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Other problem with condos is my condo has lower maint partially as unit owners are responsible for own HVAC, Decks, Doors and windows. With folks on a fixed income, deck rails get rusty, windows and doors get old and a 86 year old women on a fixed income just skips it. Board would never fine a elderly lady so we have mismatched units. However, if we did that it would be a ton of money we would have to reserve for.
This totally depends on the individual association. I lived in a townhouse and we were not responsible for our decks, fences, or windows. The front door we could paint an approved color, but we could not change the door. Only the association could change our front door.
There are also HOA's who go after every owner for every little violation. Some don't, but this is changing because others are sick of picking up the slack of others. Foreclosures and liens are becoming real in many HOA's.....just read on this forum!
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
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Your personal housing should never be considered as an investment. It's a place you pay for to live in, whether you rent or buy or live in a mansion or a shack.
Your personal housing should never be considered as an investment. It's a place you pay for to live in, whether you rent or buy or live in a mansion or a shack.
I disagree. This sounds like a real estate sales pitch to me.
If that were true, there'd be no incentive to ever stop renting.
I disagree. This sounds like a real estate sales pitch to me.
If that were true, there'd be no incentive to ever stop renting.
The incentive is when it becomes cheaper to buy. Over the long term, on average, your home's value will just match inflation or be slightly behind, but the interest rate will be higher than the inflation rate so you don't gain anything with leveraging the property as you would with rental properties. Plus, any leveraged gains that do materialize will be declining as the loan is paid down.
Real estate investment is really a great investment A condo is one of the best investment in real estate.
Do you have any stats or info to back this up? I ask because in many areas, condos are not a good investment. My cousins own a condo that they are so far upside down in that it's not funny. It's in Myrtle Beach and they paid well over $100K for it before the real estate market crashed. Now units it their building sit on the market for months and months - some for years - for less than $30K.
This holds true for houses in some areas as well. Detroit has been selling houses for under $5K. Granted, they are not in the greatest of neighborhoods or in the greatest shape, but Detroit has more houses than they do people. There was an article on CNN.com about this not long ago.
To say a condo is a good investment is like saying the stock market is a good investment. It's not worth arguing about, because the arguments would go on forever. How good the stock market is over the long run depends more on which stocks you pick than anything else.
A condo board of directors can be a disaster. But so can a corporation's board of directors. They alone can make your stock nosedive.
IMO, I don't like condo's for the following reasons (based on my own experience)
1. Neighbor had leaking pipes in their unit that destroyed my stuff. My insurance didn't cover the damages, and stated that I needed a flood insurance policy to cover leak damage. I asked the neighbor to fix his pipes, and he kept stalling, making up excuses each time we asked when he would fix the leak. Luckily, I was renting the place, so I moved.
If you had owned the place, and the neighbor was damaging your unit, it might have been appropriate to sue the neighbor. But neighbors in houses have conflicts just as much or more.
To say a condo is a good investment is like saying the stock market is a good investment. It's not worth arguing about, because the arguments would go on forever. How good the stock market is over the long run depends more on which stocks you pick than anything else.
A condo board of directors can be a disaster. But so can a corporation's board of directors. They alone can make your stock nosedive.
The two aren't really related imo. Equities are generally good investments, but condos are generally not.
With a Condo you are generally going to: fare worse than a SFH, not have access to the reserves, have limited rental options if the board wants the maintain the values (banks won't lend if too many renters are present), have smaller rental margins, risk a developer coming in and increasing the condo supply by building condo units, and have a smaller market to sell to. Location is key though. A condo in NYC will normally surpass a SFH in Missouri in value and I believe condos in SF outpace homes in SF.
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