We're going to court? Okay. The setting. United States, northern neck of Virginia.

The situation. Bought land and built a house on it. Back when my wife and I were much more

newly wed than we are now, we hired ourselves an architect and went whole hog on having our

cozy little dream home designed. Whilst this was being done, we went shopping

around for a parcel of land on which to have it built, which went quickly and easily, and we even

got a pretty nice deal on a half-acre lot that was just far enough back in the sticks for us to be

happy, but close enough to our jobs that it wasn't much of a commute. Best part of all? No homeowners association.

There weren't any active back in that area because, point blank, it was full of poor people

back there. Dirt poor country types and working poor wage slave types. We made very sure with

our lawyer that no previous owner had ever had the title amended to allow for any HOA

nonsense as well, because that's a thing some real estate developers like to do. They'll buy up a property,

get the title amended to force the membership of that property into the local HOA, that they

usually operate or are in cahoots with those that do, and then they'll resell it with that as a new

requirement for any prospective buyer to automatically agree to when they sign the title.

So flash forward to August of 2019. Everything was that which passes for normal out in those parts,

and my wife and I had since moved to a different location, but retained that property as one of our various

rentals. It was our dream home for several years, and we kind of loved that place. Moving was tough.

It was a good neighbourhood out there, and folks were very welcoming. Then a company that's totally

not named Ryan Holmes or anything even slightly similar, came in and spent some years

buying up everything

out there that got to the market and pressuring folks into selling, which worked out for them

only too well.

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