My Dear Friends, I’ve told you over and over that the absolute worst home investment you can make is in a Homeowners Association. Your Realtor buddy looks you warmly in the eye, puts his hand on your shoulder and says, “You know, of course, that HOAs were created to protect your investment?”
If you’ve read my book or follow this blog then you know what the truth is. HOAs were created to keep out Negroes, Orientals and Jews. The documentation goes back fifty years! In later years, HOA rules were used to keep out Hispanics, single moms, children with Down’s Syndrome and a fistful of other ‘unwashed and unwanted.’
The link below shows you another reason you’re legally and financially naked. Once again a rich investor is intentionally forcing a housing project into bankruptcy so he can scoop up the dregs and make a fortune all over again. This kind of scam is going on all over the country, wherever people were unwise enough to buy private government housing.
(link to case in Osceola County)
(link to another case in Clearwater)
If you think it can’t happen to you, you’re fooling yourself. In 2006 the U.S. Supreme Court made the seizure of private homes for private development completely legal. The landmark Kelo Case turned the U.S. Constitution on its head.
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I am sure that many of these owners would be happy to abandon the rules of Condo Commandos, but to force the sale of their homes at a huge loss, just so that some billion-dollar real estate corporation can make billions more in rent is OUTRAGEOUS!
The discrimination in HOAs is insidious, because now it masquerades as a handful of hard-headed neighbors who are uptight about ANY form of non-conformity, any perceived act of inconsideration, any violation of any rule, no matter how petty, unreasonable, or asinine.
Families with children are unwelcome in HOAs with many retirees, who complain that the children make noise when they play, and leave their toys out in the yard or on the patio. Disabled people are hassled about parking specially equipped vans in their driveways, or installing entry ramps. Veterans are targeted by owners that oppose military action of any kind.
The list goes on and on.
The environment is unfriendly. The financial risks are real.
Yet our local development planning boards keep issuing permits to build more high-density HOAs and Condos, so that they can reap additional property tax revenue, while providing little in the way of services to these communities.
Time for voters to wake up, loudly object, and demand the restoration of our private property rights.
And FHA is helping these “investors” with their “takeovers” by disqualifying condominium complexes from being able to qualify to become an FHA approved property.
Is FHA intentionally targeting condominiums, trying to exclude hundreds or thousands of them around the country from qualifying for financing under its mortgage insurance program?
A abrupt new “no-tolerance” move by the FHA has large numbers of condo associations across the country wondering whether FHA is looking to dump them.
The issue is technical and involves language buried away in condo associations’ core legal documents — their “CC&Rs,” or covenants, conditions and restrictions. Buried in many CC&Rs is language that prohibits units in the project from being leased for periods of less than 30 days.
But many associations’ CC&Rs have for decades contained a seemingly innocuous exception for units taken back through foreclosure by mortgage lenders or investors — language insisted upon during the 1980s and 1990s by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to provide more flexibility for them in the management of their real estate owned (REO) properties.
Until a few weeks ago, according to condo association leaders and industry groups, FHA showed little interest in the 30-day language in certifications and re-certifications of projects for insurance. Then suddenly, without warning, it began rejecting applications solely because the underlying CC&Rs permitted transient leases by mortgagees “in possession” of foreclosed units.
But meanwhile, if you are a unit owner, board member or a realty agent representing buyers or sellers of condos nationwide, be aware: The grim reaper at FHA is still rejecting certifications because of arcane language in documents that it never objected to before and that no one has connected with any statistical risk of default or foreclosure.