What makes HOA residents the happiest and the maddest?

Just curious:

In your experience as a HOA board member, property manager or otherwise, what generally makes HOA residents the happiest?

And what generally makes HOA residents the maddest?

* High HOA dues?
* Maintenance failures?
* Fines?
* Lack of accountability?

Thanks, everyone!

Okay I will contribute.

Maddest

Parking issues
Pool violations like fence jumpers, rowdy homeowners kids who are raising their selves.
Facebook posts that only tell have the Story- Their half

Happiest

When we finally get credit for doing the Job nobody else cares to do

What I tell anyone that will listen is based on my current HOA. My current HOA has nearly 1500 homes and we have a board of 5 Board members. I remind them that they have well over 4000 eyes. The Board members have on 10 total. Our Property Manager only has 2 eyes. We can not possibly see everything every time. Give us a break and if you see something you should report it. If we don't work on correcting then we should be held accountable.

I don't know whether to give the Blue Ribbon to Tim or Melissa. Both have it covered.

The most frustrated person in an HOA is the newest board member, who always thinks the sitting board's experienced members are incompetent, who finds everything that needs "urgent" repair and runs into the lack of the mythical HOA Money Printing Machine.

Our main complaints are landscaping issues. We are 112 standalone, patio homes and the HOA does all landscaping (except privacy fenced in backyards). Vast majority happy with the landscaping but a few complain about not liking how the landscaper trims the bushes, edges the lawns, etc. Usually very petty things but still, landscaping is our #1 complaints.

Otherwise we have no ongoing complaints.

Maddest: Too many voices, not enough hands.
Happiest: People who respect that I have a life too.

IME, the issues that have made people the most upset have been 1) snow and ice removal (I live in a northern state), 2) perceived unfairness when assessing fines (sometimes they've had a point), and 3) issues around renters. Pets and parking haven't been huge issues in my HOA, though they've sprung up occasionally.

The things that make people the happiest have been seeing improvements and proactive maintenance made to the property, a responsive management company, and a communicative BOD. All of these have varied over the years.

I'm not on the board anymore, but I noticed problems come and go, depending on who lives here (we have a lot of renters)

The top three things that make people happy most of the time:

Relatively low crime rate (although we're across the street from a busy strip mall and next door to an apartment complex that had its own issues a few years ago)

Relatively low dues (compared to what similar communities are paying)

Community amenities. By community, I mean the one at large - we're not far from the expressway and have access to a bus line. There are also banks and community services close by, along with several schools (including a high school), and the township fire department headquarters is next door, which I suspect helps with home insurance rates.

Top three things that make people unhappy:

Disputes between neighbors (they don't like it when the board says it's not an association issue unless several people or the common areas are affected)

Parking

Dogs (a week ago there was a report of a large dog running around terrorizing people, but I think it was caught)