Should I buy a condo or house?

Do you want to do yard care and shovel snow? Are there added perks like a pool or gym – that you would use? Those attract me to condos, but my husband refuses because he doesn’t want any shared walls and wants our own yard with the privacy of a fence.

Make a pros and cons list. (God, I sound like my mother.)

I think the biggest downside for me if choosing between a condo and a house is the common wall on the condo. I don’t like the idea of my neighbors having an accident and burning the whole building down. If it is just my building, then I only have to worry about myself.

I have 2 homes , a condo and a house. I like them both, but I’ll give you the appeal of the condo
1. If I travel, I don’t have to worry about exterior maintenance.
2. The standards are known. I don’t have to worry about the neighbor paintinghis house purple.

Condo. less maintenance, more space, less mortgage and it sounds cool. ;P

It really depends on the particular condo, and on the real estate market that you’re looking at. In the Boston area, for instance, many people live in three-family houses, many of which are legally condominiums. That’s a very different experience from living in a large 50+ unit condominium, and has very different costs as well.

In my case, I’m buying a condominium because it’s the easiest way to find a place to live in the areas I want to live in that I can comfortably afford.

house

With condos know what you’re getting into wirh the HOA fees. As condos are going into foreclosure when the HOA fees dont get paid… You end up paying for them as do the other residents.

So make sure to as the right questions… How many empry units are there? How often do HOA fees get increased? When was the last time there was an increase? How much momey are there in rserves? Is there a cap on increases?

Don’t forget about special assessments as well. If your HOA decides they need to repair the elevators for example you ger slapped with a porrion of the cost. Just some rhings to consider.

Condos suck. Get the house…and a riding mower, a weedeater, a blower, and a hedger…How hard can lawn care be? Unless you are lazy.

It’s the lawn, the painting, the pool, the roof, the gate, The security patrol…. I love haing someone else take care of it. Worth every penny. Then again, I travel a lot and spend weeks away.

Maintenance fees are outrageous for the job they do.

From my experience…house. (I have been a real estate salesperson for 25 years.)

There’s also a qualitative difference in condos depending on location. A condo in a suburban housing development is not the same as a condo in an urban high-rise, and neither is the same as a a condo in a three-family house.

I thought I would like Condo living and I did at first. Then things started going up, the refrig, the washer leaked twice all over the floor I I was lucky I was home so it did not do any damage to anyone else’s condo, the furnace had to be replaced, the kitchen spigot had to be replaced, and the hot water heater had to be replaced. The condo fee went up every year. Most of the people were very friendly, but the board that ran everything was a click. I paid $190 to have my windows washed. I paid $95 to have my dryer vent cleaned out. I was on the 3rd floor that overlooked trees. I finally have had enough and looking forward to selling it.

Buy a small house that doesn’t take a lot of work. The condo fee raises every year plus all the rules for the condos are made by the 4 0r 5 people who make up the Board of Directors. This board is usually a “click”. They can do anything they want but don’t you try to do it. They can change your parking space, spend money on things not really needed, etc. Can’t wait to sell mind and get out