It is less about escaping and more about the inevitable knee-jerk reaction when people hear “snakes”
You open the conversation with something that is not going to start you off already lost. Fish are that thing. No one is afraid of fish. No one immediately jumps to “the only good fish is a dead fish”. Get the rational conversation out of the way. Then use their own rational approval to get them past their irrational fear when the conversation has to turn more realistic
You should check with the town code, too, to see if they allow Constrictors.
The town south of me says they do not allow Boa Constrictors or any python. The town east of me says you can own just about any animal except bear, Wolf, big cats.
Couldn’t agree with either of your points more. Everywhere we’ve lived, I haven’t talked to any of my neighbors about them. Not worth any issues that could be stirred up because of it. I’d love to live in a secluded area with land, but not exactly feasible for us right now anyway.
Interesting, I wouldn’t have thought anything about them limiting pythons in a town around us. I know you’re fairly close to me, so I’ll check that as well.
I remember back in the day I glanced at this section in my HOA contract. I recall it said you can keep very specific common animals: dogs, cats, fish. I remember thinking, “What about a hamster? I can’t keep a pet hamster? That doesn’t seem right.”
I had three ball pythons back in the day and I did get them to breed once.
I did not not ask the HOA anything. I did not discuss my hobby with the neighbors. I did not take my balls out of the house. I did not advertise my hobby. This is what I recommend to anyone in the hobby. There are way too many close minded, ignorant people around and unfortunately some of them have some power over us.
Remember the first rule of Fight Club.
@tommccarthy is right again! In my area we don’t have any restrictions on snakes(unless venomous of course) but there are several towns around that some do and some don’t. About the same with dog breed restrictions, very hit and miss. So definitely check if you are looking in a different town, I didn’t even think of that one! I too would love some space as well, maybe a few acres so I can finally build a indoor/outdoor pond enclosure for a pet gator! Hey if you don’t play the gambling numbers you can’t win right! Maybe someday….
On a lighter note, this is great!
Fortunately after doing a quick check, there’s no restrictions on anything that isn’t venomous for the towns in my surrounding area. So that box has been checked.
In that case I might quietly proceed to do just as I wished, Indoors, without anyone needing to know. As some have said, it’s arguable that the best policy is that what they don’t know won’t hurt them, and double up on your Escape protections and some security cameras around your home to protect your house, family and avoid snooping HOA Snitches.
I kid you not ours used to cruise the neighborhood in black SUVS looking for malefactors like some kind of Lawn Mafia, as I called them.
Cameras in your reptile room might just be able to tell you where an errant noodle was headed if it gets out, is what I’m thinking if you go for keeping them stealthily and don’t want to have to ask the neighbors to look out for, say, a six foot boa.
Update: they were specifically referring to the yard. They don’t particularly care what you’re doing inside the home with animals and scope; just outside.
So you actually checked with the HOA itself?
The realtor I’ve been working with did. And turns out the seller was on the board of the HoA, so that helped.
See this old lady was right! (me) lol! As of now, our homes are still our private domain, HOA or no HOA. For now at least.
The best is to be honest now or suffer the consequences later, imo only.
I am glad things are working out for you. I personally like our HOA, but there are trade offs of course. I may be limited to what kinds of trees, etc I can plant but I can make a phone call or send an email and ask to have an old junker next door to me to be removed…….
But I’m an old lady so my way of thinking is different from others but when we all come together to work together we will create a beautiful thing: UNITY .
God bless you @nswilkerson1 and everyone else is the family! 
Personally, I’d avoid HOA’s in general. However, if you actually want to contact someone and ask them I’d advise going with @t_h_wyman advice. I lived in a HOA once, and I guaranteed you breeding was probably against their code of conduct or whatever nonsense they want to call it, but I never told anyone what I did and no one asked.
The way USARK has* argued their cases is that snake breeding is agriculture.
Thanks for the input, I agree usually they can be a bit extreme. This one seems to just want to keep the outside of homes clean and tidy looking. Pretty lax for the most part. They’ve confirmed that they’re not concerned with pets inside the home, just outside, so that’s nice.
@nswilkerson1 Evidently the HOA I have been in since 2009 feels the same way as the one you are moving into. I have had absolutely no problems in the last 14 years. 
I have been the president of two HOAs, currently and in the past. I have worked w others as well. The rule you posted would definitely exclude intentional breeding of any animals. They also likely have rules about using the property for commercial purposes (almost always not permitted).
Read further and you may find a limit on the number of pets you are permitted to house. Two? Three? If your number of pets remains below that, I suspect you would be fine. However, that exclusion of so-called bully breeds suggests they are targeting dangerous dis (I’m surprised my boxer isn’t on that list!), so I probably wouldn’t have any larger snakes out in the front lawn. Changing those rules often has a really low bar for balloting. No sense inviting it!