Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Benefits Homeowners Associations Provide

Windem Real Estate
Get The Wind Behind You!
Moe Navidi
Real Estate Consultant
Tel: (949) 892-7077
Lic# 01753283

BENEFITS HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATIONS PROVIDE:

There are several important benefits to living in a development governed by a homeowners association.

The most significant is the proven track record homeowners associations have in maintaining (and often enhancing) property values. Developments with homeowners associations better protect property values because the associations provide some critical benefits to residents that they normally would not be able to obtain on their own.

First, the association provides greater certainty that the community will remain physically attractive over time by imposing, and privately enforcing through fines and assessments, rules on architecture, landscaping, accessory buildings, fences, signs, and related matters. Residents don’t have to worry that a neighbor will park a 30-foot RV, boat, or commercial vehicle in their driveway for months at a time, or that a neighboring home will be painted orange with lime green trim, or that the landscaping will be allowed to die.

Second, associations often provide recreational amenities for residents – such as tennis courts, swimming pools, and “community rooms” – that many residents would not be able to afford on their own.

Third, the association provides a variety of services to residents, including maintaining common areas and managing the development’s recreational facilities.

Finally, many homeowners associations offer residents a heightened sense of personal safety and security because the development is a “gated” community that restricts access to community residents and their guests and invitees (such as repair or delivery services). More than eight million Americans now live in over 20,000 such gated communities, and these numbers are growing. Some observers estimate that eight out of ten new residential developments in urban centers are gated.