The Fountains II HOA (Homewners Association) is a non-profit organization started by the developers of our neighborhood. It's an organization consisting of all the homeowners in our neighborhood. Once a family buys a home in the neighborhood, they become a member of the homeowners association.
The primary reason for creating a homeowners association is to uphold and enrich property values. This is accomplished by enforcing the community’s covenants and maintaining the common areas. Both of these keep the overall community looking nice and keep the homes somewhat cohesive. The HOA is created to do the job everyone in the community wants done. Ultimately, residents in a neighborhood like to see a well put-together area where they live and call home. An HOA makes sure this is maintained and enforced to keep all of its members happy and desiring to stay in the community.
Some HOAs have a reputation for being strict and draconian about their rules and enforcement; we like to avoid being that way when possible. We trust our residents to keep their properties presentable and to abide by the covenants which are all pretty common-sense rules. If we can govern ourselves by following the covenants and by having enough people volunteer to fulfill the roles of the Board Members, then we can avoid having to employ a third party for HOA management, who would certainly be far less forgiving about infractions of the rules.