HOA Dues were $1500 a year in our fancy neighborhood, we had another $600 a month in public utilities we don't have here. The retired assholes would cruise around in their golf carts looking for something to piss and moan about, and we were so close to our asshole neighbors I could tell what they had for breakfast when they farted at lunch. We were miserable.
We have almost 20acres unincorporated, house sits 1300' off the road behind a gate, a few rolling hills and dense forest. Closest neighbors house is just 1000' away but I have no idea what my neighbor had for breakfast or when they do anything but shoot their guns. We can only really see there houses at the very end of the winter, but the leaves are already starting to block the view.
Its 1 page of covenants, The HOA upon final purchase from the developers is the land owners, stating no mobile homes, a minimum 3000sqft, no animals other than horses, dogs, and cats, one home, max two out buildings with no more than 1000sqft of finished space and 1 bath each which can not be rented out or divided away from the original parcel, no commercial structures or businesses with customer access, can't cut more than 30% of the trees on any single acre except for homesite, can't cut any of the hardwoods within 200' of a creek, can't build within 75' of property line, no clutter "junk storage" visible from neighboring property line.
These were in my mind what covenants are supposed to be, something to maintain a minimum standard to conserve property values and appearance. Since there are 7 owners and 6 of us so far like each other that one couple is screwed since they've already cut about 5 acres for a pasture and built a big ugly ass bright red metal barn. Luckily they are about ½ mile away from us but in the winter that ugly ass barn is visible.