Monday, October 26, 2009

Don't Buy a home in the "highlands of branson"

With all due respect! I bet you are so excited to start looking for a first/new home in the Branson Area. Let me tell you about my neighborhood in the Branson Highlands, so you know to turn your car around and speed away from this neighborhood as fast as your car can take you and as far away as a tank of gas can get you!
When I moved in to the Branson Highlands it was peaceful. Everyone minded their own business, kids played in streets, the pool was kept clean...fast forward to today. You have people from the HOA knocking on your door at all hours of the day, leaving notes taped to your door, and erecting ugly boards all over the neighborhood, which will surely be abandoned just like the website created last year.
The problem is that the HOA treats this neighborhood like a private gated community, which it is not. The homes we live in our very inexpensive, average of 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, with tiny little yards.
The latest in our neighborhood is that the HOA has been taken over by new owners who wish that the Branson Highlands is something that it is not. Please beware! Don not buy one of the many, many houses for sale in the Branson Highlands. The HOA has arranged for our pets to be taken by animal control who now does sweeps looking for pets that may have gotten out and are found laying in your yard without being chained down. There was even a recent drugging of pets with poison meatballs, and animals found with cigarette burns, I'm not saying that the HOA did this, but it so happens it occurred when the HOA decided to crack down on our pets, one of the many wondrous creations of GOD!
Also, you will get fined or towed if you park you car in the street! Beware, many our the driveways in this neighborhood are too short for 2 cars and not wide enough to parks 2 cars side by side. So if you have kids coming of age to drive or you happen to have more than one vehicle, and you park in the street you will be towed or fined!
In this economy I know that many people have lost jobs, lost medical coverage, lost life saving...don't worry about paying your HOA fees! If you fall behind on your dues the HOA will just put a lien on your home and then foreclose on it. Yep, that's right, the are starting foreclosure on homes with dues that are delinquent. So if it comes down to going to the doctor, buying food for the week, or putting gas in your car the HOA would rather you pay your dues. Who needs medication anyway?
Also, I must warn you of the mowing situation. The amount spent on mowing fees is outrageous. If the money is needed so badly that the HOA foreclosures are needed, why don't not stop the mowing and reduce the HOA fees so more people can pay them? Hire a neighbor to mow or mow your yards yourself. Last month over $5000 were paid to the mowers, who happen to live in the neighborhood. There is many complaints of broken windows and chewed up siding damage. Also I must warn you about the mowers who have been know to look into windows, and who are creepy, creepy men who are very inappropriate when it comes to how they behave around the opposite sex. I have heard several neighbors complain, not just one!
The pool is an added bonus when moving in, but it didn't even open until midway through summer, its always paked and dirty! Who knows what infections you will pick up in there! Did I mention it had dozens of frogs living in it until a week before it opened? GROSS!
Beware! Please I am warning you, do not buy a home in the Branson Highlands! If my house would sell I would be out of here already! With all due respect!