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Are you sure they want a condo? Then again, that budget isn't very large so I guess a house is out.
I might look at Norwood for that price.
There are a ton of good options at this price point in Norwood. Good suggestion.
Believe it or not there are some good condo options in that price range here in Needham as well and Needham is quite convenient to Westwood. There are also good options in places like Dedham and Canton at that price point.
Someone mentioned the condos at University Station in Westwood . . . I'm pretty sure those sell significantly above the $500K price point. It's unlikely a new development like this would be within budget.
Quote:
Originally Posted by simplexsimon
What if the property is going to be a second home that is lived in 3-4 months out of the year? How do people keep an eye on it or maintain it when they're not there?
They could hire a property manager or if the association happens to have a doorman or an onsite superintendent then usually for a reasonable gratuity they're happy to check in on your place.
Quote:
Originally Posted by id77
This is interesting as I've had the exact opposite experience. Self-managed HOAs with 2-4 are the ideal to work with whereas the professionally managed are like getting teeth pulled. I dealt with a professionally managed once where even getting the common utility bills (water, sewer, trash) was an exercise in babysitting the company so as not to get late fees. Even then, we'd pay 3-4 late fees per year out of reserves for no other reason than the bills got lost in their bureaucracy. Probably not a good example, but I know they dealt with more than one building, charged higher HOA fees, and delivered pathetic service. We'd even often do their snow removal for them because they just couldn't be bothered until tickets and complaints started rolling in.
Sounds like you had a pretty terrible management company at that association. There are definitely some bad ones out there and if I were on that board I would have sought to replace them at the end of the contract.
Quote:
Originally Posted by id77
I'd actually slightly amend and say the ideal is a small self-managed (2-3) where all owners are also occupants (no landlords renting). Everyone in the building has skin in the game that way, and there's no tenant who just doesn't care because they're a renter and it's their landlord's problem (who in turn lives in another city/state/country).
Any HOA you're a part of is going to be HIGHLY impacted by who's involved in running it. Bad management company = bad experience. Lazy or cheap board members = bad experience. IMO/IME if you're in a large development that dilutes the amount of say most individual unit owners have. It also increases the amount of work involved in being a board member. So, typically only people who care get involved.
Also, I've definitely seen it happen where small HOAs with 2-3 units that are 100% owner occupied very quickly become HOA's with only 1 unit owner occupied. There's no guarantee of majority owner occupation in any HOA unless the condo docs limit the number of rental units in the HOA or make renting an unattractive proposition. One unit I recently helped a client buy had condo docs that only allowed an owner to rent the unit once during their ownership and it had to be a minimum 6 month lease term (might have even been 12). An HOA I lived in here in Needham limited rental units to 20 or 25% of the total unit count (can't remember the exact number it might have even been 20 total rental units which actually would have been 10% of the total unit count).
Also, I've definitely seen it happen where small HOAs with 2-3 units that are 100% owner occupied very quickly become HOA's with only 1 unit owner occupied. There's no guarantee of majority owner occupation in any HOA unless the condo docs limit the number of rental units in the HOA or make renting an unattractive proposition. One unit I recently helped a client buy had condo docs that only allowed an owner to rent the unit once during their ownership and it had to be a minimum 6 month lease term (might have even been 12). An HOA I lived in here in Needham limited rental units to 20 or 25% of the total unit count (can't remember the exact number it might have even been 20 total rental units which actually would have been 10% of the total unit count).
Agreed that this is a big thing to look for. It's probably a little tougher in the current rushed seller's market, but we would go through the HOA docs before putting in an offer to make sure the docs were tight. If we didn't see restrictions on renting of some form (and 'no short term rentals' wasn't enough to sway us), we'd move on. We saw several with percentage/number limits on rentals, and a few with no rentals allowed at all. I could see how that can be very difficult to impossible to get in larger complexes, though.
You can never really guarantee you'll have good co-owners, but there's a few things I found I can do to reduce the risks. We ran the sale history on the other unit in the building we bought (2-unit brownstone) to see if the owners were long-time residents (a sign they more likely to be invested in the value of the building and their unit). Was either unit ever posted for rent publicly in the last 5 years? What work on the building was done in the last 3-4 years (a sign that the other owner is open to updates/upgrades)?
The minutia like snow removal are just that -- minutia. It's easy to do do or contract out for and isn't a hill even worth climbing, let alone dying on. The things that ultimately matter are the big things -- if repointing needs to be done, are the other owners going to be on-board with it or are they going to drag their feet and try to patch things to save money? Are they the kind of owners who will see the long-term return of value in major work or is it going to be herding cats to even get a $800 pane of glass replaced on the front door?
Cons
*Lack of privacy or extreme lack of privacy (think soundproofing between units or even the physical space between the buildings....your windows facing your neighbor's windows in the building across the way....wear something nice!)
*to expand upon the above point, do you really enjoy people walking by your windows on a regular basis? (if ground level or townhouse style)
Windows in single family houses face other houses, and neighbors can walk past your house all the time in a single family too.
Yeah and all the pros/cons are situational. You can have an end unit townhouse in the woods with a garage or a place that shares 4 walls in the city where you can barely find parking.
I would not go for a SFH in this situation. This is a retired couple moving to a new state and if they have never lived in "boston" type weather the last thing they should be looking at are $500K homes which might need a decent amount of work and maintenance. Retired people probably appreciate fixed expense planning - a newer condo or townhome gives them a higher chance of that stability. I would also try hard to find something with a garage.
Also retired people probably want to minimize any driving in bad weather going back and forth to be babysitters so I would stick to towns close to Westwood...Dedham, Canton, Norwood all seem pretty reasonable.
There are a couple of condo buildings here in Needham that were constructed in the 70's/80's that you could get a 2bed/2bath in within that budget. Needham is just next door to Westwood. Norwood is obviously very close as well and you could get a townhome in Norwood at that price. I just helped a client buy a 5 year old townhome on Endicott Street for just over 500 and it has a one car garage and was like new. A townhome would obviously have stairs so if that's a concern than a single level unit in an elevator building would be preferable and there are some in both Needham and Norwood that would fit the bill with the Norwood buildings being much newer.
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