I initially understood and agreed with the concept of an HOA over 15 years ago. I abided but when I sold my previous home about 5 years ago, they slammed me with design violations simply because they lost approved paperwork that I submitted to have a storm door added and 10x10 patio added in the rear of the home. The violation letter was sent to me 2 days before closing which required me to unpack a trailer of our crap to locate the approval documents to send back to the HOA to correct their records so I could close on the house. After that experience, I made sure that my future home purchases would never be in an area that requires an HOA.