Reply to buying a condo with $350HOA fees

Forum Index » Real Estate

Reply to "buying a condo with $350HOA fees"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We owned a 670 SF 1BR + den (could be considered 2BR) and 1BA in a nice part of DC for around a decade before selling it several years ago.  That’s what our fee was, more or less, and it was considered low.  The condo was a nice mid-rise with no amenities other than a shared roof top deck that was barely furnished.

[b]The single biggest expense in a no frills building, which nobody here has even mentioned, is the elevator.  But a building has to have one or the value of the units plummet even if you’re on the first or second floor.  [/b]

We bought our place in the upper 300s and sold for just over $500k.  So we did fine. [/quote]

Depends on the size of the building. We live in a 4 unit, 3 story building, with no elevator. The building actually did the math on installing one, but it would basically only be for the top unit (the rest were garden level, 1st or 2nd floor). And the top unit had a nice roof deck and the owners didn't feel they needed an elevator for value -- they sold a few years later and made a nice profit. The rest of us didn't want to foot the bill for an elevator we'd essentially never use.

Now, a 30 unit 4-5 story building with a dozen unites on the top floors and a shared roofdeck? Yes, you have to have an elevator. But in DC, there are a ton of super small condo buildings that are 2-3 stories and don't have elevators and I don't think it depresses the value of the units. Especially since the average condo buyer in DC is a young professional, not a retiree.[/quote]

First of all I said “mid rise.”
A 2-3 story building isn’t a mid-rise.  And of course you don’t need an elevator for a two story building.

But once you’re three or above, yes it makes a difference in value.  It may not make financial sense for a building to add one to a three story building where there isn’t one already, but upper level units in three story condo buildings with elevators are absolutely more valuable than and easier to sell than units without them.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics