Would you ever consider buying a house in an HOA? When I was looking for a home, I was determined not to be in an HOA. Some of them seemed tempting on paper with low monthly dues, but I still wanted the freedom of making my own decisions about my home instead of having to follow HOA rules.

I made the right decision because even an HOA with low dues that seems to include a lot of amenities can feel like a bait and switch after you move in. The homeowner in this story learned that the hard way.

She was really excited to buy a home in an HOA, but three years later, she’s selling her townhome and so are a lot of her neighbors.

Keep reading to find out how things went from good to bad to worse in those three years.

HOA singlehandedly priced out the neighborhood

Got my first home a few years ago. Yay!

It was in an hoa, but for a townhouse and the amount of things the fee covered, I didn’t mind it at all.

I didn’t have to mow my lawn, the home insurance was covered, snow and ice wasn’t an issue, and it even came with a pool.

But, it wasn’t as great as she had hoped it would be.

Within the first year is when issues came up.

Turns out the snow and ice only gets taken care of under specific circumstances, so even though we had nasty ice storms, it was up to the residents to take care of it.

The pool I was excited to use was undergoing heavy maintenance that year, and I was out of town or busy for the times it was open, so no pool either.

Then there was an even bigger problem.

Year two is when things got interesting.

Insurance pulled out of my state, and my board scrambled to get everyone covered, but due to one claim YEARS ago, we didn’t qualify for the good rates.

So, they took out a payday loan, drained the accounts, and then passed the loan onto the homeowners to deal with.

My 175 monthly fee jumped to 450 in a month.

But that wasn’t the only big issue that year.

Lawncare was also fairly bad as well.

Multiple trees in my area were older, and large branches came down during storms, which were not picked up for weeks.

This made it hard to be able to walk in the grass and take my dogs out.

It keeps getting worse.

Today, year three, my dues are now 500 a month, and it sounds like we are going to be told tomorrow that we need to tear out our fireplaces and replace our electrical boxes (cost being placed on owner, of course).

Also, rates are expected to go up again in December.

Since the dues went up, I have seen a massive number of the townhouses go up for sale, as most of my community is retirees on fixed incomes.

I have already reached out to a realtor to sell mine as well.

She’s doing the right thing by selling. Next time, hopefully she’ll know better than to buy in an HOA.

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

This person thinks a lot of people are in the same situation.

Another person thinks the low dues should’ve been a red flag.

But one person points out the reality.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a resident who is not amused by new parking rules, so locks a lot gate to teach management a lesson.

Owning a home is expensive whether you’re in an HOA or not.

Insurance is expensive, and all homes eventually need expensive repairs. This is true whether or not you live in an HOA. The difference is that when you’re not in an HOA, you’re not paying monthly dues. Instead, you could set that money aside for future repairs and choose who you hire.

Homeownership always comes with unexpected costs.