When it comes to purchasing a home, it’s important to consider the property’s status. You want to know if it’s part of a homeowners association (HOA), what the taxes look like, and how good the school district is. That said, understanding if an address is part of an HOA is essential because it dictates what you can or can’t do with your property.
HOAs typically have rules about things you can do with a property. So, knowing if the home you want is part of an HOA can save you the hassle if you’re not interested in living in one. On the other hand, many people prefer HOAs because of the peacefulness and uniformity they provide within a neighborhood.
While it’s not always easy to know if a home is part of an HOA, we’re here to help. We’ll take you through the best methods to run a homeowners association lookup by address to discover if a property is part of an HOA.
What Is a Homeowners Association?
A homeowners association, or HOA, is an organization that real estate developers create to manage a community of homes. HOAs are relevant for condominiums, townhouses, and traditional single-family housing. Homeowners associations can dictate rules and regulations specific to a neighborhood you won’t typically find with regular housing.
What Is the Purpose of a Homeowners Association?
Homeowners associations offer unique benefits. Depending on the type of property, some examples include landscaping, maintenance, and paving. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that a neighborhood maintains a standard of excellence to raise the value of the homes within it.
Homeowners associations may also include amenities, which are more common among condominiums. Amenities offered by HOAs typically include pools, clubhouses, pool halls, bars, and more. These activities are designed to bring in new members of the community.
What Are the Disadvantages of an HOA?
Homeowners associations offer many benefits, but there are also disadvantages. These disadvantages revolve around rules and specific regulations. Examples include rules surrounding paint colors, lawn decorations, pool sizes, and vehicle noise. Depending on your own needs, these rules may make an HOA undesirable. Keep in mind that many HOAs have unique rules, so it depends on the one you’re looking at.
Do Homeowners Associations Cost Money?
Yes, in many cases, HOA housing requires dues. This is because HOAs often include perks like parks, pools, trails, and clubhouses, and the fees are used to pay for maintenance. HOA dues may be expensive or not, depending on the area.
Factors like the cost of the home may also influence the cost of HOA dues. That said, many HOA properties are less expensive than non-HOA homes. The primary difference is that the HOA makes up this cost in dues.
How to Find if a Home Belongs to a Homeowners Association
Many homes in the United States belong to homeowners associations. Homeowners associations can be found in every state, and each state has unique laws about these HOAs. That said, finding out if a property is part of an HOA is simple. All you need is the address to begin your search.
1. Information.com
Information.com is always the best way to run an address lookup. Whether it’s about an HOA or who lives there, Information.com gives you a full report of everything you need to know about a property.
Still, what separates Information.com from other real estate tools is that the information is always accurate and up-to-date. So while you might find information about a home faster on a real estate website, that doesn’t mean it’s more accurate.
Information.com has the most accurate information because it has access to thousands of public records databases across the United States. Furthermore, you’ll find out more about a home aside from its HOA status.
Here’s what you’ll learn about an address when you use Information.com’s reverse address lookup:
- The type of property
- Residents or tenants
- When the property was developed
- HOA status
- Sale listings
- Property value
- Estimated taxes
As you can see, Information.com is a one-stop destination for all of the information you need about an address.
2. Real Estate Websites
Real estate websites like Zillow are also good places to get information about a home’s HOA status. Most real estate websites provide you with a lot of information about a home, especially if it’s for sale. Typically, real estate websites like Zillow provide you with the estimated taxes, mortgage, and HOA fees, if there are any.
While real estate websites are useful, they’re far from perfect. In many cases, the information is outdated, making it useless. So we recommend using Information.com’s reverse address lookup tool to verify the data you find on websites like Zillow.
3. Look for Recorded Records About a Home
Records for every home in the United States are available. When a home becomes part of an HOA, legal documents must be filed. These documents are often filed with the County Clerk’s office or another state agency. To access them, you can visit the County Clerk’s website, visit them in person, or give them a call.
Another way to find records about a home is to search the State’s Division of Corporations. Enter the name of your state followed by “Division of Corporations,” and you’ll learn about all of the corporations in your state. Then, you can enter the address to see if it’s affiliated with any corporations.
Discover the HOA Status of an Address Today!
Discovering if an address is part of a homeowners association is essential. You’ll learn about the property’s value, history, and more. Plus, you can get insight into the types of rules they have for residents within the HOA community.
Depending on who you are and what rules you’re willing to follow to gain amenities, HOAs may or may not be for you. That said, always run a homeowners association lookup by address before you purchase a home, so you know exactly what kind of rules and perks you may have in your new home.
