Wayne,
I agree with you that I pay about $250 a year in HOA dues, so the patrol is not "free" in any sense of the word but I'd rather pay $250 a year to have them around than $25,000 in stolen property NOT to have them around
I hate homeowners associations in general, but our neighborhood recently booted the company that managed it, kicked the overpriced attorney out and became self-managed with our own board of directors. We now have private security, a fair process, a bigger pool and a new pavilion for HOA meetings while saving over $450,000 a year compared to the way it USED to be run. More neighborhoods need to do this. Corruption is rampant with the companies and attorneys managing HOAs.
I ran a Cooperative Apartment Complex for a couple of years after the previous management ran it into the ground. A much smaller scale but there was definitely to much accounted for cash. I opened the books for everyone in the cooperative to see where every penny went every month. Immedialty shut up the most critical people since they could easily see every cent (they received a hard copy by the 5th day of the following month) The complex was actually able to lower the monthly fees (ran from $450 to $880) instead of increasing them and also built up a cash reserve which increased the values of the complex.
