SF Home Vs mid rise or high rise Condo (townhouse, pools, AC)

[Johnhw2]

We are retired and both just over 70 and 72. Wife has RA but remains a perfectionist in how things are to be cared for, yet we are beyond the age where we can do most of the work on a SF home to her standards.
I am a bit analytical and a planner so trying to get a handle on the division of residential maintenance between a mid rise condo and a SF home. We have lived in a SF home other than 2 years in an apartment when we first married.

We like the space of our large SF home in the suburbs of DFW. But know we need to downsize as we age and finding ourselves over whelmed by the maintenance contractor selection in a city we are not as familiar with as we were in Houston during my working career. The idea of having the HOA take over the tasks appeals to us. Has anyone seen a side by side comparison of who handles which element of maintenance and which if any utilities are included in the typical condo HOA fees?

I know generally exterior maintenance and common area maintenance is handled by the HOA. I see that water and sewer costs are typically part of the HOA fee. I assume other utilities, electric and gas and cable and internet are owner responsibilities in a condo. I also assume replacing HVAC and HWH is owner's job to handle. I can see where utility costs must be lower in a condo due to lower size unit and having conditioned space above and below the unit. I see heating is handled by electric heating as a source in one condo I am investigating fully.

Seems like a condo has more amenities than a SF home which drive higher operating and maintenance cost but lower utility cost as noted above. I am considering a 30 to 40% space size downsizing so expect gas and electric utilities cost to come down maybe 50% vs my SF home. The exterior maintenance goes to the HOA from the owner budget and insurance costs for items included for owner responsibility should be lower too by maybe the same 50%?

I am not trying to get precise shifts in cost to HOA and overall reductions or increases in cost just trying to get a ball park for making a change of this nature. Anyone know a source that might educate me on these kind of shifts in responsibility and cost? I hope this is the right forum to post this question in too?

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

[Parnassia]

You might get some comparison advice in the Real Estate subforum too.

FWIW, at this point in life if I'm going to buy property I'm not going to share walls. If I get to the point that maintenance/upkeep is not feasible I'll probably rent to get rid of most if not all of it. I may not care about the details nearly as much by then.

[engineman]

Remember: never again will you be as young as you are right now. Stairs are to be avoided. Not all condo rules are the same. We have had 3 in succession. All 3 included exterior maintenance, landscaping, sewer, water and trash collection.
Some will have pools, a few will include cable/internet. "Condo" is a type of ownership, NOT a type of building. I have seen single family homes that were condos in a cluster with others like them. Others are tall buildings with spectacular views of the beach.

In a 55+ retirement community your neighbors are your contemporaries.

The most annoying neighbors tend to be renters. They have no vested interested in the property.

I am 86 and there is no way I would have a private home.

[JonathanLB]

I’d never go back to condos after having lived in 3 condos and 1 townhouse plus apartments. It’s true the HOA costs are worth it, they do cover much of what costs money in a house, it’s just that unless you share the same sleep schedule as your neighbors (I never will, I’m a night owl) then you’re risking your sanity, even with 12” thick concrete walls. Subwoofers especially are an issue and so are major repairs people do around you. My last experience was so bad it cured me of ever wanting a condo again. Nine months of the AC not really working off and on, and it was such a specialty system only one company was tasked with the home warranty work. If I went out of the system, then it would have cost a fortune. I ended up after all that having them replace the system after threatening to sue. It cost them $15,000 total including labor!! So I wasn’t about to pay for that myself lol. We moved into my dads house for months on end, abandoning our 3/4 million condo because it was unlivable.

I don’t do home maintenance work, even at a young age, I hire that out so I can’t see she having any effect on where I’d want to live. If I can’t walk up a single level of stairs then it’s probably senior living time.

[turf3]

I'd look into zero lot line houses. There are quite a number of them around DFW and they're not all two story. The amount of responsibility of the owner vs. the HOA for exterior maintenance varies. Look in North Garland to start.

[davdaven]

Not all condos are created equal. The real livability test is the neighbors. Do they listen to dance music at 1 AM every day? Do they like to cook with lots of fresh garlic for every meal? Good luck figuring this out before you move in!

There are plenty of ways to reduce the outdoor maintenance tasks/costs of a single-family home. Look for a small yard or none at all, stay away from trees that drop leaves every fall, etc. And stay away from neighborhoods with strict CC&R's or HOA requirements. That way you won't have your local Karens standing on your front porch telling you to paint a nail a different shade of gray every 2 weeks.

P.S. I don't think contractor selection is that difficult nowadays. Check Yelp. Check Nextdoor. Ask your realtor or a neighbor. I can manage this fine while holding down a full-time job, so I have faith in a retired couple's ability to do this too!

[RamenAddict]

You can get all sorts of condos. I lived in a beach condo community with townhomes- single story and two-story. The single story units were at the end of each row of townhomes (typically 4 to 8) and were popular with retirees. The couple next to me were still working and had downsized a couple years before I moved in. The husband worked bizarre hours part-time from home and the wife was a teacher. They loved it because they had a nice covered porch outside and grilled out almost every night. All the garden maintenance was taken care off, although they had a friend who did some contractor work who would come over and spruce up their yard from time to time. All we had to do was add flowers/etc. if we wanted.