Category Archives: Make it Viral!

Which Has The Greatest Risks? Owning In An HOA or Casino Gambling?

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

I’ve heard it so many times. “I don’t gamble.” “I’m too tight with my money to gamble.” “I wouldn’t know how to gamble.” “The thought of gambling scares me because I’ve worked hard for my money.” All spoken by people who own property in a homeowners association.

Personally, I’ve gambled one time in my life at a Reno casino. I dropped $20 in a nickel slot machine and won. I collected my winnings and walked straight out the front door. I don’t gamble. Or so I thought I didn’t.

I’ve come to the realization that I’m an insane gambler. Why? I bought a townhouse in an HOA! I took a far greater risk than if I’d flown to Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or back to Reno and just threw down three hundred thousand dollars on the craps table and rolled the dice. Goodness, with a stroke of luck I could have walked out a millionaire…or maybe a multi-millionaire, but for sure I would have come out in no worse shape than I am in my HOA.

Are you scratching your head and asking how I arrived at this conclusion?

Here’s how:

If one of the casino owners was embezzling, it wouldn’t be my responsibility to rebuild the bank account with my money. In an HOA, there is no avoiding it. They steal, you lose and get hit with covering the financial loss from the bad actors, liars and thieves.

If the casino management refuses to allow a blind person with a seeing-eye dog into the casino and they sue for a violation of the ADA, I won’t be paying for the legal bills. But, in an HOA I will be.

If the casino needs a new roof or resurfacing on the parking lot, I’m not going to receive a bill. You can bet the HOA will slap a stamp on a special assessment and drop it in my mailbox. Or if one of the casino managers has his Uncle Billy Bob with his shiny new hammer building decks without a contractor’s license, I won’t be hit with any liability if it falls down.

When I sign for my room at the front desk, I’m not going to become business partners with every intoxicated stranger in the 1,500 room hotel, but I sure am with my 1,500 HOA neighbors. (some sober and some not)

And, last but not least, there is massive government oversight over the casino operations. There is no oversight to speak of over HOAs or property managers.

And I won’t have signed away my US Constitutional Rights when I walked through the door of the casino.

Granted, the assumed operators of the casinos might very well be related to those in power over the HOAs. But I could walk right out the door and choose not to do business with them in a matter of seconds. I wouldn’t be locked inside the building while they are telling all the other gamblers I’m a liar and dumber than a box of rocks, and if I don’t like it I need to leave! Similar to screaming “IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, THEN MOVE!” which is always heard at HOA board meetings!

Yep! I should have driven right past this dilapidated disaster of an HOA and headed north to the airport!

Damn The Military! What The Heck Do They Matter?

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As the son of a West Point graduate who was a highly decorated combat veteran and a POW of the Nazis, I’m often mystified at the rank hatred expressed by some people towards those in uniform. Who knows? Maybe those haters staged anti-war demonstrations in the 60’s and 70’s, or maybe they built bombs or lit fires.

But for someone who has five family members buried at Arlington, it just rankles when I see the viciousness of those who’ll deny any acknowledgement to the men and women who spend their lives protecting the rest of us.

Our latest story comes from the Frenchman’s Creek Homeowners Association in Lafayette, Louisiana.

A military family put up a Welcome Home sign for their son, Anthony Marsiglia, who’s in the Navy. The HOA lawyer told them, “Nope! Not without severe restrictions.” And now they’ve been ordered into mediation.

Other military families who’ve put up yellow ribbons in support of Marsiglia had them quickly torn down.

Can you imagine if this kind of thing had happened in WWII?

Yep, damn those military creeps. They’re just a bunch of brain-dead losers anyway.

(link to Lafayette story)

Taxpayers Screwed By The HOA Movement!

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This story, from NBC News and The Consumerist, really ought to get you steamed. Homeowners Associations on prime beachfront properties have figured out a way to make the taxpayers pay for their huge cost of flood insurance. It sounds like fiction, but it’s not.

Zillionaires who own oceanfront properties that get destroyed by hurricanes every couple of years theoretically should be paying a fortune for federal flood insurance. That’s the law.

But guess who figured out a way to make YOU pay for their flood insurance?

Yep. The zillionaires. They got the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to declare their constantly flooded properties as Low Risk/No Flood Zones. That means about a 95% reduction in their flood insurance costs.

So, every time you see on the news that a ritzy beachfront condo development has been destroyed by a hurricane, just remember that last check you wrote to the IRS. A good portion of it is paying for the reconstruction of the homes of zillionaires.

Now, do you feel like a sucker?

(link to story on The Consumerist)

More News About A Crushing Housing Bubble

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I still think I’m right on target in predicting a coming housing and HOA bubble that will make the 2008-2009 implosion look like child’s play. And this one is aimed EXACTLY at the country’s Homeowners Associations. This is a crisis to be very afraid of.

The New York Post story linked below discusses it, not as a housing crisis, but as a lack of spending crisis.

Demographics show our population is aging. Older people have already paid for their cars, their homes, their toys. If we follow Japan’s financial implosion in the 1980s people will suddenly have no money to spend. That means a disaster for aging Homeowners Associations.

More folks will be moving out, deflation means home prices will start dropping like a rock. HOA budgets will be crushed. As evidenced by their behavior over the past eight or nine years, HOA lawyers will be filing more liens, lawsuits and foreclosures over increasingly minor infractions.

As you read this New York Post story, keep thinking about the potential impact on your HOA investment or the real value of your vacation home!

(link to New York Post story)

Freakin’ Flag Fury

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Yet another Homeowners Association is taking aim at a homeowner who’s flying a patriotic flag. Floridians who fly the American flag have been taken to the cleaners over the years by their HOA for flying Old Glory. Then, Governor Jeb Bush stepped in and signed a bill forcing HOAs to allow flag flying. Reluctantly, the HOAs gave in.

But keep in mind that an HOA management company isn’t making money unless it’s fining homeowners, towing away their cars, liening and suing them for one minor violation or another. Trust me, when HOA management companies have their morning meetings, employees are told, “Now GET out there and write some tickets!!! FIND me some violations!!!

So it’s no surprise when Tom Bagnoli of Palm Coast, Florida started getting fined because right under Old Glory he flies a Wounded Warriors flag. In fact, he’s being fined a hundred bucks a day! Keep in mind that there are flags and flagpoles all over the Grand Haven Homeowners Association. POW/MIA flags, flags representing each of the armed forces, and even some flags for sports teams.

But this HOA is definitely going to do its best to reduce Bagnoli’s net worth.

(link to WFTV story)

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