Category Archives: firearms

Color Them Happy

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

Why buy a condo or townhouse when a colorful little village awaits us sans taxes, upkeep, the basic boring beige and the biggest reason of all NO HOA or their ridiculous dues and psycho boards?!

What a smart investor Mr. Blankenship seems to be.  He builds these darling small houses on concrete slabs and has the exteriors finished in three weeks.  He paints the exteriors beautiful warm colors of pink, green, purple, robin egg blue, and a steel blue.  He changed the roof lines so they don’t look like all of our “cookie-cutter” HOA neighborhoods.  
 
Three weeks is all it took for him to rent every one of them on one year leases at $500 per month.  And utilities are running around $50 per month.
 
This concept could be duplicated anywhere.  And everybody wins.  No apartment.  No condo. No Co-op. No HOA.  
 
For the money I’ve lost on my townhouse I could have built this whole village.  Geez, if only I could turn back time!
 
 

Please Don’t Leave Me!!!

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Dear Friends: I really don’t won’t to lose any of my regular readers. But it would be irresponsible of me to find a great HOA website and not let you know about it. This is a good one for you to mark and check in with regularly:

(click here for HOA Consumer Affairs)

 

Ouch! Things Get Nasty!

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The latest neighborhood nastiness comes to us from Newport News, Virginia and the Kiln Creek Homeowners Association. Eight years ago Bill and Janeth Garlette built a koi pond in their backyard. And for eight long years the HOA has approved of their pond and their various gardening improvements. 

All of a sudden, a new HOA board has hit the couple with two dozen alleged violations of neighborhood covenants. The couple’s attempts at fighting the allegations were futile, so Garlette ripped out the koi pond and razed the backyard to bring it into compliance. But even that wasn’t good enough, and the HOA has filed a 300,000 dollar lawsuit.

Yes, there are allegations of death threats back and forth between the Garlettes and a neighbor who they think instigated the HOA lawsuit. And yes, the Garlettes say they are now officially out of money.

HOAs claim they were set up to protect property values. But this is one neighborhood where property is going to be very difficult to sell.

(click here for WVEC-TV story)

 

Council Member Shevawn Akers Kicks Off Her Heels…Says Come On, Let’s Fight!

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

    ~follow up to blog of November 15th~

HOA members across the country are outraged to hear the story of 75-year old Ingrid Boak, who lost her mortgage-free home in Lexington, Kentucky. And it was all over a minuscule amount of HOA dues owed to Masterson Station.

Nathan Billings, the HOA’s attorney, says they followed the CC&Rs and it was all legal. Okay, but had there been a mortgage for $135k would this same procedure have been followed??? Admission has been made that MOST foreclosures by HOAs include an unpaid mortgage. Sorry, Mr. Billings, but this case smells worse than a pile of race horse manure!

Kentuckians are now scared of losing their homes and panic has set in. The checks are stacking up with delinquent dues payments. But don’t be jumping for joy too soon! Thanks to this story, far more home buyers nationwide have now learned the nasty, ugly and ruthless truth about HOAs! And you can bet their Realtors are going to hear, “Don’t show me any property with an HOA!!!

Hearing that a City Council member is supporting Ms. Boak gives us hope that the end result will be what’s morally right. Shevawn Akers has a Facebook page. What do you say? Let’s encourage her with our support so she’ll fight harder to save Ingrid’s home.

If Stephen Collins Foster were alive today he’d probably change his 1851 song title to, “My Old Kentucky Home before The HOA.”

http://www.kentucky.com/2013/12/03/2967748/masterson-station-foreclosure.html

 

Newly-elected HOA President Exercises Power…Off To The Court House They Go!

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

Kenneth Torrence is a Palm Beach sheriff’s deputy. His best friend is his mixed breed dog, Sasha. But they both have the misfortune of living in the Whispering Woods of Palm Beach Homeowners Association. Kenneth and Sasha have lived there for two years with no problems.  

Suddenly, a newly elected HOA president, Maria O’Connell, says Sasha is a pit bull and has to go. In fact, a  letter sent by Castle Management LLC says, “If you do not take action to resolve this violation within (10) days of the date of this letter, the Association will have the work performed, with all costs charged to your account.”  
 
What are they planning???  To steal his dog?  Put her in the animal shelter? Euthanize her?  
 
Animal activist Maria Rivera says Sasha isn’t a pit bull. In fact, a DNA test showed she’s a mix of five breeds. Besides, Rivera says, other neighbors and their dogs like Sasha. The only one who doesn’t is Maria O’Connell.
 
Torrence says he’ll take it to court. Initial legal costs will be around $30,000.  But just wait and see what happens when the HOA pulls in its insurance-backed legal team to beat up on the deputy.  That 30,000 will be nothing more than seed money. 
 
I say, Kenneth, pack up Sasha and move!  Make a donation to the local animal shelter instead of paying for another vacation home for the HOA attorney!