People are often curious as to what Scottsdale Arizona homeowners' association fees cover. On one home they could be minimal, less than $100 per year, yet in another community, a resident could be looking at annual payments in the thousands. Coverage can include anything from maintenance for common areas all the way up to almost all of your utilities including basic cable.
What the fees boil down to is what levels of service and amenities are being offered by the homeowners' association (HOA.) The following examples are not comprehensive and every community is different, but they should give you an idea of what to expect as you are assessing and comparing monthly fees between different Scottsdale homes for sale.
On the lower end of the cost spectrum, many HOA's simply offer what is considered "Common Area Maintenance." This means that things like street medians and common community areas are maintained by the HOA. In Scottsdale, this generally means that a gardening service has been hired to maintain and manage the landscaping.
As you move up the cost scale, you start to see other things like street maintenance, (repairs for streets within the community are covered). Gated communities and neighborhoods with community pools and spas, parks, fitness centers and/or other amenities also are more expensive as the cost of maintaining these perks is higher.
On the highest end of the HOA fee scale, you see amenities like full-time guard gated entries and security patrols and/or golf courses and clubhouses. In many of the higher end condo communities in Scottsdale and Phoenix, virtually all of your costs are covered by the HOA, with the exception of electricity and telecom services. In these cases, your higher monthly HOA fee will be offset by not having to pay for these other services on an a la carte basis.
In multi-family settings or in communities where homes are partially attached, you will often see exterior maintenance of the units and a blanket insurance policy for the community included in the fees as well.
The good news is that you can look at Scottsdale MLS listings and see how much the fees are and what they cover. An entire section of the MLS listing information sheet is dedicated to HOA information, including contact information, costs, how frequent the payments are, what those payments cover and more.
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