Preparednessdaily.com

Go to the source: Total Survivalist Libertarian Rantfest

My principle observation about zoning is that everyone wants to be able to do whatever they want and have their neighbors follow the rules. People want to buy into an area with restrictive rules and then do what we feel like. HOA’s vary from benign ones saying you can’t have cars on blocks in the yard or paint your house bright pink to outright Nazi like rules and regulations. However the theme continues.

The hypocrisy of some of these individual positions baffles me. Usually somebody says “I should be able to build/ sell stuff/ whatever small business out of MY home”. Fine and dandy that position makes some sense. However when I take it a step further and ask if they would mind the neighbor opening junk yard on the front lawn or their other neighbor opening a disco in their back yard that closes at 2AM they all of a sudden have a real problem. It is THEIR neighborhood and they want it to be nice and quiet. Some folks will then say that neighborhoods should have the right to agree on what they want to be there. Oh wait a second they ALREADY DID and they said you can’t run that used junk shop in your living room.What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

The biggest thing I see about zoning and HOA’s is to be fully informed. Take some time and dig into the books to see what is and isn’t allowed in a certain place. A home is a huge purchase and it is well worth a boring afternoon of reading to make sure you are comfortable with them. Learn what the rules are and then figure if they will work for you. Error strongly on the side of caution. If you might want to some day have goats and it says no farm animals then best move on. Sorry but it is unlikely that you will find a place where you can grow and sell eggs and milk in the back yard in a decent sized city. In a lot of ways it is convenient to live in a city but they have rules.

I often hear “every place here has an HOA” and that may be true. However I would say after you research them all if you can’t find one you can comfortable live under there are two options; first you can decide to just deal and second you can decide to live elsewhere. Generally if you get out of town or the suburbs HOA’s go away.

 Lastly remember that either everyone is going to live by the rules they agreed to (at least implicitly when they bought there) or it is going to be a free for all. The neighbor might dislike your used junk store or micro farm just as much as you would dislike their junk yard or disco.