Some neighbors say, "No Tanks!"

Several years ago an older, divorced, slightly eccentric guy bought the place closest to my wife and I. For whatever reason he likes having free-range chickens. Occasionally one or two find their way into our yard and lay eggs under our fir trees or dig a bit in our front flower beds. Did we lose our **** and demand hearings and meetings and accountability and new rules and regulations and HOAs and such?

No, because we don't have giant sticks up our asses.

Chickens gonna chicken.

It's almost like we develop different social systems based on how tightly we're packed together or something!

muddymooose said:

Did we lose our **** and demand hearings and meetings and accountability and new rules and regulations and HOAs and such?

No, because we don't have giant sticks up our asses.

Chickens gonna chicken.

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You're just saying this because the chickens have a tank, and you fear armed retaliation.

Seems appropriate

[video]https://youtu.be/FQMbXvn2RNI?t=244[/video]

djs said:

You're just saying this because the chickens have a tank, and you fear armed retaliation.

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It would be funnier if each chicken had its own little chicken-sized tank.

muddymooose said:

It would be funnier if each chicken had its own little chicken-sized tank.

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Would be funny, but against the HOA rules. Only full sized tanks allowed

djs said:

Would be funny, but against the HOA rules. Only full sized tanks allowed

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Main Battle tank (M1A1)?
Armored Scout Vehicle (M551 Sheridan)?
Does it need to be a current model?
Would a Stryker be acceptable?
In a beachfront community, could I choose an LCAC instead?

muddymooose said:

Several years ago an older, divorced, slightly eccentric guy bought the place closest to my wife and I. For whatever reason he likes having free-range chickens. Occasionally one or two find their way into our yard and lay eggs under our fir trees or dig a bit in our front flower beds. Did we lose our **** and demand hearings and meetings and accountability and new rules and regulations and HOAs and such?

No, because we don't have giant sticks up our asses.

Chickens gonna chicken.

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Free breakfast delivery, best neighbor ever.

H_Rocket said:

Main Battle tank (M1A1)?
Armored Scout Vehicle (M551 Sheridan)?
Does it need to be a current model?
Would a Stryker be acceptable?
In a beachfront community, could I choose an LCAC instead?

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All of these are ok. Jeez man, these HOAs aren't monsters!

In the end , we don't worry about chickens or tanks either way. That's what the other side of the fence is for. No run down meth houses, no run down buildings, crime is at an all time low, uncongested streets. maximum curb appeal, pride in community and top dollar for selling.

It's really up to the individual owner as to whether or not HOA's offer a particular quality of life that they they prefer. Clearly they do for you. Just as clearly, they do not do so for many others. Whatever floats your boat, ya' know? But I'm not convinced that HOA's significantly benefit the owner financially. Yes, there's plenty of data to suggest that homes with an HOA sell for more money, but that likely also means that the owner paid more money to acquire it. In the end, does a home with an HOA appreciate in value faster than homes without one? I honestly don't know. But if they don't, you aren't really ahead financially, you're just paying a premium to live a particular lifestyle. And again, there's nothing wrong with that either.

Verses neighborhoods that are going down the drain? Yes, the HOA protects that neighborhood from falling and therefore the value.

The problem with real estate as an investment is the only good way to realize your gains is to sell and move. And it is not a liquid investment. My preference is to buy a house that is nice, fits my needs and invest the bulk of my assets in stocks and bonds via mutual funds. I can be in cash (except for the house) in 24 hours with no problem if I ever wanted to do that.

Right now we are converting about 0.5% of our assets into cash each year to make up for the shortfall between our spending and my wife's pension. And the stock market has been going up a lot more than 0.5% a year for quite a few years so we are sitting pretty. No matter what your house is worth you can't sell off 0.5% of it to live off of.

We own 18 properties not including this one. As far as equity is concerned, it's also nice to have that to fall back on. In Washington state, properties have been historically high. That's good for me as well. The house we live in can easily go up by $50,000 alone in just one year at only 4%.

Steven said:

Verses neighborhoods that are going down the drain? Yes, the HOA protects that neighborhood from falling and therefore the value.

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I think Peartree was trying to be diplomatic here, but I'm going to be more direct. You're presenting the HOA choice as either buying into a HOA or buying into a neighborhood that's going down the drain. It's not that simple, and you're insulting everyone's intelligence by saying it is.There are perfectly nice neighborhoods with massively appreciating property values with no HOA, and there are neighborhoods with HOAs where the home values collapse.

Again, you do you. If you have 18 properties, you can sure afford it. But please don't assume that I'm stupid if I don't follow your lead.

It's your choice to feel the way you want. I don't 'feel' stupid regardless of all the negative feedback against HOA's. I'll live.

You mentioned early on that you paid a fair chunk over a million for your house. That puts you in a neighborhood that would likely appreciate regardless of whether there was an HOA in place. To bolster your argument you used multiple examples of obviously depressed locales and seemed to postulate that if those areas were protected by an HOA, they would be different. To me that makes your argument rather specious. Show me a neighborhood where homes go for over $500K where there is no HOA, that comes even close to your examples and I might buy into your position. I admit there were a few times I wished we had one, there was supposed to be one, but the developer screwed up and now there is no practical way to implement one.


Still, I quote and old buddy who said "It's not right and it's not wrong, so as long as it works for you I'm cool with it".

To be exact 90% from other investment properties. I firmly believe an HOA would have helped their situation out. The only question is to what extent. On the other hand, folks were giving out examples postulating that ALL HOA'S are bad as well. Bottom line, I'll quote your quote: "It's not right and it's not wrong, so as long as it works for you I'm cool with it". This applies to all sides now doesn't it? What do I lose?

That works for me

Now back to the mayhem

Would the HOA allow me to put a radome on the roof to protect the millimeter wave radar I plan to use when Amazon comes out with their drone delivery system? I considered a a nice L-Band like the SPS-49, however I really thought the SPA-66 repeater in my man cave would clash with the decor. A SPA-25 might serve as end table though.

And before you ask, I thought a SPY-1D was a bit pretentious.

I'll let you move on in and find out.

Naw, next time I relocate it's gonna be someplace warm and flat.

H_Rocket said:

Would the HOA allow me to put a radome on the roof to protect the millimeter wave radar I plan to use when Amazon comes out with their drone delivery system?.

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Only if it's part of a general targeting system to shoot down those unsightly drones that you can't pick off with your tank.


HOA- Howitzer owners association

H_Rocket said:

Naw, next time I relocate it's gonna be someplace warm and flat.

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I hear you about that warm weather. Having come from Phoenix I get it. Though it was great for me as a kid up through my twenties, it got old after a while. 100 degree heat for one third of the year just didn't do it for me any more. I also saw the state of Phoenix going down as well. Neighborhoods have fallen apart, values dropped and the bottom line no one cares and it shows. Where I live there aren't any hills or hilly roads for ice to form on so I'm good there. Always stayed away from that scenario. Hope you find that place as there are plenty out there.

djs said:

Only if it's part of a general targeting system to shoot down those unsightly drones that you can't pick off with your tank.


HOA- Howitzer owners association

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I was thinking more along the lines of a Roman Demi-God statue.

Steven said:

Hope you find that place as there are plenty out there.

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Thanx, I want someplace where I can go for long bike rides in shorts in December.

H_Rocket said:

Thanx, I want someplace where I can go for long bike rides in shorts in December.

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You can do that just about anywhere, but try it in northern Minnesota and you may end up in the emergency room or in a padded cell for a psych eval.

Zeus-cat said:

You can do that just about anywhere, but try it in northern Minnesota and you may end up in the emergency room or in a padded cell for a psych eval.

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For your convenience we have a padded cell in our ED.

muddymooose said:

It would be funnier if each chicken had its own little chicken-sized tank.

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I've heard of ack-ack guns and pom-pom guns, but not bok-bok guns. What kind of caliber are we talking here?

boatgeek said:

I've heard of ack-ack guns and pom-pom guns, but not bok-bok guns. What kind of caliber are we talking here?

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Normally they fire HEAT (Heavy Egg Anti Tank) rounds. Average egg diameter is 44.5mm.

You're just saying this because the chickens have a tank, and you fear armed retaliation.

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Wouldn't chickens have an airforce, rather than tanks?