People warned me for years about living in a community with a homeowner’s association, though I didn’t listen to the advice. My brother Mike is a real estate agent and is sick and tired of the additional stress that is put on his job each afternoon by these HOAs. He wants to see his customers glad, and few things frustrate him more than seeing a rejection notice from a homeowners association over a trivial detail like a credit score being slightly lower than what they want to see in their “community.” But it’s not just about arcane rules and their effect on people being accepted or denied, HOAs can also be aggravating when you’re trying to abide by the rules they make for peoples’ homes and yards. Some of them will tell you what kind of paint you can use on your house, how short your sod needs to be, and what kind of fence you can have surrounding your yard, if at all. I think that sounds crazy, but there are undoubtedly neighborhoods in this neighborhood where existing HOAs ban fences. My brother confirmed this when I asked him recently. Many of them will demand vinyl or PVC fencing because it often comes in white and that removes the option of weird colors that detract or stand out from the rest of the houses on the block. That’s unfortunate for anyone who wants a wooden or chain affix fence instead of a vinyl one. Not to mention vinyl and PVC fences aren’t exactly cost effective for all people. If you have a dog that is prone to jumping over a chain affix fence, the taller vinyl and PVC fences detach this risk altogether.