re: What are the pros and cons of HOA?

We've been in an HOA neighborhood for over 2 years now, $1,160/yr. They make sure to keep it nice, the common areas/parks/roads well kept, home values up. We recently had some exterior truwood siding and trim replaced, then the entire exterior re-painted. The work request and approval process was online, super easy, and they approved everything in less than week without even asking any questions. The guidelines for submitting exterior work requests was simple and straight forward, which made it easy for me to provide everything needed for a smooth approval (siding/trim spec sheets, body/trim paint manufacturer and color codes). We drove around the neighborhood first to identify an existing body/trim color scheme we liked best, asked HOA manager for the color codes, then submitted those knowing they've already been approved. In 2 years I've never had an issue with our HOA, so I would say our experience has been positive so far.