When people are looking to buy a place, there are positives and negatives to different types of homes. I know a lot of people don’t like condos (or some neighborhoods) because of HOAs, but I knew that I would have to get a condo so an HOA was something I knew I would have. If I wanted to get a place without one, I would have to move to a part of LA that I didn’t want to live in. And location was one of the most important things for me.
Maybe it’s because I have lived in a rental for so long, but having an HOA didn’t seem like a huge deal to me. I didn’t look at the rules for the HOAs at other condos I looked at, but I did see what the monthly cost was. And where I live is one of the lowest monthly costs. We don’t have a ton of amenities, but I didn’t want to have to pay for things like a pool or super fancy gym if I didn’t need them. My place does have a gym, but it’s pretty basic so the HOA dues are not too high to maintain it.
Since we closed on the condo, there haven’t been a lot of HOA meetings. The first one after the closing was the meeting I attended to discuss the plan for my renovation. But that meeting was a bit different because they changed the agenda to discuss my renovation at the beginning of the meeting and after that was done I didn’t stay in the meeting much longer. So I didn’t really get an idea of what the meetings were like.
But the next one just happened this past week and I knew I wanted to observe it. It’s smart to know what’s going on with the HOA and what costs might be coming up. I have had a neighbor ask me if I was interested in running for the HOA board, but I don’t think I want to do that just yet. I’d rather live here for a year or so and see what things are like before I really consider if I’d be interested. But as an owner, I can be an observer at the meetings and that’s what I want to do. It’s like how I used to be able to observe the local board meetings for my union (which I plan on doing again as soon as they are in person).
This meeting really did remind me of the union meetings. The agenda had a couple of things on it that the board and the HOA management company needed to go over. Nothing was too serious, but there was discussion of fixing a few things that need to be repaired or changes to community areas that would like to be considered. And there was another owner that is planning on remodeling their kitchen so they had to discuss their plans with the board to be approved, just like I had done in the past meeting.
There was a lot to learn while observing the meetings, although I think I would be ok if I didn’t know all this information. But I like to be informed and this is my home so I would like to know what things are concerns for other owners. But because this is a small building and there aren’t too many amenities, I don’t think there will ever be anything too crazy discussed. For example, one of the biggest issues discussed was a bee issue happening on the other side of the building and hiring someone to remove the bees without killing them. I’m sure there could be bigger issues brought up if someone was causing a disturbance, but from what I have seen so far, everyone who lives here is very respectful of the public spaces. The biggest issue was someone smoking on their balcony, and the HOA sent an email reminding everyone that smoking is only allowed inside of the condos and not in a place where the smoke could affect others.
The meeting only lasted a bit more than an hour, so it was pretty short. And everything discussed was written on the agenda so everyone was good about staying on topic and making sure the meeting was running smoothly. I did appreciate that a lot since I have heard horror stories of HOA meetings lasting hours or people grandstanding. I’m lucky that I live in a building where it seems like everyone is just trying to live their lives and not do anything to affect others around them.
And even though I didn’t speak or contribute to the meeting, I did get a better sense of how things will work with the HOA and what I can expect from future meetings, whether I’m an observer or if I decide to be on the board. And being informed about my living situation is always a good thing in my mind.
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