I felt the same in the past, until I found the perfect home in the perfect location in my price range. The term HOA didn't really come up until the day before closing.

I've gone up against them now about 8 times, mostly overreaching bull crap that I never saw as an issue that became u huge deal because those folks have no other shit to do. It was getting pretty heavy so I started looking into the board.

Turns out two people, the president and the CFO both moved out of the neighborhood years ago but remained on the board. I brought up a motion to vacate their positions based on them NOT living in the area anymore and got a 2/3 vote. The following day after the vote I woke up to having two of my trees, the very two they were after me because of leaves falling in fall, both were cut down.

🤔 Yeah, this ain't over ya bastards.....