I'm not some HMO Karen,, but whats going on in Rural Lane County Oregon just seems crazy.

[paulsharvey]

We bought in an HOA, with some pretty basic, but vague rules. No used mobile homes; all mobiles must have skirting, no junk, no nuscent animal, no hunting or discharging fire arms, $80/year fee, and no amenities. Anyway, about 2 years ago, it was disbanded legally after it was found that it was renewed illegally. The president, HOA lawyer, and the secretary held a vote just among themselves to re-up the HOA after the 30 year life span. One of the residents got a lawyer, and it was held that it was illegal. Noone got their fees back, and there is Real questions what happened with some lots the HOA had seized for non-payment; but at thus point, it's dead, and someone took the money.

So, yes, we knowingly bought in an HOA. We never really had an issue with them, But we always knew it could be an issue. What is junk to you, might be my landscape trailer project....

Oh, another rule; travel trailers could only be kept for 3 months on a lot (mixed 2 and 5 acre lots) Unless a permanent home was in the lot. If the perment home was there, no limit on time a travel trailer could be there.

 

[paulsharvey]

Locally, they list whether the property is deed restricted or not in the real-estate listing.

I ran into it quite frequently when we were looking for a lot to build on.

I don't want anyone telling me what I can and can't do on my property.

The last house we purchased, the property was deed restricted. But the restriction was "No mobile homes".

We walked away from property where they had minimum home size, plans had to be approved by a neighborhood board, etc.....

The land was cheap, but the restrictions made it undesirable. Those lots have been for sale for 10 years now.

I know this is a real fight with planning and all, and all; BUT they haven't made a mobile home since June 4th, 1976. Manufactered homes are by regulation not a mobile home, as they are covered by HUD building codes; Modular are regulated by your state building codes; but it is possible a county or building or zoning department has a different definition than HUD, so

 

[Torvy]

In the DFW area it is nigh on impossible to buy outside of an HOA. We hated it, but dealt because of work.

Our only limitations out here are 1) no mobile homes. 2) no subdivision of lots. The smallest is 15 acres. The largest is about 60.

If I were able to do so, I would either outlaw HOAs or require recertification every 5 years. Our old one did nothing useful, just cost us money.

 

[paulsharvey]

So, our neighborhood is a bit weird, it has a long, paved runway, and lots on the airport. It Always had a two tier system; HOA dues for everyone, and airport dues for people on the airport. The issue for years was; 40 people on the air strip would show up to every meeting, and the 360 lot owners not on the air strip generally did not. So, the airport people had full control of everything. They had a club house, that they could vote to allow a resident to use, or not. They used it for their Fly In breakfast, and stuff, but when ever anyone else wanted to use it, they voted against it. One resident wanted to use it for a small wedding reception, and got shot down. He raised heck, and then the airport folks said "the kitchen doesn't meet health code and ADA", so rather then allow open use by all residents, they blocked all use. Then they wanted the entire community to pay to rehab the building, even though they controlled it. That's about the time people started looking into their finances. I believe the last fiancal report said the HOA spent something like 82% of their dues sueing members for not paying dues...

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, there are homes ranging from 600 sq ft single wide to 4500 sq ft custom homes on the airport; and the rest of the 'common folk' its probably 75% manufactured and 25% site build homes. Also, not entirely sure how to mention this, without offending people, but um, ethnically speaking, it was mostly blacks in the site build homes, and white folks in the manufactured when we moved in. Now, I would save it's a mix of 60 y/o semi-retired Ohio folks, and 25-45 y/o local people. Like I said, an odd neighborhood. You are as likely to see a old man in a camo Datsun pickup, as a C8 Corvette out here.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I'm not quite sure what you're talking about.

However, Urban Sprawl is a problem around a lot of cities. Oregon has tried to have land use planning. But, perhaps it is failing.

The political process now is to find some way to ease the housing shortage. They just changed the law statewide to allow a second residence on any residential lot. The homeless are certainly a social problem, but I don't know if that's going to bring rental prices down. Rentals are insane, if you can find one.

I'm not upset about it because I'm ageing in place and will eventually have to have a caretaker. I set up a complete RV hookup next to the house, and will pull in a nice used extended stay RV. In today's market it costs $2000/month to rent a 1br in town, less in the country because of commuting costs. I'm pretty sure I could buy one for about a year's rent. If I trade housing for work there's a lot to wade through, from comp insurance to the IRS, but at the very least I could use the rent to defray the expense of outside services.

 

[paulsharvey]

Nobody wants to here this; but some ammount of zoning/planning IS needed. My area, there are a Ton of 0.08 to 0.25 acre lots that were subdivided in the 70s/80s; that are 100% unsuitable. You can't physically get the separation required for a well and septic tank. So, people can't build, they stop paying taxes, county takes the lot. They try to sell them off at auction, but often the lot isn't worth the taxes owed. Now, there have recently been a couple groups trying to buy up a few dozen of those lots and string them together, but its a lot of trouble, and low profit. County should have not allowed splits under 0.5 or 0.33 acres or something.

At the same time; we all say we dont want the gov telling us what to do with our property. Not for a lot of gov oversight, but realistically, you do want/need Some planning/zoning.

Not sure I want min sq ft requirements or anything, and I'll admit I don't know were the line is between Imperial oversight vs some needed regulation is...

 

[etpm]

Also, not entirely sure how to mention this, without offending people, but um, ethnically speaking, it was mostly blacks in the site build homes, and white folks in the manufactured when we moved in.

How is race pertinent to the conversation? What difference does it make? Why even mention it? Please let us know.
Eric

 

[paulsharvey]

How is race pertinent to the conversation? What difference does it make? Why even mention it? Please let us know.
Eric

Well, typically, you would have a white neighborhood, or a black neighborhood, or Puerto Rican, or whatever. Also, it was funny that when we first moved here, there was a clear divide on the type of homes. It's not a negative, it's just an observation.

 

[etpm]

Where I live the zoning is called rural residential. I don't really know what that means except that I can legally shoot on my property. Which was one of the reasons I bought where I did. We are zoned 10 acre minimum lot size per house. So even a 19.9 acre lot size allows for building one house. There is a little work around though. A "mother in law" house that is 900 square feet or less can also be constructed on the same lot as the main house. What some folks do is build a 900 square foot house atop a 900 square foot garage. This is OK because the garage is not living space. Then, after a while, the garage is converted to living space. As long as the garage doors are left in place nobody is the wiser. Of course this is done without permits, but that doesn't really matter until the property is sold. I'm not sure how folks deal with that.
Eric

 

[ning]

There's mobile homes and there's modular homes. I think there's a line between the two somewhere and a couple posts above were clearly referencing modular - basically big chunks of house built at a fab facility and brought in (yes, on wheels, but not like a mobile home has wheels) and then all put together.