern Virginia, you have a lot of things that factor into your decision. For most people, location is the biggest criterion. There is also the number of bedrooms, the size of the yard, the quality of the school district, the square footage, and even the vastness of the closets! But another factor in your home-buying decision that can trip up an inexperienced buyer is whether or not they want to buy a house that’s part of an HOA, or Homeowners’ Association. An HOA is a board of residents that maintain a set of bylaws, or rules regarding homes in the community and how they are maintained. These bylaws can be lenient or very invasive. Whether or not you want to buy a home in an HOA community is a big decision, so it helps to know the pros and cons of HOA life.
Pros of Buying a Home with an HOA
Here’s the good side of living in an HOA: they get stuff done around the neighborhood.
The dues you may as an HOA member go into a fund that pays for the maintenance of common areas and amenities in your community. This could be anything from the petunias decorating the medians to the care and upkeep of the community pool.
How involved the HOA gets depends on the size and structure of the community. HOAs also maintain CCRs, or Covenants, Codes, and Restrictions, which help preserve uniformity in a neighborhood. This is listed in the “pro” column, although there are homeowners who hate the idea of living in a “cookie cutter” community. Ever had to live next door to a neighbor who woke up one day and decided to paint the house neon blue? Or that guy who refuses to mow his grass until you call the city and complain for three weeks straight? None of that flies in an HOA community. Enforcement and penalties ensure that every house looks presentable, pristine, and standard. This can go for things as general as paint colors and landscaping maintenance and range to the nit-picky, like how long you can leave your cans out on trash day and whether you can have a satellite dish, trampoline, or “welcome home” flag in your yard.
If you are the type of person who takes great visual pride in the place you live, an HOA could be the way to go.
Cons of Buying a Home with an HOA
The cons of living in an HOA community are kind of the flip side of the good things. There’s the fact that you have to pay fees to live in your own house above and beyond your mortgage and escrow - and if you don’t, the community can put a lien on your house.
HOA fees depend on the lavishness of the community and the amenities offered so that, in general, you can expect to pay more for a community with a pool and clubhouse than one that simply cleans the streets and mows the common area grass. That is not always the case, however, and it’s important to know exactly what you are paying and what for before you put an offer in on a house.
If conformity is not your bag, you are also a poor fit for an HOA. Maybe you admit to being a bit lazy about trimming your hedges, or you think neon blue is a great color for a house, your neighbors’ opinions be damned. In this case, you should inform your real estate agent that you'd like to look for homes without an HOA, that way you maximize your search time.
Know what you are getting into if you are considering buying a home with an HOA. There are real pros and cons, and you will usually fall on one side or the other. And even more, the northern Virginia real estate market has many of these planned communities. Most homebuyers are adamantly for or against them, so figure out what side of the gate you’re swinging on before you start looking seriously. Then contact a real estate agent and let them help you find a home that meets your needs.
