As someone who lived in a neighborhood without an HOA, I completely agree with this. I had so many bad experiences with the neighborhood without the HOA. Aside from people not taking care of their yards or houses, including one person who replaced their grass with laminate tiles, there were much worse things.

There were constantly cars parked up and down the streets blocking your view and making it impossible for two cars to pass. We had two neighbors feuding over parking in front of each other’s houses. One of them decided to line the curb with cones. And the other would just leave their trash can out 24/7 blocking the curb.

I had a neighbor start a computer refurb business out of their garage. Which caught on fire at least 3 times. One time it caught on fire and there were so many cars parked on the street the firetrucks couldn’t make it to their house.

The neighborhood I live in now has the perfect balance. The HOA is run by a 3rd party who does not live in the neighborhood. And all rule changes require a meeting and at least half of the residents need to be in attendance before it can be taken to a vote. This keeps one neighbor from taking things over and turning into one of those nightmare HOAs you always hear about.