Buying A Home
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Tell Me About Condos
I found a great deal on a condo and we're going to go look at it in the next couple of days.
Anyone here own a condo and would like to tell me your thoughts? Pros/cons?
Re: Tell Me About Condos
Things to check:
How much are the HOA dues? How are the reserves? Have they ever had a special assessment? What is included in the dues? What is the rent/own ratio for people living there? Can you rent your unit at any time or is there is a max number of rentals allowed? Ask for minutes on the last board meeting. Look at the decks/garage and see how things are cared for... ie is there a lot of crap on the decks? Maybe the board does care about maintenance?
We don't own a condo, but we rented one prior to buying. Things to think about from our experience:
1. If you would have difficulty (due to HOA rules) renting it in the future or you don't want to be landlords, is it a place you can see yourself living for at least 7 years? With the market the way it is, our realtor strongly urged us to keep that in mind when buying and from my friend's who are condo owners experiences, I would say that is doubly so for condos. Condos were wildly popular (at least in metro-dc area where I live) during the height of the market, but they are not selling as well since the market has taken a turn.
With that in mind, if you and your DH plan on having children, a condo might be a tough place to be. We had our first while still renting the condo and, while our 2 bed 1 bath place was perfect for me and DH, once we threw a baby into the mix it felt way way too small. We lived there until DS was about 8 months old and it would not have been enough space now that he is mobile.
2. Was the building constructed to be condos or is it a reno'd apartment building? Ours was a reno'd apartment building from the 1940s. They made so many crappy, cheaply done just for aesthetics changes - it was like living in one of those places they do on that "Designed to Sell" show on HGTV...check EVERYTHING. There were so many times that DH and I were glad we had rented and not purchased that place.
3. Definitely get information on the building's construction and view it when other residents will be home. We saw our place during the day when people were at work...we had no idea until we had moved in that you could hear EVERYTHING from the units above and (sometimes) below you. We knew our upstairs neighbors schedules, heard them using the bathroom, heard their conversations, and heard them having sex. Luckily, we got along really well with all the neighbors and became friends with them, because wow...that could totally drive you crazy. We could deal with it because we were renting, but I definitely wouldn't want to own a place with that problem.
I can't speak to owning/issues related to it, but these are some of my experiences living in a condo. I know not everyone has experienced these, but they are things I would want to know before considering buying a condo. Good luck to you!
pinterest
DH and I purchased a condo about 2 years ago and we are ready to move on...
I think it depends on how old you are/how long you plan to stay. We were planning to stay for about 5 years, we thought we had enough space...that was until I started working from home. Now the spare room which would have been a nursery is now my office and there is no space for a little one.
Plus, DH and I are particular people and it is annoying to have little control on landscaping. Our bushes are so overgrown and oddly shaped, if we had the say they'd be gone and replaced. We had a major leak outside of our unit that flooded the parking lot. The HOA fixed it, but over a year later the hole was just been filled with sand that makes a mess and no attempts at growing grass have been made. We have major puddle issues in the spring and major ice issues in the winter (I've taken many spills) and the HOA never fixes these issues no matter how much we complain.
We can also hear our upstairs neighbors go to the bathroom and have sex..super awkward. We don't hear much as they move around, and we don't hear them talking unless they are arguing. Our upstairs neighbors are trashy, I'm not fan of them.
It's not horrible, but I would have definitely preferred a home if we could have afforded it at the time. Now we can, so now we are trying to buy. But, also we can't sell our condo because the value is down so we are planning to rent it. I do not regret the purchase, these condos are nice and rent easily, the rents being charged on these condos are higher then our expenses so I'm excited from an investment stand point.
I don't have much to add because everyone has already pointed out many great things. We decided that a condo was not for us. I don't know if you use the term condo/townhouse to mean the same.
I preferred a private entrance. We also owned one and had many issues with the association and whatnot.
I own a condo that I bought in 2006 and lived in for 3.5 years. I now rent it out.
The previous advice is good, especially about the HOA. Make sure the HOA is financially stable and has plenty of money in reserves. If they have little to no money in reserve, if a maintenance issue comes up, they will have to assess the owners an additional fee. You do not want unexpected costs for replacing roofs, repaving parking lots, replacing water heaters, etc.
The condo I bought was a bit older (built in '83), and has a very healthy HOA where finances are concerned. I know people who bought in new condo developments that have gone through nightmare-like situations with their HOAs. In some cases, the HOA budgeted monthly dues for homeowners based on having the complex 100% occupied, and then when the housing market crashed and they were left with half-full buildings because they couldn't sell all the units, they had to either raise HOA dues significantly or cut services. It's been bad.
I would also caution against buying an old apartment that was converted into condos. Many times they are not built as well. The apartment reno's that I looked at seemed to have no sound proofing at all, I could even hear neighbor's TVs when I was looking at some places. My condo was great - I never heard a peep out of my neighbors.
Also check on pet policies if you have pets. My HOA allows cats but not dogs. It would be awful to buy a place and then find out your pet isn't allowed there.
The good things about a condo are that you don't have any yard/snow removal maintenance. That was nice. Also, if something happens to the exterior of your property, you're not responsible.
Honestly, in my opinion, I would not buy a condo in today's housing market, at least in my area. I think I just have a bad opinion of condos because of my personal experience - the value of my place has gone down so much it's pitiful. There are so many people in my situation who are looking to sell that the values have plummeted and the market is flooded with condos that just aren't selling. The condo/townhouse market in my area is awful right now. I wish I could sell mine, but I would take a $60,000 loss to sell right now. That's on a condo I bought for $125,000 that is now worth $60,000 and falling by the month. Thoroughly check out the condo market in your area and see what has happened with prices over the last few years ... maybe it's better in your city.
Having the option to rent is good for me since I would take an enormous loss if I had to sell my place, but it isn't necessarily good for the condo community. Owners always care for their home better than renters, so if there are a lot of renters in the condo complex, units might not be taken care of at the same level. When I bought my condo, only 3% of units were rented. Now it's about 30% because there are so many people in my situation. There has definitely been a change in the demographic of residents with more renters - there are a lot more young (early 20's) people now. Some younger people are mature and responsible, some are not. It seems like they're mostly not mature and responsible in our condo complex :-)
Mr. Sammy Dog
Thank you everyone for all your opinions. I've read through them all and taken your advice to heart.
A little more background. It's a 2 story condo, 1700 sq. ft, 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath. We're newlyweds, but we do plan on having children in the next couple of years. If we bought, we'd probably only be looking to stay in that condo for about 5 years.
We would be able to rent the place and most people are renting them for $1200 a month, which would more than cover our mortgage if need be. We live in a college town, so thankfully it's not too hard to sell things.
I know a lot of people on this board dislike condos but I love ours. I love not being responsible for the upkeep of a yard, plus I like the security of living in a building and having neighbors. We came from an apartment that had thin walls, so having shared walls/ceilings/floors doesn't bother us. I know that when my friend visited and stayed overnight she got woken up overnight from the people above us walking around (she's always had the top floor in her apartment building).
I would try to pay attention to the other people you see in the building and area. We live on a quiet street and other than the renters who just moved into one of the units people are pretty quiet, not likely to be having big parties or playing loud music late which is exactly what we were looking for. We lucked out also in that when we were leaving a showing we ran into a guy who lived in our building and he was willing to talk to us about the building, neighborhood, how the HOA handled maintenance, etc.
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