buying condo mesa or tempe..any opinions on these? (Phoenix: for sale, real estate) - Arizona (AZ) - City-Data Forum

candygirl39 · 01-25-2011, 12:58 AM

What are the following complex's like? And what about the HOA's running them?
Los Racimos
MESA CORONADO
Westbrook
Chesapeake Condominiums
any opinions would help as i am heading out from canada on sat to pick a place

Zippyman · 01-25-2011, 04:17 PM

Opinion on condos in general in the Phx metro...

don't buy.

If you're trying to rent it, the "upside" is limited by the cheapest rental in the complex (they're all the same, a prospective renter will pick the "cheap" one every time.)

Condo fees often have no legal limit (they can be raised as high as the board wants/needs) - fees will eat into your cash flow on a rental unit.

On low buck condos, the fees can be higher than the payment. And that's if you can get financed - if too many are in arrears, no one will finance them.

Condo's are most homeowner's last resort - only a single step above a double-wide in a park.

They're chosen primarily because a buyer can't afford a "real" house.

Yes, there are wealthy people who choose to have a "maintenance free" second or retirement place, but those folks are in the minority of homebuyers in the Phx metro.

Reconsider... Back up... abort... run!

Just one man's opinion...

candygirl39 · 01-25-2011, 09:17 PM

I am looking to buy a condo.... For a place for me and my family to enjoy your sunshine! We live in Vancouver canada...and it rains here 6 months out of the year. We were thinking mexico, but the flights to Phoenix are such a good deal we would be able to fly out every month for a weekend of sun. We like to pub crawl in the afternoon..lol..so tempe is PERFECT! trying to look at condos that are within a ten min cab ride of mill ave. so parts of mesa too. I know HOA's are scary, but we arent there fulltime so a management company is probably are most secure choice. When buying a house you have to worry about security and yard maintanence(sp?)
So any idea what these complex's are like? (see above)

Zippyman · 01-26-2011, 07:55 AM

Again, not to rain on your parade, but you're chasing a dream. My wife is a Canuck from the other side of the country, and Canadian values, morals & lifestyles are different than they are in Phoenix.

I'm sure you've seen reports about how Americans like to sue each other - as an owner of a condo, you have "joint and several" liability.

Joint and several liability - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What that means for you is, when someone lets their kid play in that fantastic pool unsupervised, and the worst happens, your paid-off condo (and every other condo in the complex) might suddenly end up with a $30k judgement against it.

I'd post a link showing the statistics of how often it happens here, but I couldn't find one on google - when you google "phoenix pool death" the first three pages of hits are law firms.

Offering to sue the pool owner.

That would be you if you buy a condo.

Do the math, look at apartment rentals that are similar in size & amenities to the condos you're looking at, and you'll see many of those apartments are cheaper than your condo.

That means you won't be able to sell until rents rise, and that could be a very long time. In the meantime, those condo fees aren't going to drop, they're going up, and there is no legal limit to how high they can go.

I've done the math myself on many complexes - because I'd love to find a winter place for my parents - the convenience would be wonderful, as you've stated - but the math hasn't worked for anything that I've found, and many complexes wouldn't work even if the condo itself was completely free.

In the meantime, with desert landscaping & a security company contract you can probably find a "real" house to purchase that will likely give you more space, a garage, and at least a chance of future appreciation, without the risk of a condo & at a lower monthly cost - manual labor is pretty cheap in Phoenix, you can hire your own landscaper for less than you might expect.

The best way to end up with a million dollars in Phoenix real estate right now is probably buying condos. That is, if you start with five million dollars.

candygirl39 · 01-26-2011, 11:53 AM

Well thanks for the advice...but I am not willing to get a loan and go in debt for a house I don't live in full time. And I don't believe you can get landscaping and security for 200.00 a month. So right now a condo is more in my price range. If we rent its just money flushed down the toilet...if we wait and save the money...it will get spent on useless ****.
I get what your saying about HOA's but I am going to risk it...you will never get anywhere with your dreams without risk. You learn and grow the most in life when you do the scariest things!

nickw252 · 01-26-2011, 05:25 PM

As a lawyer and homeowner with a pool I would advise you not to worry about all the scary litigious Americans. If a kid dies in a pool, that's what insurance is for.

If you find a condo you like, buy it and enjoy!

As far as Mesa or Tempe - I personally prefer the city of Tempe over Mesa but don't know anything about those specific condo complexes.

Beware_of_Dog · 01-26-2011, 08:59 PM

The thing you realize if you do your homework by googling each complex is what percentage of the units are rentals. Some being as high as 75%. The second thing you need to read in those reviews of the complexes is the noise factor. It is very hard to research any condo in the phoenix area and not find most reviews complaining about renters who don't care and the thin walls where you hear everything your next door neighbors do. I had a very bad experience buying a brand new very nice condo with garage and other nice features in the mid 80s in Tempe. My next door neighbor rented his unit out and I got no rest or sleep most nights. I did everything I could to try and get the young man to knock it off with the noise, but he just didn't care and felt he paid his rent and could do what he wanted inside his place. The police agreed with him. I finally had to buy the place from the owner just to get rid of the person. I then sold both as soon as I could.

Now with the internet you can research each complex, which I have done this last year in my questioning if I wanted to move back to Phoenix or San Diego. Every condo I found for sale that I liked turned out to be a definite NO after reading reviews of others who had lived there. I have decided not to ever go through that again. It just isn't worth not being able to control those outside factors. Builders of these units just don't seem to care one bit about reducing the noise factor between units.

candygirl39 · 01-26-2011, 10:53 PM

Interesting info.. how do you research condo reviews? I have looked on condo advisory but, no reviews on the ones I am looking at.

So in Vancouver we have noise bylaws, and loud neighbors get fined when police are called more than twice...not in arizona?

Beware_of_Dog · 01-27-2011, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by candygirl39

Interesting info.. how do you research condo reviews? I have looked on condo advisory but, no reviews on the ones I am looking at.

So in Vancouver we have noise bylaws, and loud neighbors get fined when police are called more than twice...not in arizona?

Just have to google search. I think I just typed in the words "reviews for (name of condo and town, or the address)". Seems like I found them somewhere amongst all the sites that came up. It has been awhile since I last did it.

observer53 · 01-27-2011, 04:21 AM

Tempe has a quite strict noise/party ordinance. Those are determined by each city (like Vancouver) not by the state.

Be careful of condo (or apartment) review sites. The information is not necessarily that accurate, as many of those who bother to post have an axe to grind.