Why are HOAs so fixated on house color? Let people live!

When you snooze, you lose, HOA.

Oh, the joys of homeownership.

“Slumlord” landlords really don't do much good for anyone. Sure, they “provide housing” in the barest sense, but really, their landlord is just an extra convenience for them in addition to the land banking they're partaking in, the fact that there happens to be a barely inhabitable We found ourselves living in one of these places just out of university, desperate to find any available housing with our lease expiring and new jobs set to start. It was a pretty dingy building in an otherwise nice…

The house-buying process is stressful and difficult to navigate at any point—especially when it's your first, and you have no idea what you're doing or what to expect. The process will see results that can have drastic and possibly cataclysmic effects on your finances as well as on the rest of your life and its quality. It's exhausting. The process and paperwork involved are almost like a second job, with months upon months of weekends taken up by an endless stream of open homes. With possible…

When the HOA goes low, you go lower.

Never burn a bridge with your next door neighbor

This has to be top-tier neighbor drama. If you've ever had a tree fall over in your yard from a storm, you know it can be a terrifying experience. But even if you were lucky and the tree didn't cause any real damage from the fall, you still have to deal with the cleanup. And if you're dealing with a large, forty-foot tree on your property like this neighbor had, you probably won't be able to remove it by yourself and will need to hire a professional. But here's the catch: the tree that fell...

You're not supposed to take things that aren't yours—this is something that is ingrained in us from a very young age (or at least it's supposed to have been.) We were all taught that taking Little Jonny's red ball out at recess without his permission wasn't ok. Although we might still hold a grudge against Jonny for being a tattle tale (we were going to give it back), it doesn't change the fact that some valuable lessons were learned. These lessons and new-found boundaries should have stayed wi…

When you're facing up against power and authority, it's easy to feel helpless and like you don't have any options, feeling like the only thing you can do is try to mitigate the fallout they're causing by trying to keep peace with them. The thing is, they're counting on you thinking and feeling that way; a lot of times, petty authority and controlling behavior rely completely and wholly upon silence. It's difficult to do, but if you ask around enough, you're likely to find there are others with…

Nothing is worse than living somewhere with arbitrary rules about your own property.

“I'm angry with myself for going against my gut and what I originally wanted to do because now we are priced out of that area…”

“Be an utterly unethical thorn in [the HOA's] side which can never be removed or retaliated against. I'm not locked in with them; they're locked in with me.”

In a battle of wits, the smartest player comes out on top. Unfortunately, when you're dealing with an HOA, the rules are skewed to their advantage and simple smarts are not usually enough to defeat them.

It really just comes down to whether you are pro-purple house or not…

The best part about finally owning your own home is that you can do whatever you want with it—within legal limitations and logical reasoning. Of course, you'll quickly come to realize that this isn't necessarily the case, as you'll also be contending with nosy HOA members poking around looking for a single blade of grass out of line. You'll also be subject to the opinions of your neighbors, who will be more than happy to share them with you as though their judgement is law. This homeowner bough…