Last month I asked you about ocean views, pools, and how long you have been "just looking." Several of you told me the questions were too easy.
Fine.
These six are the ones that end dinner parties. HOAs. Mello-Roos. Whether you would buy a house where someone died. Whether a lowball offer is a strategy or an insult. I have watched every one of these turn a civil conversation sideways, usually right after somebody says "well, actually."
Six questions. No wrong answers, no email required, nothing to qualify for. When you submit, you will see how everyone else voted.
Then keep scrolling, because I go on record too.
My predictions, so you can hold me to them
Nine years of showing houses in South Orange County has given me opinions. Here is what I think wins, and why.
1. HOA or no HOA?
I think "depends entirely on the dues" takes it, and I think that is the honest answer wearing a disguise. People argue about HOAs in absolutes and then vote in nuance.
There is also a practical wrinkle down here: in a lot of South County, opting out is not really on the menu. Ladera Ranch, Talega, Rancho Mission Viejo, most of the newer inventory — the HOA came with the neighborhood. The question was never really whether. It was how much, and for what.
Dark horse: "I have served on an HOA board. Never again." Those votes will be small in number and very large in feeling.
2. Would you buy a house where someone died in it?
I think "yes, but take 5% off" wins, and I think "no, not at any price" finishes higher than anyone expects. People are more superstitious about houses than they let on in a room full of other people.
Worth knowing either way: in California, a death on the property generally stops being a required disclosure once it is more than three years old (Civil Code section 1710.2). But nobody is allowed to lie to you about it if you ask directly. So if it matters to you — and it is completely fine if it does — the move is simple. Ask.
3. Mello-Roos: highway robbery, or fair trade?
"Highway robbery" wins the vote. "Fair trade" is the better answer more often than people want to hear.
Both sides have a point. It is a special tax through a Community Facilities District, it commonly runs twenty to forty years, and it builds you exactly zero equity — that complaint is legitimate and I am not going to talk you out of it. It is also how those neighborhoods got their schools, their roads and their parks, which is a large part of why the houses around them cost what they cost.
My favorite votes here will be for "I have no idea what Mello-Roos is and I have been afraid to ask." That is the most honest answer on the form, and I would much rather you ask me than discover it on a tax bill.
4. Your agent tells you the house is overpriced. What do you do?
"Get a second opinion" wins. Which is, let us be honest, "find a new agent who gets it" with a layover.
Here is my bias, stated plainly: an agent telling you a house is overpriced is doing the part of this job you cannot Google. Anyone can open a door. Telling a client something they do not want to hear — in a market where the easy move is to write the offer and collect — is the actual work. You are allowed to overrule me. I would just like it on the record that I said something.
5. Open floor plan: still great, or are we over it?
"One big room and one quiet room. That's the answer." I think it wins outright, and I do not think it is close.
Something changed in 2020 and never changed back. Buyers still want the big room. They also want one door they can close, and they will walk a house twice looking for it. I expect "great until somebody cooks fish" to place second, because it is both true and funny.
6. Is it ever OK to lowball?
"Only if it has been sitting 60+ days" wins, and I agree with it.
Some context for why that instinct is right at the moment. Orange County homes sold at a median of $1,228,410 in July 2026, up 3.2% year over year, at 99.2% of list price, and the median home went in 43 days — faster than the 51 days it took a year earlier. A listing still sitting on day 60 in a 43-day market is telling you something out loud. A lowball on day three is not a strategy. It is a mood.
One housekeeping note
There is an optional email field at the bottom of the poll. Genuinely optional — the whole thing works without it. If you do leave it, you get one note a month on what is actually happening in South Orange County. One email. Unsubscribe whenever, no hard feelings.
Now go vote. And if you think I am wrong about the open floor plan, I want to hear about it.
Carly Zamani is the Founder and Broker/Owner of zRE Group in Laguna Niguel, California. CA DRE #02030224 | NMLS #1840970.
This poll is for entertainment. Results are not a survey, not statistically representative, and not market analysis — they reflect only the people who chose to answer. Market figures cited: Redfin Orange County median sale price, sale-to-list ratio and median days on market for July 2026. Nothing here is legal or tax advice; California Civil Code section 1710.2 is summarized rather than quoted, and Mello-Roos terms vary by district. Equal Housing Opportunity.
