If you are shopping for a house that is located in a neighborhood, you should make sure you look at the covenants for the neighborhood before you make an offer. Covenants are rules within a community, and they control what the homeowners can do to some extent. Here are several things you should know about covenants if you are considering buying a house in a neighborhood.

Why neighborhoods have covenants

Almost all neighborhoods have a set of covenants, but some are a lot more strict and detailed than others. The purpose of a neighborhood having these rules is to ensure that homes hold their value. Another purpose is to keep uniformity among the homes. When you read over a set of covenants, you will get an idea of what types of rules there are in a particular community, and you should read them to see if you can live with the rules that the community has.

How covenants can affect you

The covenants in a neighborhood might affect you in good ways and bad ways, but it is the bad ways you should look out for when buying a house. For example, some communities do not allow homeowners to have RVs, boats, or other large types of equipment parked in the driveways or on the roads. If you own an RV, this could be a big problem for you. Another issue you might be affected by is if the rules state that you cannot park your car on the road. If the driveway is small and you have multiple cars, you might have to get rid of one of them in order to abide by these rules.

Covenants can also dictate whether or not you can put up a fence in your backyard, and some covenants even restrict homeowners from putting up things in their backyards such as swing sets or trampolines.

You can also find communities that control what types of plants you can put in your yard and whether or not you can hang up a flag. There are many different types of rules you may find as you read through the covenants from different neighborhoods.

Buying a house in a neighborhood that has covenants is not a bad idea, but you should never buy a house until you have read through these rules so that you know what they are. If you have questions about buying a house, talk to a real estate agent like Steve Cohn - Keller Williams Realty - Petaluma.