Reply to buying a condo with $350HOA fees

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[quote=Anonymous]Most condo fees include water, trash pick up, landscaping and building maintenance, building insurance (you are a co-owner of the building so yes you want insurance on it), sometimes other things. If you've never owned a home before, you may not realize how many expenses like that you have to pay for, so the condo fee might seem like a rip-off. But often condo fees are a deal -- you are sharing costs with your fellow owners that you would otherwise have to pay yourself. The landscaping for our building costs about $6/yr, and that's for a very small amount of outdoor space. I think it's great to only be paying a fraction of that amount and still have nice landscaping. Just as an example.

$350 is not very high for a condo fee. The important thing is to know whether the building is well maintained and managed. I would also want to know the history of special assessments, which is when a condo board forces owners to pay a one-off fee to pay for an improvement. Some buildings go out of their way to avoid these, some rely on them to keep condo fees low and it can screw a new buyer who will suddenly have to pay for delayed maintenance. So I'd be looking at the history of special assessments and also ask to see the financial statement for the building so you understand how building maintenance is currently paid for and managed.

As for what you can "do" to a condo, it depends on the condo board restrictions, but usually if it's inside your unit, you can do what you want. Renovate the kitchen, paint, put in a closet, etc. I live in a condo building and have a neighbor who has extensively renovated their unit. As long as it doesn't involve exterior walls or common areas, no one cares. I'm glad to know they are maintaining their unit and would rather have someone upgrading their kitchen than becoming a hoarder. Our condo was new when we bought so we haven't done much -- just painted and changed some light fixtures, and we recently upgraded some appliances. We'll probably do a partial upgrade of the kitchen before we sell (counter tops and cabinets are in great shape, but we'll install new doors and likely replace the dishwasher, and maybe the stove).

Condos do not appreciate as fast as SFHs, so if you buy a condo, it's largely a forced savings mechanism you can live in. Ours has appreciated maybe 75-100k in 10 years, which is not horrible but nothing close to how SFHs in the neighborhood have appreciated. But we have about 300k in equity because obviously we've been paying down the mortgage the whole time. That's 300k in equity we would NOT have if we'd been renting.

So condo ownership has been pretty great for us. I would just do your research and understanding[/quote]

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