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A condo is an apartment that you buy. A house is a home.
My definitions are a house as a standalone piece of property that you are buying.
A condo is a piece of property that you are buying with an association, so while you own the walls of your apartment and such, there are regulations that do not exist with a house.
A co-op is similar to a condo with regard to "from the walls inward are the responsibility of the owner" but you are not buying physical property in a co-op. You are buying shares in a corporation that owns the co-op and those shares issue you a lease and rights to live in your apartment.
I live in an co-op and it is most definitely a home.
There are exceptions to almost any rule. You do own the land, it's just that it's owned in unison with other owners as part of the HOA. So you can't sell without the HOA agreeing to it.
Same as a condo building. the owners collectively own the building and the land it sits on and they all pay property taxes.
are you saying a detached single family home can be a condo?
A townhouse, brownstone or row house is not a condo either.'
anyway you are splitting hairs and the majority of condos are owned apartments.
Maybe you are thinking co-op.
In some states, a townhouse is a legal form of ownership, not just a type of housing. I think in most of those states the owner also owns and is responsible for the land, but the HOA is responsible for exterior maintenance of the buildings and roadways.
There are also many developments of detached condos. I had a good friend who lived in a detached condo lakeside community.
The pros of condo ownership as as you's expect. No shoveling or cutting the grass. Property exterior is kept up by way of your HOA fees. Of course, those fees tend to rise each year.
pros of home ownership are that you have more freedom to remodel your house as you see fit, plus no neighbors and less restriction in terms of noise level and such. Downside is now you need to shovel your own driveway and landscape your own yard.
I owned a condo in my 20's, and now a SFH in my 30's. I can see myself downsizing in 30 years or so to a townhouse when i'm too old to maintain the property, but for now, I love having a home
They may refer to it as condo but it's a home on a land leased lot. Is it a mobile/manufactured home by any chance? is it is a 55 plus development, or like in the Villages in Florida? If you bought or built a house on land that you don't own I would call that a fool and not a condo.
Well, I'm neither a fool nor stupid.
It is an age restricted mobile home community but I OWN the deeded house and lot. It's taxed by the county just like any non-HOA parcel.Water /sewer bills in my name.
Insurance, lawn/yard maintenance is my responsibility as is the portion of sewer line up to the point it connects to the main.
HOA fees cover the 'common element', recreational facilities, roads, a swath between and behind the houses for utilities.
The association cannot tell me what to do with the house and lot, including selling it. An underage person can buy it, they just can't live there until 55.
There are rules (changeable by vote) about things like not parking on the lawns,removing mature trees, expanding driveways, additions.
It's legally registered condominium community governed by Florida condo rules and regulations..
condo may have restrictions on renting out your unit based on some owner/renter ratio they may have to abide by.. which may put you as owner on a waiting list to rent out your unit if there are currently too many units being rented out in the community..
also if the HOA is in litigation with the builder, for example, it'll make it harder for you to sell your unit unless it's a cash buyer, because there will be few lenders willing to give you a loan on a condo under litigation. it depends somewhat on the details of the litigation.. are there structural issues or mold issues, for example.. you can still find lenders who specialize in loans during litigation but you'll be paying extra in fees and higher interest rate, plus maybe 20% down.
I would keep those things in mind.
in my case, my condo community was in litigation with builder over some addressable issues and a settlement was finally reached.. this opened the door for buyers to more easily get a loan and therefore made it easier for owners to sell.
they wound up fixing the issues and now things are good.
fortunately my condo community has owner/renter ratio rule.. which can be good or bad.. so far, here, it's not been a problem..our renters and owners have been fairly decent.. you worry sometimes about the quality of the community if you have too many renters.. since they may not take care of their rented unit or the community, as an owner would..
the pros of a condo was i spent so little on maintenance. with a house, i've already spent tens of thousands on so many items. but for the condo, we had a moisture issue that was the fault of the HOA and they wouldn't fix it. b/c of this we ended up selling our condo. i hate having evil greedy entities control any part of my life like that HOA did.
I think there are pros and cons. Overall, easier living in terms of maintenance, probably safer, too. However, fees can go up and special assessments can be slapped on at any time. I also dislike sharing walls (maybe a townhome would be okay) and noise. But some people enjoy the "community" that a condo can provide.
We are buying our 2nd home (CLOSING ON FRIDAY!!!! ), and am curious what are some major differences between owning a house, and owning a condo (Our 1st home is a condo). Other then the obvious yard care, responsibility of the roof and siding, no HOA!!!!, and separate billing for garbage pick up. I’m a little nervous about just those responsibilities in general, but want to know what I’m getting into.
House - you own and control the land your house is built on
Condo - you don't
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