I'm attending my first HOA meeting at the new place.  First time living in an HOA building.  I overheard the association president talking to some guy about installing security cameras to catch people making a mess of the garbage area.  Is this the kind of petty shitshow I should expect at the association meeting?

pretty much.  it's all the joys of government, at home!

Yes.  My hoa meetings were very similar.  Couldn't take much of it

Roro does not approve.

OMG!  I was a board member treasurer  of our HOA until I had a "run in"  with the Pres. and his wife.... the designated "landscaping committee"  (of one).  I resigned over a vote involving spending thousands on revamping the landscaping of a then two year old complex as my argument was that it was an unecessary expense involved with a committee of one that contained a conflict of interest.  When I resigned, said Pres. walked up to me to thank me for my contribution and I politely said, in ear shot of as many as I could muster, "Go Fuck Yourself You Fucking Freak".

No Janice, you as a resident / owner are not required to go to the meetings.  That is part of the problem as no one except the board seldom shows up.

John is one of them!

I'm not!  I have dis associated myself from that possey for years now.  What a fucking mess.  Cudos to anyone who wants to be involved but who I really feel bad for is the Property management co. that has to mediate that shit.

Man, reading this makes me realize just how lucky we are. Our association is awesome, zero complaints.

I love our place.  I will not have anything to do with the HOA other than paying the monthly dues.  Whick provides a good service,  all the property maintenance stuff is taken care of.

It's hilarious.  And we got free pizza

Then the second half they meet with themselves and go over the budget in a whisper

There's a few crazy people that just come for the free pizza

I brought cookies from Specialty's

I have zero regrets, our HOA has plenty in reserves. There are two things any potential homeowners do before buying look into, 1. litigations 2. Reserves

5 out 6 kids in my family are condo owners and none of us ever have had any issues.

Annete F. says:
Sorry for you, is all I can think. A lady I know purchased a condo, and 4 years later she was hit with a special assessment for repairs to the 15 year old siding and dry-rotted wood on poorly constructed balconies. It was not like she got the enjoyment of use for those 15 years, but was on the hook for the repairs, and the repairs were not even to her condo building.

I think it was $10,000 per unit.

I would never buy into any HOA building or home.
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That is very short sighted in my opinion. It all depends on the circumstances. I bought my place in Redwood Shores for $290,000 (2br ba), in 2002. Today I owe 135,000 and as of today I can get around $500,000 for this unit. Do you think I am at all concerned about a $10,000 assessment? Worse case scenario I refi my place at a lower interest rate (currently I am at 6.5 percent and can probably refi in the high 4's) and take some money out to pay for the assessment.

What Anne J. just said is like dirty dirty talk to me.

I got out of a townhouse HOA situation after 2 yrs. It was frustrating because you don't get a "vote" unless you are on the board.

I also was asked to take down a POW/MIA flag because it was against the rules and regulations to have anything except an American flag.  Also, wait until you need the roof done or outside painting, hopefully you have enough reserves or all units will have to chip in for the costs.

I've never had any problems with my HOA.  I guess I'm getting off cheap - mine is only $250, and includes insurance on the building, garbage, water, landscaping, pool, and on site security.

Things to watch out for on HOA - board members with conflicts of interest, Lord of the Flies type situations, factionalism, being super Nazi about everything even when the members don't agree, not paying bills on time, not taking care of the place, not taking care of reserve account or accounting, inadequately funded reserves, hiring bad manager, manager who selects bad or high price vendors who are friends or who are paying them kickbacks.