Welcome to the family.
Make sure you create a budget and stick to it, etc. You'll all be much happier for it later.
--Patrick
Congrats!
Dude! You're an adult now.
I already owned my apartment I live in now ;-)
GasBandit
Staff member
In the US, we call that sort of arrangment a "condominium," and that's been a concept that has always been hard for me to grasp.
How so? I own my apartment, and 1/8th (well, slightly more) interest in the common areas of the building.What's hard to grasp?
GasBandit
Staff member
The concept of only owning a specific piece of a building and not the whole thing. I've already seen enough headaches with people in duplexes, the idea of being beholden to 30 other people who all own some of the rooms of the same building... nngh.
I mean, I suppose in practice it's not all that different from owning a house in a neighborhood with a really invasive HOA, but still... my brain just can't seem to deal with it. It's like how some people can't roll their tongue into a tube.
GasBandit
Staff member
I'm firmly anti-HOA myself - I don't like anybody telling me what I'm allowed to do with what I own, and I especially don't like the idea that someone else could sell my house out from under me, but generally the motivation for having an HOA is to enforce a minimum standard of upkeep so that you don't get people not mowing their lawn for months or painting their house outrageous colors, affecting the value of the other homes in the neighborhood.
No sir, I don't like it.
Too many rednecks with money in America. Just look at Trump.
Do you own the mineral rights to the land you're on?
GasBandit
Staff member
Preaching to the choir, man. Problem is, there are a lot of places you can't buy a house in a nice neighborhood unless you sign on to the HOA as well.[DOUBLEPOST=1466706496,1466706105][/DOUBLEPOST]
No. From what I understand, it's actually pretty rare in Texas for the same person to hold both the surface and mineral rights on a residential property. IANAL, so I don't know who'd win in a fight between an HOA and an oil well, but my guess is that the oil company would win. But it also doesn't happen much, that I've heard of.
That's a shame.
I guess that house will have to stay vacant a few months longer, then.
How you like those property values now, hmm?
Wouldn't be the first time. Drilling for the oil technically under your neighbor's land was a thing that happened far too often to be "accidental" back in the late 50's.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
I can't speak for other places, but around here, it's still pretty much a seller's market. Builders can't keep up with demand for housing.
All new developments around here have HOAs, and they can't build fast enough.
Consider yourself lucky. Many places these days can't move houses that've sat empty for a year or more.
Though maybe my view's just skewed because I've seen it so frequently here in MI.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
Yeah, there's been a fair difference between the economies of MI and TX over the last 10 years or so.
But I've seen fake buildings built here in town, just to hide oil wells/heads/pumps, then they go horizontal to get the stuff under your house that they own the rights to, so usually the HOAs don't get involved.
Most people out in the boonies where there aren't HOAs to speak of are generally thrilled if an oil company wants access to the minerals beneath them, because the oil company has to pay you for surface access, and maybe even give you a cut of the oil cash. People in the sticks have retired when oil was found under their property, even if they didn't own the mineral rights.
GasBandit
Staff member
Wells are almost never drilled straight down, drillers have some limited control over head movement, particularly with advanced drilling rigs, but a lot of companies employ cheap rigs because they really don't care how the goes down, just that it produces oil when done. After drilling they have to take measurements that estimate well distance, well depth, well trajectory, and actual depth. I have a few wells near me (I'm on well water, so I take this seriously) that are 5,000 feet long, but only 3,000 feet deep, so they're actually travelling at a significant angle. In Michigan it's rare to have property that doesn't include mineral rights, so these wells are only placed on very large pieces of land where the well is guaranteed to be under the land.
Oil heads, water pumps, network distribution nodes...I wonder if anyone has any data on what percentage of "houses" are actually houses?
I already live an hour away. It's not so bad. Except for losing 10hrs/wk just to driving, of course.
--Patrick
I recently wondered if one could detach the property from the HOA by neglecting to pay taxes, having the government put a lien on the property, and then letting the government sell it to collect back taxes. It appears, though, that the HOA contract isn't a contract between the HOA, owner, and buyer, but is instead recorded as a deed restriction. In theory deed restrictions apply no matter how the property is acquired, and can only be changed or broken under very specific circumstances.
This means that if the government obtains the deed, they too have to abide by the HOA, but I'm guessing that during brief periods where the government owns a property due to a tax lien, they don't actually abide the deed restriction.
One lawyer suggested that in such a sale, the property is never owned by the government, which is why the deed restriction might not apply to them. The deed transfer is forced by the government, but the transfer essentially happens from the previous owner to the new owner at closing, even if the original owner objects or isn't present.
At any rate, it looks like the loophole I was thinking might exist probably doesn't exist. Not that it matters to me - I avoid HOAs, and it's one of the reasons I live out in a rural area.
There are plenty of things the government can do, most notably Eminent Domain, but I'm sure they have plenty of other tools they can use (since they also likely control the infrastructure that feeds the developed area).
--Patrick
fade
Staff member
I would dearly love to live in a rural area, but that just can't happen in Houston. I was being generous with an hour. An hour gets you to the outer suburbs if traffic is okay. This place sprawls like crazy. My dad did it. We live in east nowhere, SC, but he working in Columbia. That's a half hour commute because Columbia has no traffic.
Dave
Staff member
If I ever win the lottery I'm moving into a house that is in an HOA, bribing the leaders to make me the president and then doing fuck-all about anything. Barring that I'll never - EVER - move into a house that is in an HOA neighborhood. I'm buying the house and the land and they can go fuck themselves.
fade
Staff member
Depends on what you mean by limited, I guess. There are a number of geo-steerable drilling rigs. I mean, sure, you can't play Snake, but it's pretty steerable. Fracking usually requires a horizontal bore.[DOUBLEPOST=1466708693,1466708506][/DOUBLEPOST]I used to feel the same way about HOAs until I moved into one. It has had almost zero bearing on my life. No--that's not true. The pool is pretty nice.
Some of them are unbearable. Most are fine. Mine says things like "Plant life in the front yard must be alive and thriving." Okay. Doesn't say it can't be rows of corn, though (I looked and thought about doing it).
GasBandit
Staff member
An hour gets you to the suburbs, 2 hours gets you to me
More like 18, in my case.An hour gets you to the suburbs, 2 hours gets you to me
...yeah, that's more commute than I want.
--Patrick
fade
Staff member
You can definitely do it there. We lived out on 5 acres on Leonard Rd while I was in friggin' grad school. I remember thinking that place was expensive. Then the housing boom happened. That place was 90 grand. You can't get a dumpster for 90 grand now.An hour gets you to the suburbs, 2 hours gets you to me
yearly raise came in on the 21st, and no one told me. Such a nice surprise on this paycheck.
Finally, I'm over the salary amount I demanded (and which they promised to give me after 60 days) when I started working here 4 years ago.
I'm afraid I'm getting out of touch..$150/week doesn't sound like that much to me, but I know it's a tremendous amount for the average person. The fact that it doesn't seem like much to me kinda scares me.
Finally, I'm over the salary amount I demanded (and which they promised to give me after 60 days) when I started working here 4 years ago.