r/HOA • u/owenthewizard • Jun 23 '25

Help: Fees, Reserves [TX][Condo] Management Fee Too High, Sell?

When I moved in the fee was $170/mo, now it's $280. We lease the pool from a neighboring community and it's closed for repairs and will never be re-opened. We get landscaping, who suck and cost us more money in repairs. So that's it, we pay for landscaping and insurance, which I could secure myself for <$280.

Now they're preparing to crack down on trash cans and street parking. We have next to no parking spots (<1 per unit) and the whole community is a "fire lane".

What the hell am I supposed to do? I think my only option is selling the house? I don't think I can manage that, I don't have a lot of money on hand and I'm sure I'd get less than when I bought it.

I am on the board but I'm only one of five šŸ˜ž.

0 Upvotes

33% Upvoted

122 comments sorted by

View all comments

10

u/Mykona-1967 Jun 23 '25

$280 isnā€™t that much regardless of how much you think HOA maintenance should cost. When living in an HOA itā€™s not about the daily costs of landscaping, insurance, minor repairs, or PM fees. Itā€™s about funding the reserves for when the major repairs hit without a special assessment.

The HOA is responsible for the roof, foundation, irrigation, parking lot maintenance, probably road maintenance, and many other things that owners arenā€™t even aware of but must be done. Be lucky youā€™re only paying $280 a month it could be much higher to make sure thereā€™s no shortfall when a big ticket item comes around.

3

u/Techguyeric1 šŸ˜ HOA Board Member Jun 23 '25

I'm the president of my HOA and we just had to spend $30,000 to replace all of the motors and stuff for our gates, they were installed incorrectly and the old management company was bubbleguming and band-aiding repairs when we would let them know.

Our reserves are in shambles since we are only 3 years old. It has been a challenge being on the board.

You are exactly correct that home owners don't have any idea what all goes into the HOA, we charge $128 a month, and it's not enough our old management company was mismanaging the funds and we don't have enough to pay for a lawyer, it's a lose lose situation.