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When you’re looking into buying a new home, one of the decision you’ll need to make is if you want to live in an HOA community or not. Homeowners association (HOA) communities offer certain advantages and disadvantages compared to non-HOA communities. Knowing more about these pros and cons can help you make the right decision on where to look for your new home. 

Pros of HOA Communities

Being part of an HOA community means that you’re less likely to have to deal with unkempt properties or unusual yard decor around you. HOAs generally have a set of rules that homeowners must follow, or they face being fined. The goal is to ensure that the community maintains a tidy, visually appealing appearance. You might also have access to community amenities as part of your HOA membership, such as a pool or clubhouse. 

Cons of HOA Communities

Living in an HOA community means that you’ll be expected to follow the association’s rules and restrictions. Your experience with this will depend on the HOA’s specific rules and restrictions, which can vary widely from one association to the next. Some HOAs have strict rules or a long list of restrictions, while others are more relaxed. For example, you might only be allowed to use specific colors for your home’s exterior. You might also have to check with the HOA and get approval for any changes you plan on making to your home’s exterior or your yard. 

Pros of Non-HOA Communities

When you choose to live in a non-HOA community, you are free to style your house and yard to meet your preferences and lifestyle. This provides you with more freedom to remodel your home exterior or make changes such as planting certain trees or installing a swimming pool or trampoline. When you’re not part of an HOA community, you only have to worry about following local property laws. You don’t have to keep track of HOA rules and restrictions or worry about being fined for breaking them. 

Cons of Non-HOA Communities 

While having more freedom to do what you want with your property might seem better, it’s important to consider the disadvantages of non-HOA communities. When you’re in one of these communities, you might have unsightly properties nearby that affect your home value and curb appeal. You might also have neighbors with an overgrown yard near you, which can raise your risk of having pest problems on your own property. HOA communities have rules in place to prevent these problems from happening.

With more and more people abandoning cable television in favor of streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Go, having a reliable internet connection is more important than ever. However, as much as technology has improved in recent years, many people across the nation still have poor WiFi reception in their homes.

There are ways to improve your home WiFi reception that you may not be aware of. There are also many common mistakes that homeowners make in setting up their routers that might cause them connectivity and reception issues.

In this article, we’ll talk about some of the reasons your home WiFi might not be performing as well as you’d like, and how to address those problems so you can stream and download at higher rates with better quality.

Testing your internet speed

Before we start diagnosing your internet problems, it’s a good idea to find out how your reception compares to others in your area. While there are a few good online resources to do this, one of the most respected tools is the free Speedtest by Ookla.

You can take this speed test on your laptop, desktop, cell phone, and any other decides that you connect to your router. You can also move your devices to different parts of the home to determine if your issue is a matter of reach.

If all of your devices perform poorly, try plugging your computer directly into your cable modem and taking the speed test. This will help you determine if your router is possibly malfunctioning.

Update firmware and devices

If you have an older router, it may need to be updated. To do this, you’ll need to login to your router’s administrator interface. Find out how to do this by visiting the router manufacturer’s website.

Once you’ve ensured that your device is updated, it’s a good idea to diagnose your devices. If you have one device that is performing worse than others, you may have to do software updates or maintenance to that device.

Change the placement of your router

Sometimes poor WiFi reception is simply a matter of the location of your router. Wireless routers should be elevated off of the ground and away from any large appliances that may interfere with reception.

Change your router channel

Just like radios, routers work on wireless frequencies or “channels.” This means that they can sometimes interfere with one another. If possible, switching your router to the 5GHz band can improve your connection and limit the amount of interference from other routers. Then, experiment with different channels to determine which one gives you the best reception.

Upgrade your hardware

If none of those quick fixes did the job, you might need to consider upgrading your wireless hardware. This includes purchasing a newer router, a range extender, or a mesh router system. Since newer homes tend to be larger, a mesh router system is a way to ensure coverage throughout your home via multiple access points.