Questions about buying a condo

[SandyJet]

Always buy title insurance on a condo. Even more so on a distress sale. The board can put liens on for back maint that will transfer to new owner unless you have title insurance. If you have title insurance and the title company missed it they are liable for back maint not you.

[BostonMike7]

I bought a Foreclosed Condo. I can't remember what it was but there was specific documentation relieving me from previous delinquencies. I also got title insurance.

As for paying board members. Not in my building. I was actually asked to run for the board (my building is mostly elderly and I have construction/contracting experience) and turned it down because it was unpaid, and a significant amount of work. In my building, being on the board meant you were on call if others in your building needed access to the electrical meters, or gas meters, or meeting with contractors. We have a paid management company that handles the vast majority of stuff, but various misc. minor operations are sometimes handled by board members.

For example. Over the summer, one of the board members coordinated a cleaning/repainting of the underground parking garage lines. He Coordinated everything, including setting up notices that parking would be restricted on certain days, then spent the AM chasing down those who never moved their cars. He met with the contractors, supervised the work (parking spot numbers were worn away, he assisted in renumbering), aranged temp parking with nearby lots and was basically involved start to finish for 2 days....all for free.

So as for paying board members, i'd ask what their responsibilities are. If it's anything like what my board does...id say yes to being paid for that. If they did pay my board, I would have run to be on it.

But i wouldn't say it's typical really.

[City__Datarer]

Thanks, everyone, for the replies--much appreciated!

The more I look into this, the more I can see how important doing your due diligence on a particular condo complex is; some are well-managed and some are not being proactive enough to protect owners' financial interests.

I already knew about the important of checking for reserves, no lawsuits pending, no special assessments, etc.

Something else that just came to my attention:

I learned a condo complex I was considering (not one of the ones I referred to earlier) has had, according to a local news report, charges of theft of association funds. This led me to do an Internet search on "Florida condos and embezzlement," and wow, some daunting information there.

There's also, by the way, a lot of good advice in the links that pop up in that search for anyone who's on a board or actively involved with their condo association about steps that can be taken to at least minimize the ease with which embezzlement/fraud can be committed, including some that are common sense and others that wouldn't have occurred to me. Most seem relatively simple and like they could spare people a lot of future grief.

So that would be an important thing to try to find out before you buy a condo: do they have good procedures in place for what happens to the money you pay them. It might feel like an awkward question to ask, but if someone is offended by the question (instead of being happy to describe what great procedures they have), that in itself could be quite informative.