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.

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.

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.

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)