There is a beautiful new community in the infancy stages of development in Cypress TX, just north west of Houston.  It will have all the bells and whistles a home buyer could want in a master planned community with 20,000+ homes.  Nice landscaping, water parks, pools, tennis courts, etc.  It's called Bridgeland.

However, I recently learned of an "enhancement fee."  This .5% fee is attached to all resolds in the community and is payable by the seller. This fee is to be paid back into a community fund that pays for salaries for full time employees in the HOA, and any repairs or enhancements inside the community.

I can see a few problems with this.  It will not apply to new home sales.  So I think it is realistic to say that most home buyers will not find out about this until their closer at the title company slips a notice to them explaining the details of this fee, where it is realistically too late.  In many cases, I can see this scenario play out on resales, especially where buyers have no representation. Lastly, this fee is collected on top of steep yearly HOA dues.

It's my opinion that information like this needs to be disclosed during the decision making process. Not at the closing table. This is where a buyers agent earns their comission. Buyers need to have all the information assocaited in buying a specific property in order to make a smart finacial decision.

Fellow bloggers/agents... are these steep HOA fees a growing trend in your markets?