Why is NJ finding so many excuses to build condo developments?

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by Busch Boy

I personally wouldn't buy a townhouse or condo. Some of them cost the same as a SFH would, when you factor in HOA fees and the property taxes are usually not much cheaper. Plus you share walls and ceilings with people and hear their noise, one of the big CONS of renting. Except now you're dealing with it as an owner.

The best way to go if you want to downsize is getting a tiny 2-bedroom SFH on a small plot that requires little maintenance.

I'm in a condo. It made sense for me and was affordable. The only place where I would have been able to purchase a SFH in Monmouth County would be somewhere like Keansburg, and I actually considered it but was put off by the fact that the entire town was considered high risk for flood and I would need to buy the insurance. Turned out to be the right decision.

I only hear the neighbors on the one side coming down their stairs if I am on the living room couch because their stairs are on the other side of that wall.

I was in my 50s when I was buying, and in my last rental of a SFH I had to shovel the snow and take care of the yard. I'd rather pay the fee to have someone else magically appear when it snows and take care of the grass in summer. I have a fenced-in patio and garden area of my own out back where I can grow things.

Also, I was one of seven kids, so I think that made me much less of a delicate princess when it comes to hearing noise. You learn to block stuff out and it doesn't bother you. I notice that difference in my daughter, who is an only.

My property taxes dropped to $3800 after the town did its first assessment in about fifteen years. Maintenance fees are $280 a month, and 24% of that is insurance for the buildings (different from my own "walls-in" insurance.)

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by DannyHobkins

Being in a building with an HOA actually usually costs more than being in a SFH. Basically you are paying bloated contracts to contractors with management fees now that goes to the building administrator to cover all their costs. It seems like now the average HOA in many building in the area I live are about about $350 a month which basically covers many things, but the main things are landscaping and snow removal. I can tell you being in a SFH total lawn maintenance for a small lot of land is probably $350 for the season and you can hire a contractor to come to your house anytime it snows for less than $350 for the winter. Additionally when the HOA decides to make repairs or has an emergency that's still coming from your pocket and ive seen them significantly raise HOAs to 1,000+ a month to cover these instances.

When my husband and I rented a townhouse in the 1990s, I noticed that the association retained the services of the most expensive landscaping company in town. The daffodils and mums were lovely, but I could have lived without them.

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by jessemh431

Not only that but the HOA does sometimes (often?) cover things a SFH homeowner would be required to pay out of pocket on a day's notice.

In my experience, most of the things which need to be taken care of ASAP are inside the home. Those weren't covered by the association when we rented the townhouse.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by DannyHobkins

Being in a building with an HOA actually usually costs more than being in a SFH. Basically you are paying bloated contracts to contractors with management fees now that goes to the building administrator to cover all their costs. It seems like now the average HOA in many building in the area I live are about about $350 a month which basically covers many things, but the main things are landscaping and snow removal. I can tell you being in a SFH total lawn maintenance for a small lot of land is probably $350 for the season and you can hire a contractor to come to your house anytime it snows for less than $350 for the winter. Additionally when the HOA decides to make repairs or has an emergency that's still coming from your pocket and ive seen them significantly raise HOAs to 1,000+ a month to cover these instances.

Then that's a badly run HOA. They are required to maintain reserves for capital improvements (like roofing or sidewalk replacement) and part of the fee goes into the reserve fund for that. The only time we've had a special assessment in the nine years I've been here was the year that we had a ton of snow and exceeded the snow-removal budget. Everyone had to kick in $150, payable in three-month installments of $50 each.

This year, of course, the snow budget is under.

[BugsyPal]

Originally Posted by DannyHobkins

Being in a building with an HOA actually usually costs more than being in a SFH. Basically you are paying bloated contracts to contractors with management fees now that goes to the building administrator to cover all their costs. It seems like now the average HOA in many building in the area I live are about about $350 a month which basically covers many things, but the main things are landscaping and snow removal. I can tell you being in a SFH total lawn maintenance for a small lot of land is probably $350 for the season and you can hire a contractor to come to your house anytime it snows for less than $350 for the winter. Additionally when the HOA decides to make repairs or has an emergency that's still coming from your pocket and ive seen them significantly raise HOAs to 1,000+ a month to cover these instances.

That is why you perform due diligence before buying into a co-op or a condo unit.


It is not unknown for co-op or condo boards to become entrenched bureaucracies that are in whole or part corrupt.


Want to know why the building/development is using highest cost service providers in area (fuel, maintenance contractors, landscaping, exterminator, etc...) that may or may not be giving value for money? Start nosing around financials and you're told to mind your own GD business (which of course it is), and that the *board* made the decision.


Deeper down you find it is something out of the Sopranos. That landscaping guy is the nephew of a board member's brother or some such. That or maybe he gives a nice envelope every year. Maybe he offers to do the landscaping work for a board member's parent's house for a *very good* rate....