Quote Originally Posted by KJ3N View Post
Unlike a lot of people these days, we didn't buy the place as an investment. We plan to live here until we die. We don't care if it's not "perfect" or "new". I treat a house as a home to be lived in, not a financial tool. IMHO, too many people treat their houses as the latter. That's probably one of the reasons that so many people have mortgages that are now underwater.

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Bingo! This is one of the main driving factors for HOA's...resale value. Except for the fact that most HOA people are farting mummy dust and will likely die there anyway. But with many HOA board members, they are petty, ignorant and high strung. No real sense of enjoyment to begin with. We are going to sell this one next year (after only a year and a half) because we now know what we wished we knew then, we dont want to live here. We want a house in a place that makes us happy to wake up in every day.