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My husband and I are looking to relocate to the Wake Forest/North Raleigh area this spring. We have been looking through listings, refining our criteria but I am finding it difficult to get answers about HOAs for neighborhoods.
One of our main criteria is that my husband (who is an avid ham radio operator) be able to put up a retractable mast. Our current HOA does not allow any type of antenna. I know it varies from HOA to HOA, so I want to be able to check the restrictions so we avoid looking in neighborhoods that will be a no-go.
We have found several homes and neighborhoods that we like, but we need help finding out which ones have HOAs and which ones of those will allow masts.
Examples:
MLS# 1770038 is 7208 Hayebury Dr., Wake Forest
(there's actually several in that area that look good) The real estate website I'm looking at says it's in the Grayson Creek subdivision but says nothing about an HOA. Does anyone know if that area has an HOA? I can't find anything online.
MLS# 1780465 is 1809 Bagshot Ct., Wake Forest
Listing says it is in the Parkington subdivision, but I can't see anything about an HOA.
MLS# 1792168 is 601 Ted Ave., Raleigh
It says it is in the Martindale subdivision. Again, I cannot find anything about HOA, though I see it is an older home so maybe it doesn't have one???
The Houston Area Realtor website (which covers the area we live in now) always lists if there is an HOA and what the annual fee is for each home. I'm not seeing any information like that on any of the listings I'm looking at in the Triangle area. I'm fine with contacting the HOA directly to get information, but I can't even see where it lists if the neighborhod has one.
Is there some master website that lists HOAs by neighborhood?
I know when we were looking for homes, our buyer's agent was able to pull from MLS if a listing was under a HOA and what the annual HOA fee was. From there we could pull up the covenants.
It's usually not HOA's themselves that restrict or prohibit things - those restrictions are put in place by the developer and recorded as a Declaration of Covenants or similar document, which is usually referenced in each deed for properties in the development. The HOA is just the organization of homeowners that is charged with enforcement of the covenants.
Given that the covenants are a recorded document, you should be able to find them through some searching on the relevant Register of Deeds site.
Subdivisions built after 1978 or so (I'm not sure of the exact year) in Raleigh were required to have an HOA. I would think all if not most HOAs would prohibit masts of any kind. Most seem quite restrictive.
HOAs/community deed restrictions vary greatly. My current one is extremely restrictive. However, the neighborhood down the street is fairly lax and definitely allows masts (as well as boats & RVs, whcih mine does not.)
There's tens of thousands of ham operators throughout the country, and the majority of them are not in the boondocks. The trick is finding a neighborhood in a city that doesn't have a problem with the antennas.
I know when we were looking for homes, our buyer's agent was able to pull from MLS if a listing was under a HOA and what the annual HOA fee was. From there we could pull up the covenants.
I was hoping there was a website that consumers could use themselves.
Well I mean, if you could somehow find the names of the HOA management companies, then you could call them and have them email you the covenants, but they don't exactly make it easy. I think most of them would prefer you buy the house first then look at the covenants. I know when we bought our house it was an ordeal getting the complete covenants before buying.
if you have a realtor they can get the HOA dues and usually a phone number/email from the MLS listing of the house.
Yeah, it looks like we're going to probably have a realtor help us with this. We were hoping to do some of the "legwork" ourselves and not bother a realtor yet. Obviously we'll use a buyer's agent when it comes time to buy, but we haven't enlisted one yet.
Six months ago we were thinking about Pittsboro, but then we decided it was too remote. I guess I didn't want to talk to a realtor until I had a better idea of area.
Can anyone PM me recommendations for a realtor that's familiar with Wake Forest/North Raleigh?
There's tens of thousands of ham operators throughout the country, and the majority of them are not in the boondocks. The trick is finding a neighborhood in a city that doesn't have a problem with the antennas.
What about contacting the Raleigh Amateur Radio Society at RARS.org: Clubs ? Maybe there's a friendly person at the web site who could send you in the right direction.
Otherwise, if it's too difficult in Wake County, why not try properites in the surrounding counties which do not have HOA's? Granville and Franklin Counties are very close to Wake Forest.
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