Category Archives: drones

Showing Support For Your Candidate

guest blog by Nila Ridings

It’s that time when signs, signs, and more signs will be seen. Signs of all sizes and colors will start to appear. The exception will be in the HOAs where the restrictions apply to size, location, lighting, and dates for display. Count on the HOA board to have their cronies watching your every move with a political sign…unless the board president happens to be supporting the same candidate. Then it will most likely be okay to have your sign out whenever and wherever you’d like. Rules seem to only apply to the supporters of the candidates the board dislikes.

We have one city in Kansas that is trying to ban candidates from campaigning in their city neighborhoods. The Kansas legislators created a bill to stop that from happening. I believe that bill is still pending. I think it is ridiculous since homeowners are not forced to open the door if they do not wish to speak to someone, anyone, political candidate or otherwise. On the other hand it gives the homeowner the chance to share their concerns one-on-one with a candidate. I know candidates get an earful about HOA nightmares when they knock on the doors in my neighborhood. Those discussions helped open the doors for our legislators to listen about the abuses that happen in HOAs. So, I say, let em’ knock and talk.

Here’s a Donald J. Trump supporter who either doesn’t live in an HOA or is willing to suffer the consequences of having a mega sign. Either way, it’s the biggest one I’ve ever seen in a residential setting.

Rules for Radical HOAs

Nila Ridings, the homeowners rights firebrand from Kansas, raises a question that deserves consideration.

Now, I’ve read Rules for Radicals a number of times over the years. Saul Alinsky was the Chicago activist who taught that sneaky underhanded rebellion was a way to take over society. But read a little more deeply into his writings. Forget the politics. Forget left and right, Democrat and Republican. Forget conservative and liberal. Just sink deeply into his rhetoric and his logic.

Finally, emerge from your voyage of discovery and analyze how the HOA movement has slowly and stealthily taken over the American real estate development and home building industry. Slowly, this industry has moved almost a quarter of all Americans into a political system which is completely outside the control of the U.S. Constitution.

Make no mistake, Homeowners Associations are absolutely a form of government. They control your roads, your sewer, your trash pickup, maintenance of your local water system, policing of your neighborhood. They even form your court system, since traditional courts have washed their hands of most HOA conflicts. And to an incredible degree they control your personal finances. Of course, just like in a traditional government you pay taxes. Your monthly dues and the sudden demand for a $10,000 or $20,000 special assessment are taxes.

What rights do you actually have in an HOA? Well, what rights do you have under facism, or marxism, or communism or any other kind of non-constitutional dictatorship?

Nila Ridings is right. We all need to read Rules for Radicals, just to see what we’re up against.

(link to wiki and Rules for Radicals)

 

Associa, CAI and Crooked HOA Transfer Fees

Transfer fees are among the biggest scams in the housing business. North Carolina residents tried to get them outlawed. Colorado is trying. New Mexico is trying. Transfer fees are a ‘little’ item on your paperwork that pops up when you try to sell your home. If you live in a Homeowners Association of any kind you’re likely to learn that you have to pay the fee before you can sell to a buyer. Transfer fee. That means some property manager had to photocopy the HOA covenants, probably a hundred or so pages. But you don’t photocopy them one page at a time. No, they’re on his computer. Push one button and the printer spits them all out in a couple of minutes.

So, what do transfer fees cost? Well they can cost the buyer anywhere from 150 to 4000 bucks. For photocopies! And many a house sale has fallen through because someone in the transaction has to come up with that extra money.

Where does the money go?  Simple. It’s a transfer, remember? A transfer directly into the pockets of some board officer or the property manager. That’s why HOA giants like Associa and CAI fight like the dickens when state legislators start getting wise and drafting proposals to reign these crooks in. With those two phony organizations constantly lying about how they “represent homeowners,” it’s blatantly obvious they don’t represent the interests of homeowners. No, they just represent the dollars they can sneak out of a homeowner’s pockets.

(link to Albuquerque article on transfer fees)

 

 

George’s Take on the Amateur Radio Parity Act

We have some really great minds in our movement. But when you ask the experts who’s in the top three… George Staropoli’s name inevitably comes up. That’s why I’m asking all of you to check out the link below, in which George discusses the Community Association Institute’s fight against the right of ham radio operators to operate in Homeowners Associations. When trying to explain to your attorney or your legislator how insidious and deceptive the CAI really is, include a printout of George’s analysis. It’s short, but it’s amazing insight.

(CAI flexes its muscle in Congress arguing Constitutional law and judicial review)

 

New Rules On Drones

For you HOA board members who are planning on buying drones to spy on your neighbors, you’ll have to watch out for some new regulations. Your drones will have to be registered in a federal database. Although I generally hate excess federal regulations, this one is kind of cool because your name and address will go into a database which is a public record. We’ll all be able to learn which board members or management companies are using this incredibly invasive technology.

(link to story on drone regulation)