A lot of HOAs suck but I truly believe most of the anti-HOA vitriol is coming from people who've never even owned a home.

I've owned three homes. Two in an HOA, one not. One of the HOA homes was in a gated community. Both HOA communites were MUCH nicer than the non-HOA home. Fees were minimal ($175/yr. for the first, $55/mo. for the second.) In the first, you'd never even know you were in an HOA unless you did something pretty egregious to piss them off. The second was stricter as it was a gated community, but they were only strict on stuff like reasonable property upkeep (which isn't just aesthetics here in Florida...unkempt properties can become safety hazards during hurricane or fire seasons, not to mention the insect problems.) If you wanted a fence, a pool, a shed, paint your house, etc., you did have to submit the request letter, but they literally rubber stamped it all and approved it.

Current home isn't in an HOA and we wanted that for costs, but it does have downsides. Some homes within 1-3 blocks of us look like absolute shit and are clearly unsafe. We're in an unincorporated area so it's not as simple as "the city will take care of those rules" - the city has no jurisdiction here, it's all county, and the county rules are basically nil, so there's no recourse for enforcing stuff.

The reality is HOAs are a mixed bag like most things in life, but people on here like to act like they're pure evil.