Buying 2nd Home- From NY (avg, growth, direct)

[Reynex]

Originally Posted by Mstrlucky74

Thanks sooooo much everyone..truly appreciate the feedback as it's very helpful. More torn now than before about whether or not to buy. Would like to but I'm not sure it makes financial sense as another mentioned . If I put 20k in a mutual find, etf etc. and add 24k a year[which would be about my yearly total for my mortgage etc] with an average return of 5% per year at the end of 15 years I'd have about $500k. No brainer to me. What's the benefit to buying a condo over investing? Even if my 200k condo goes yo 400k in 15 years I'm still short over the investing scenario.

Right. And also, no one knows how the area and your preferences will change over 15 years.
Also, if you buy when you actually retire, you avoid 15 years worth of condo headaches.

[kiboca]

I don't live in Florida right now but I heard property taxes are gonna go up...

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by Mstrlucky74

Thanks sooooo much everyone..truly appreciate the feedback as it's very helpful. More torn now than before about whether or not to buy. Would like to but I'm not sure it makes financial sense as another mentioned . If I put 20k in a mutual find, etf etc. and add 24k a year[which would be about my yearly total for my mortgage etc] with an average return of 5% per year at the end of 15 years I'd have about $500k. No brainer to me. What's the benefit to buying a condo over investing? Even if my 200k condo goes yo 400k in 15 years I'm still short over the investing scenario.

If you really want to make yourself crazy bump your investment return to 7 or 8% and the condo really gets left in the dust. I saw a Vanguard fund that returned 10.8% since inception in 1988!

If you had a full time tenant then that skews the numbers back in favor of buying but that doesn't help with your 3X a year vacation. You never mentioned your price point but honestly if it is 200-300K you aren't really buying anything great in that area.

Here is a nice condo across from the ocean:
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...2_M69263-34139

Sold in Feb 98 for $93,000. Currently valued by the county at 242,000. Listed for sale for 15 months so far, current asking price is 250K.

Association Fee $596 month!
With no special assessments, the HOA fee alone is $7200 a year, plus $2200 in taxes for the current owner, new buyer will surely be $3000+.

At current numbers the seller would have spent 180K in taxes and HOA fees owning it since 1998! 180K + 93K purchase price = 273K yet current asking price is only 249K!

[wizrap]

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

If you really want to make yourself crazy bump your investment return to 7 or 8% and the condo really gets left in the dust. I saw a Vanguard fund that returned 10.8% since inception in 1988!

If you had a full time tenant then that skews the numbers back in favor of buying but that doesn't help with your 3X a year vacation. You never mentioned your price point but honestly if it is 200-300K you aren't really buying anything great in that area.

Here is a nice condo across from the ocean:
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...2_M69263-34139

Sold in Feb 98 for $93,000. Currently valued by the county at 242,000. Listed for sale for 15 months so far, current asking price is 250K.

Association Fee $596 month!
With no special assessments, the HOA fee alone is $7200 a year, plus $2200 in taxes for the current owner, new buyer will surely be $3000+.

At current numbers the seller would have spent 180K in taxes and HOA fees owning it since 1998! 180K + 93K purchase price = 273K yet current asking price is only 249K!

Yes, when I did a quick search, I saw that one too. Led me to believe that the OP had to do far more due diligence.

I'm not a big fan of real estate as an investment. Not as much immediate liquidity compared to a mutual fund. I am not saying there are successes out there--I know of a few people that have made it work. They all shared a couple of things in common though--1. They were not absentee landlords (or if they did live outside the area, they were very involved landlords, spending several times each month communicating and corresponding with tenants) and 2. They either were very handy about making repairs and addressing maintenance issues, or they had a team of experts they could call to do fixes (and of course knew this would cut into real estate investment "profits.")

The OP is also many years away from retirement. I agree with those who say that you may, or may not, like SFLA 20 or so years from now. And if you do, what's the worst that can happen? You purchase your condo with your mutual fund investment earnings. And could even have money left over!

[cfbs2691]

Originally Posted by wizrap

I agree with those who say that you may, or may not, like SFLA 20 or so years from now.

Excellent point
Neighborhoods change quite rapidly.

[Mstrlucky74]

Thanks very much everyone. We've decided not to buy.

[071402]

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

Don't buy anything- take your planned monthly mortgage payment/tax bill/HOA payment and put it in a strong mutual fund then come to Florida on vacation 3X a year without any headaches.

Any of those 200-300K condos are going to be OLD and old buildings are ripe for high HOA assessments (rebuilding rotting balconies, window replacements, elevator replacements, etc). A lot of older buildings have deferred maintenance in order to keep the HOA fee low but at some point they will be forced to spend the money and few have the reserves they need to pay for it all.

The problem you will have will be the condo you buy today certainly wont be the condo you want to retire to in 25 years.

Having this thought, we tired a strong mutual fund - was not to be. They're not really 'strong'.

[Mstrlucky74]

Originally Posted by 071402

Having this thought, we tired a strong mutual fund - was not to be. They're not really 'strong'.

Huh?

[071402]

Don't buy anything- take your planned monthly mortgage payment/tax bill/HOA payment and put it in a strong mutual fund then come to Florida on vacation 3X a year without any headaches.

Any of those 200-300K condos are going to be OLD and old buildings are ripe for high HOA assessments (rebuilding rotting balconies, window replacements, elevator replacements, etc). A lot of older buildings have deferred maintenance in order to keep the HOA fee low but at some point they will be forced to spend the money and few have the reserves they need to pay for it all.

The problem you will have will be the condo you buy today certainly wont be the condo you want to retire to in 25 years.

THE MUTUAL FUND COMMENT. huh?

[Mstrlucky74]

Originally Posted by 071402

Don't buy anything- take your planned monthly mortgage payment/tax bill/HOA payment and put it in a strong mutual fund then come to Florida on vacation 3X a year without any headaches.

Any of those 200-300K condos are going to be OLD and old buildings are ripe for high HOA assessments (rebuilding rotting balconies, window replacements, elevator replacements, etc). A lot of older buildings have deferred maintenance in order to keep the HOA fee low but at some point they will be forced to spend the money and few have the reserves they need to pay for it all.

The problem you will have will be the condo you buy today certainly wont be the condo you want to retire to in 25 years.

THE MUTUAL FUND COMMENT. huh?

Be a little more clear with your point.