On Jul 17, 4:17 pm, KC4UAI wrote:
On Jul 16, 7:45 pm, wrote:
On Jul 16, 3:30 pm, Michael Coslo wrote:

There are plenty of unrestricted places on the
market *now*, because of
the RE market slump and the mortgage crisis.

Maybe in your area, but where I live CC&R's are the rule
and they will
all pretty much restrict antennas for ham radio use. It all depends
on when the average house was built in your area. The standard way
this works here in the Dallas area is developer buys large tract of
land, applies CC&R's to the tract, subdivides and develops the
land to
sell the houses he builds. He throws in a pool and play ground
across
from the model homes which is owned by the HOA that gets
created by
the CC&R's. 99-100% of the new homes available in the area
I live will
come with CC&R's based on these boilerplates. (Personally I
know of
NO new homes in my current price range for sale with 10 miles of
my house that won't have CC&R's.)

That's pretty much the pattern for developments everywhere. And not
just large developments either.

There is an way, however. Doesn't work all the time but it has worked
in some, and may be worth a try in this RE market.

(insert standard "not a lawyer" disclaimer HERE)

The way deed restrictions & covenants work in the areas I know of is
that they are recorded when the property is first sold. And of course
one of the restrictions is that each owner has to pass the
restrictions on to the next owner.

But in some cases, the first buyer can say "NO!" to the developer, and
get restrictions removed *before* the sale. So while the rest of the
properties may be restricted, that one isn't.

HOA rules are another issue completely, but the same approach may
work.

In a market where the developer is desperate to sell, a buyer who is
ready to sign on the dotted line if certain conditions are met may be
a big incentive to remove some boilerplate.

However, this is not something to try without expert RE legal counsel
to make absolutely sure you have airtight exemption *before* you sign
anything. Verbal assurances mean nothing; it's gotta be in clear
writing and properly recorded.

Of course you've got to be ready to simply walk away if they say no or
even if they hem and haw.

I've seen only ONE subdivision in my area that would have allowed
antennas in their CC&R's but it was a very special case. The
CC&R's
didn't originate with a builder, but where adopted by the land
owners
AFTER the subdivision was plated. Those CC&R's where a model of
simplicity and basically dealt with keeping unsightly things to a
minimum. (Keep your house painted a normal color and in good
repair,
no junk cars, lawns mowed, fences in good repair etc.)

That brings up another point: Local governments pawning off
responsibility.

In every house I've lived in, things like no junk cars, lawn mowing,
barking dogs, trash, general repair and such were handled by various
government ordinances about nuisances. Be a bad neighbor and the local
gendarmes will show up with a notice of violating some ordinance or
other.

IMHO some local governments, rather than pass and enforce such
ordinances, depend on the HOAs and CC&Rs to do it for them. "Keeps the
taxes down" is their excuse, but of course the enforcement comes out
of HOA fees.

The problem is that the big builders have boiler plate CC&R's that
change very little between subdivisions. All of these boiler plates
contain restrictions on antennas and are constructed to never
expire.

Not just big developers either.

More and more land is becoming off limits to ham radio
antennas and
this is a bigger problem in areas that have been under active
development for the last 20-30 years such as Dallas.

The cure is for lots of people to write Congress and get them to order
FCC to expand the OTARD preemption. FCC has clearly said they will do
it when Congress tells them to.

Therefore I have to object to the "just move" response to the plight
of hams in CC&R communities. It may be an option for some,
but for
others it may not. At some point I may choose to move, and
CC&R
restrictions on antennas will likely be something I look at. I can
tell you that I won't be able to buy a comparable house for the
same
money without CC&R's in Murphy or the surrounding area. There
are
areas that allow them, but they do not compare with where I live in
price or age.

IMHO, one of the things that keeps the price of restricted houses down
is the restrictions! Another is the HOA fees and added cost of keeping
the place up to HOA standards. I've seen it in action.

Yes, I could drive 40 more miles a day and perhaps find
something that would work, but with the cost of driving these
days I’d
be moving into less of a house for sure to make ends meet.

40 miles a day in a small car is maybe $6 in gas....

IMHO, a house where you can't have antennas is less of a house than
one where you can.

There are fundamental
problems with CC&R's and pesky HOA's under the current
law. Depending
on how they are drafted, they can end up causing some
seemingly very
unreasonable consequences for homeowners that may not be
obvious by reading them.

Such as?

The one I can think of off-hand has to do with energy. As far as I can
tell, the days of cheap plentiful energy are ending, and we're going
to see higher prices not just for gasoline but for electricity and
natural gas.

One way to cope will be to use less energy and to use alternate
technologies. For example, whenever the weather is nice I hang clothes
on the line rather than use the dryer. Saves a couple of kWh per load.
At 15 cents per kWh it adds up, plus in the summertime it reduces the
load on the air conditioner.

Some folks around here have solar hot water heaters that reduce the
need for the regular hot water heater to turn on. The panels are on
the roof, facing south.

We may someday see low-cost wind and solar electric power systems for
homes. Depending on the wind and sun conditions where you live, and
how much electricity costs, they may someday be a reasonable
alternative for part of the electrical load.

But if CC&Rs ban such things, some folks will be very unhappy.

Personally, I think they should be put under some
really strict legal limits and the powers of HOA's strictly limited.
But all that is another issue...

Not really. Part of the problem is that a lot of folks don't really
know what they're getting into when they buy.

Friend of mine bought into such a place, and after some time
discovered that the upstairs windows leaked. The construction was
rather slipshod IMHO but caulk had worked for a couple of years. But
now he had a major job to fix the problem.

But he couldn't just fix it - he had to get HOA approval every step of
the way. He had to buy exact replacement windows, even though better
ones were available for the same money, because the better ones
weren't HOA approved. He had to get a certain kind of trim and paint
and such, at high prices, not because it was high quality, but because
the stuff wasn't stock anymore.

What was a simple project that could have been a major improvement
turned into a major headache that cost lots more time and money.

All in all I can only hope that this CC&R Craze comes
to an end pretty
soon. I don't think they are as much a benifit to
landowners as they
are thought to be. But until they fall out of favor to the public or
get pre-empted by law they will only increase in coverage.
Personally, that scares me.

Me too!

The problem is that it doesn't scare most folks.

They've been pretty standard for more than 30 years in some places.
And in a lot of cases the homeowners don't really own the land!

73 de Jim, N2EY