Yeah, the "but they use the socials to communicate!" is laughable. Basically none of the parents I know want school comms to be via Meta or Tweet or whatever.
Email lists work great for the type of comms schools need to make. And/or an RSS feed on the schools homepage.
Something like 90% of both criminal and business cases in the US never get to trial - the rules are deterministic enough the vast majority of the time to avoid trial. The stuff we hear about on TV are the edge cases.
Yard work, gutter cleaning, power washing exterior, cleaning windows, bi-annual HVAC service, exterior paint (especially if the house has any wood) and trim upkeep.
And as the house ages, you get things like repainting interior rooms, more frequent plumbing issues, major HVAC repairs, roof replacement, repaving driveway, electrical upgrades, remodeling, etc.
We downsized to a townhome to avoid some of that (half the walls are shared, so no exterior upkeep for those; smaller yard; fewer rooms).
I have 2/3rd of an acre, but most of it is a 45 degree hill, so it's more like a full acre equivalent of flat ground (except drastically more of a pain). Pulling weeds up several hundred feet of steep hillside that grow back constantly is a punishment worthy of Sisyphus.
It hadn't been done for about 5 years when we moved in, so one of the neighbors spent 200 hours cleaning it up for us. Not joking, 200 hours of labor. Scotch Broom is a literal nightmare.
True. But on a large and very steep hillside - "2/3rd of an acre, but most of it is a 45 degree hill" - it can be extremely difficult to replace the plants holding onto the soil, without experiencing horrible erosion during the transition.
Yep. Depending on the property layout, and how close that slope is to the house, it might be something to contract out and have hardscaping and drainage done.
My last house didn't have anywhere near as much land, but there was a fairly steep hill on the back of the house. We ended up having part of the slope dug out and a "seat-height" retaining wall installed, with drainage installed as part of the build, and lots of low-maintenance plantings. Reduced the work from weekly mowing on a slope to occasional weeding and trimming. But, it wasn't cheap to do properly.
Weeds are pioneers, helping the soil, when nothing else can grow (or is allowed to). First of all why do you need to get rid of those weeds? Second of all, if you improve the soil and go through successive plantings of larger things, the weeds will be outcompeted.
You could just not do any of that stuff. Most people don't power wash their exterior or clean their windows. They don't call in hvac service, maybe just change the furnace or ac filter and probably plenty don't even know to do that. Exterior paint has become pretty rare in places that see weather but even then you can let it go to hell. Plenty do. Maybe some trim board will rot. Ehh. Priced in probably already when you bought it with that. Driveway you can also let go to hell, plenty of people use actual gravel or dirt. Roof replacement, plenty of people let that go too long. Repainting interiors, again something you don't have to ever do.
Is it good to do these maintenance items? Sure. But also, the house isn't going to come down if they aren't done. You go around your city right now you will find very few homes are actually upkept to this level. Most see the bare minimum to avoid the city fining you for the grass being too long, and many are sold in whatever state they are in.
It never ceases to surprise me how North American homes are just a source of time wasting for the owners. I grew up in Italy and we never had to do any of that (except repainting the rooms once every 20 years with my father).
How you you occupy yourself without spending four hours every other day mowing the lawn (gas, ride-on) and then blowing the clippings and dust back and forth with your leafblower (gas, backpack) and then spreading fertilizer and chemicals to make sure you can continue mowing the lawn so frequently? My neighbor would lose his mind!
To add to the list: Replacing bad wood, pest service, aging appliances, fence maintenance, septic emptying (depending on your location), flooring wear and replacement, grouting and caulking, pest control, exterior cleaning, etc.
It can occasionally feel like an endless stream of tasks.
Sure, but you don't need to buy in an abusive HOA community.
I live in a "town" (Reston, VA) that has a notoriously strict HOA. But, it mostly applies to buying/selling and home additions. And it's very consistent. Each subdivision within Reston also has its own HOA that's run by the owners and in charge of regular community upkeep. It works out, as long as you perform due diligence up front and know what you're buying. I don't know anybody who would claim it was abusive or rent-seeking - just mildly annoying sometimes.
As the sibling comment said, you start by reading the HOA covenants. If there are rules in place that you can’t abide by you simply don’t buy the house.
All the stories of people who bought in HOA areas and then got fined for having a work truck… I have little sympathy for them because that would’ve been in the HOA docs which were provided during contract negotiation.
The next step would be looking around the neighborhood to ensure that the rules are actually being fairly enforced. If the covenant say no work trucks, but there are work trucks parked at every third home then that’s indicative of a problem may or may not be an issue to you depending on your line of work, but it’s something to keep in line.
There are other things you can check as well. For example, ask for the HOA finances. Are they doing regular capital projects and do the budget seem reasonable? Do they have enough money in the bank for unforeseen capital expenses? Again not always a dealbreaker, but those are things you need to know and people frequently don’t bother asking about.
You get a copy of the HOA bylaws before you close/finish buying. Read those bylaws to find out what rules exist. Some, like no having junker cars in your front yard, are going to be agreeable. Others, like the HOA gets to judge and prohibit certain flags, or the color of the paint on your house, are going to be vaguely worded, giving room for the HOA to be unreasonable. Additional bylaws can be introduced later, but usually reading the bylaws will you give your an idea of what you might be getting into.
Exterior paint color is a good example. In my little cluster of townhomes, there are about six colors that we are allowed to pick from. And no two homes next to each other can be the same color. My house is currently a light green and in theory, I could paint it to be a blue or a tan, but not a grey because of one of my neighbors. I don’t find it to be particularly vague or onerous, but if I really wanted a pink house, I would’ve seen that in the HOA documentation upfront and not bought here.
The one thing missing from that calculation... the rent goes up over the 30 year period while the mortgage is fixed (subject to changes in tax rate and insurance as value hopefully increases).
9 years into my current home and my 20 year mortgage is substantially less than renting a similar house in the same subdivision. And because it's 20 year, the interest rate is lower, and when I retire, I'll only have to cover tax and insurance at a fraction of the future rent.
And people aren't including the interest deduction on income - up to 750K loan amount worth. This is a form of subsidy that renters are handing over to mortgaged owners.
Generally, republicans want lots of illegals for two reasons… first, cheap labor. Second, it’s a drum to bang during election season.
And democrats only halfway want to fix it. If they actually succeed, they also lose a drum. And have to pay more for chicken and oranges.
Making non-immigrant visa or work permits easy to obtain would be trivial (relative to other gov endeavors). But we don’t. I’m left to conclude the political elite on both sides like it this way.
Email lists work great for the type of comms schools need to make. And/or an RSS feed on the schools homepage.
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