Buying an HOA home in San Diego, CA (north county)

Member since 2023 · 11 posts · 4 votes

Good morning BP community, I am trying to weigh the pros and cons of buying an HOA home in California, which may be converted to a rental in a few years. There were recent changes to the CA law which allow for 31-day stays (also see this blog post) and alters the rental cap in an HOA community. However, I was wondering if anyone here might be more familiar with the boundaries of renting in an CA HOA community (e.g., landlord occupied STR, restrictions renting full home vs detached structure) and/or strategies for being successful in doing so.

Honestly, I've stayed away from HOAs in the past, but I'm interested to learn more, so I can make an informed decision about the homes likely performance and associated issues. Thank you so much, I really appreciate your feedback!

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Twana RasoulBusiness Member
Real Estate Agent · San Diego, CA · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
3y
@Zachary N. I started out investing in San Diego with Condos and single family homes in HOA communities, nothing wrong with it. I've also sold and 1031 exchanged into multifamily property from some of those and still own in hoa community as well.
You are able to medium term in an HOA community regardless of the HOA rules, but STR you will not be able to do if the HOA does not allow it even if you live in the unit and rent out a portion of it as an STR. Start with what you can afford and makes sense for your financial situation and you can build up your portfolio from that. Real estate is the get wealthy slow method.
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Zachary N.
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Member since 2023 · 11 posts · 4 votes
3y
@Twana Rasoul thank you for sharing your experience with HOA communities. It's great to know that this path is possible - you mostly hear horror stories, which is why I didn't even look at a home if it had an HOA.

If you have time, it would be great to connect by phone to discuss some high-level considerations and/or learned values/strategies for managing a single-family home in a HOA. Please let me know if that might be possible sometime this week - my schedule is pretty flexible tomorrow and Tuesday. The listing agent for this home will be selecting an offer tomorrow evening, so we should know shortly about getting into escrow.

Thank you so much for your time, and I look forward to connecting!
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