Those Dreaded HOAs

​Most new communities built in the past 10 years are part of a Homeowners Association (HOA). While many people sigh when they hear HOA, it’s not all bad, and the newest communities in Dallas are trying to give you more for your HOA money.

HOAs are designed to share common costs for services that benefit the entire neighborhood. The community pool maintenance and things like the holiday lights and landscaping that you see in many master planned communities are paid for by HOA fees. HOAs also exist to protect the value of everyone’s properties by enforcing rules that are designed to maintain the marketability of the neighborhood based on it’s goals. If the goal of a neighborhood is for everyone to support breast cancer awareness by painting their houses pink, an HOA can actually help make that happen. Many people think that HOAs are designed to make everything cookie cutter and boring, but the creativity and variability of what is allowed is really up to the HOA.

A few communities in the Dallas area are now offering additional amenities for your HOA money. Mustang Lakes in Celina and Windsong Ranch in Prosper are both including front-yard maintenance in their HOA dues. And for an additional fee the contracted company can cut your backyard. This perk eliminates one of the hurdles for people who may not want a single-family home due to yard maintenance. At the very least it saves a couple of hours each month on yard work.