As life gets more and more complex and complicated, I believe we need to keep the most basic and fundamental core of our lives as simple and clutter free as possible. And nothing can be more basic than our need to shelter, i.e. our homes and by extension, our neighborhoods.  Unfortunately local municipal governments and special interests have highjacked the sanctity of our homes, destroyed our communities and burdened us with yet more governance, more regulations and increased the risks associated with our homes.  Instead of unwinding and re-energizing at the end of the day, many of America’s homeowners come home to fight to keep what they have.  However, in order to be able to do that, they need to know what to look for, how to fight and what to do.

John Sellers joins us On The Commons.  John, a retired banker, lives and owns several HOA burdened properties in Arizona.   With his background in finance, he decided to “follow the money” and the trail led him to discover a whole host of irregularities.  Problems that most of the rest of us non financial types would not recognize as potential problems and would therefore completely overlook them.  Fortunately John saw the red flags everywhere so he decided to stir things up, just a wee bit.  He started a blog where he talks about the issues and has the attention of the state legislators who recognize some of the issues and are willing to work with him as well as other Arizona residents interested in implementing protections for the owners.  It is no surprise that one of the biggest issues and problems in residential associations is money related.  And while finding out the financial health of an association may seem like an insurmountable, it needn’t be.  Tune in for a fascinating interview.