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harsh realities of living in a 55 plus community. You've seen the brochures of the 55 plus active adult communities. You know, the ones that are large, plenty of single family homes that uh specialize in active adult community living. That's one my comments are about today. And you know, you've seen the brochures there. There, the wonderful clubhouse, the smiling people, um the all the amenities, the ball fields, the the wonderful lifestyle. It all looks like a retirement dream. And honestly, it can be. It has been for us.
But also honestly, there are some harsh realities of living in a 55 plus community that offend some people, that people have some regrets about, that really tick people off, that actually cause some people to actually move away from a 55 plus community. So today, I want to to cover those based on my 10 years of living in a 55 plus community. I'll try to be honest as I can about it. I'm not going to do a sales job. I'm going to do just the opposite. I'm going to try to think of every harsh reality I can about living here and let you know in advance about that to save you some grief. Okay, let's get started.
Reality number one, the house is not going to be worth it. The price of the house is not worth it. the house itself, if you buy it outside of a 55 plus community, you can buy it way cheaper, way cheaper. And why is that? And and why can't some people get past that? And the reason is when you buy in a 55 plus community, you're buying the community. Uh you're buying the amenities, which are quite substantial. You think about the clubouses, the ball fields, the walking trails, the 350 acres. You're going to be part owner of those amenities, but you're going to pay for them, too. Uh we leased our house 11 years ago. We leased it out for a year, and the tenant, he wanted to buy the house. We said, "Nope, you know, we we bought it to move into the house. We need to, you know, we told you up front it was just a one-year lease. We'd like to move in the house." and he ended up buying in a in a another community nearby the same type floor plan and same type house at a way cheaper price. So, some people can't get past that price of the house, but that's why it's much higher.
Reality number two, downsizing doesn't always save you money. So, you sell the bigger house in the suburbs and you want to move into downsize and move into a 55 plus community and that's great for several reasons. Um, lifestyle and uh livability and that sort of thing, but it's not for saving money because like just like I said, the price of the house is going to be higher than uh normal because it is in a 55 plus community. And then you start thinking about, you know, your painting. I mean, we moved in here, you know, we we had everything painted. They put in hardwood floors in the master bedroom, all kind of stuff and that cost a lot of money. Uh we wanted this is our retirement home, so we wanted it nice for us when we moved in. Uh but as far as saving money, uh we didn't save any money.
Partial reality number three, not everyone is happy here. Surprise, surprise, right? Did you really expect them to everybody to be happy? I would say most people are very very happy but you're going to move in you're going to run into people that are not happy uh happy campers. Some people bring their problems with them. Some of the times I think it's one a couple and one of the couple wanted wanted to move here and the other one did not want to move here and they never aren't going to be happy. I don't think you know they're not active people. They may have health problems or something to keep them from being active. they don't see the point in paying for all these amenities and they just stay home all the time and they, you know, they they're just not going to be happy people. So, you're going to find a mix of people here just like you will anywhere. Generally, people are put on their more more positive their happy face here. They want to meet friends and and enjoy your yourself and enjoy retirement.
Reality number four, homeowner associations. You knew that was coming, right? There has to be a homeowner association to run a big uh community like this. I think our annual budget is four or five four or five million dollars, you know, because we've got all kind of things to keep up here. Plus, we have all these 100 clubs and groups here of activities and that has to be orchestrated and planned and run by the homeowner association. So, the homeowner association is like six or seven people. They're elected to two-year terms. I really don't have very much direct uh uh complaints about homeowner association board members. They make the big big policies. Some people get really involved in that and that's a harsh reality for them because they don't have too much input into that and that's and that is something that people complain about. It's that next layer. You got homeowner association members here, the board members, and you got club committees on the next level, and they they oversee the 100 groups and clubs of activities down here. Now, this layer is run by people that have a passion for whatever activity that is. You hardly ever have any problem with those people. The next layer up between the board of directors and the club and groups are the committees that oversee them. And those are the places where you can run into some friction. All of those guys give out approvals or disapprovals and restrictions and things like that. And u you know you can have some conflicts there. That ties into the very next harsh reality.
Strict property restrictions. Now the inside of your house you can do just about anything you want to anything at all inside. outside, you have to get approval of just about everything you do. For example, I've been here 10 years and we had to get approval for the walkway between our houses. We had to get approval for the exterior painting and we had a roof replacement we had to get approval for. Also, we want to take these trees out. We went to the wrong committee. I mean, it's hard to even find out who to get approval from for some of these things.
Okay. Number six, reality. harsh reality of living in a 55 active adult community. Are you too young for your neighbors? Age matters. You know, it really does. You have to be 55 plus to move into a 55 plus community. So, I'm 77. The average age now is probably 79. And we're a wonderful group of people. We have a wonderful community here. But if you moved in when you were 55, you know, right now, you may be disappointed. I know two people who moved in and said, you know what, this community, the people are a little bit too old for us, you know, and they moved moved out. Both of them did. So, if you're in your 50s, be careful about the age of the community uh when you move in. That's my tip for you. We have a lot of wonderful benefits from being a mature community. We have bour trees and landscaping here. We have walking trails. We have a lot of stuff some of the newer communities don't have. I'm not saying anything about that. It's a wonderful, wonderful community. But age makes a difference. My personal experience is that 10 years plus or minus your age is a is, you know, you have no problem relating to those people whatsoever. I personally have no problem relating to older much older people than me. Um, I love to do things with people that are in the early 90s and seeing that they're still active and playing Bachi, for example. I mean, they're inspiration to me. I love that. So, uh, but if age matters to you, uh, that's that may be a harsh reality. Be be careful there.
Okay, those for me, it's been worth it. We love living here, but there are harsh realities of moving into a 55 plus community. So, just to recap, the high cost of the house, you know, if you're looking at the house itself, there's little savings and downsizing and moving to a 55 plus community, you're not going to save too much money. You're going to have unhappy neighbors. I don't think any of my neighbors are unhappy. Uh I don't I think I've only in 10 years only run into five people that I've really found to be very unhappy and tried to avoid at all cost. homeowner association policies. That's one of the bigger ones. All the restrictions on the house, the outside of the house, that upsets a lot of people. It really does. Um, a couple of people have moved because of that. Overall, we see the benefit of those restrictions that keep the values up in the community. And, you know, it's it's a good thing, I think, in general. But if you want to plow up this green grass in the back and build a vegetable garden, you you probably can't get approval to do that, you know. So beware be aware of that. It's not for everybody. Yeah. I think give and take and everything, right?
So I wanted to address these harsh realities. Now some people say, we talked about the age. Some people say, "I never want to move into one of those retirement communities because I don't like all the old people. It's just a waiting room of people waiting to die. That's not my cup of tea. I'd be depressed all the time." Uh, I would say to those people, you know, the people living here like me are some of the most happy, positive 70 year olds people you would ever want to run into. And uh the reason we moved here is to be active, you know, and stay stay in socially active and exercise and enjoy our time. And so, you know, if you're comparing us to to other group of of people outside of our community, I think clearly people here are some of the youngest uh 70 year olds you'd ever want to find. So, uh, but if the concept older people um even though you're older now, right? You're getting older every day yourself, but um I understand that turns you off. Absolutely. Don't move here. That's for sure. You wouldn't fit in and you would probably be overcharged for all the activities that you wouldn't enjoy either. Something to consider.
So, the bottom line is go in with open eyes. Know what you're getting into. be aware of these harsh conditions as well as all the beautiful amenities and all the active lifestyle, all the all the things that you'll certainly hear about if you go to the sales office. There are some harsh realities. Just want to make you aware of those. And I'd say commenters, if you are living in a 55 plus community, even if you like it like we do, let these viewers know some of the negatives or harsh realities that you've run into living here in a 55 plus community. And if you are considering living in a 55 plus community, how do these things sound to you? Do you think you can live with these? Any of any of these a deal killer for you? Let us know in the comments. I'm Robert with Robert Zachary Retirement. I appreciate you watching and we'll see you next time. [Music]