Does your neighborhood have an HOA? Right now, there are about 358,000 neighborhoods in the United States that have an HOA.
Part of having an HOA is to come up with the appropriate HOA fees. If you are reading this, you may be wondering if your HOA has fair HOA fees.
What do you need to know about this? Here are three of the biggest things.
1. Covering Services
The first thing that you should know about HOA fees is that they typically cover all of the services that HOA communities provide for their residents. While these can be seen as perks of living in an HOA community, know that it does not come for free.
An example could be covering the wages of an employee that you hire for your HOA community. That can be something as simple as a lifeguard for a community swimming pool.
However, other services are covered that you may not even think about. One big thing covered by these fees is landscaping.
The HOA can hire a landscaping company to mow all of the lawns in the neighborhood, manage a community garden, and take care of any problems with trees. However, every resident will pitch in for these services via the HOA fees.
2. Maintenance Costs
Another thing that you should know about HOA fees is that they will cover the maintenance costs that your community has. Typically, HOAs are responsible for the majority of the maintenance that the community needs. A big reason for this is that their organization is in charge of keeping home value high.
This means they have to fix things in the community, such as playground equipment and fences. If there is routine maintenance needed for the community pool, that also comes from the HOA.
HOAs are also typically responsible for the exterior of a home. So, if houses need things such as gutters fixed or new tiles for a roof, the HOA has to provide this.
Part of this also comes from estimating routine maintenance costs. With homes, you want to set aside about one percent of the home's value annually for this.
All of these costs are likely added to your HOA fees as needed.
3. Adjusts Accordingly
Finally, do not expect HOA fees to remain the same amount every year. These fees may adjust depending on the needs of the community. Two big things can change these fees.
The first thing is unexpected costs. If there is a natural disaster in the community that requires a lot of repairs and new additions, that has to be taken into consideration.
Then, there is the average home value. If that has a sudden increase or decrease, it is possible that the HOA fees can change with this.
Learn More About HOA Fees
These are three of the biggest things that you should know about HOA fees. You need to consider the services included in an HOA community, the maintenance needs of the community, as well as any reason these fees may be adjusted.
Do you want to know more about HOA monthly fees in the Breckenridge, Colorado area? Message PMI Breck today.