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In theory, condo living would suit my needs pretty well. I’m looking at one right now that was really appealing until reviewing a prior inspection report and the HOA’s financials.
For the third time now, I found the HOA to be severely underfunded and a special assessment looming. In this case, the buildings will need to be resided. This is going to be a big job and the cost, right now, is unknown. The HOA is aware of the problem and will eventually get a contractor for estimates and repairs.
I feel if I move forward with this, I’ll be doing so missing some critical information. Such as…how much are these repairs going to cost? If this was a single-family house, I could go get my own estimate from a contractor of my choosing and make a smart decision.
Besides the possibility of shared walls, would you say the HOA component is the bigger reason why people prefer single-family homes?
Single Family Homes can be in an HOA.
Any Single Family Homes over 20yrs old can have a long list of items that are at their end-of-life. The cost of replacement can be prohibitive.
The relative costs of HOA fees and maintenance of a single family house can go either way.
The HOA can spread costs over many units and may get a better price from a contractor. Each owner does not need to find and qualify a contractor- a cost in time if not money. These days even getting a contractor bid can be a project. The HOA may do a better job of regular surveys and may maintain things before it becomes very expensive.
A homeowner can defer maintenance- or not do it at all. He can hire unlicensed and uninsured workers for cash. He can do some work himself.
In principle, an HOA with a good board and regular reserve studies will find special assessments necessary only in the rarest circumstances. Homeowners tend not to be good about building up a reserve- probably as bad on average as the worst HOAs.
While some may be put off by the size of the HOA fees, they may be underestimating the continuing costs of home maintenance.
A preference for single family houses probably has more to do with a desire to be free of rules ("you can't tell ME I can't paint my chicken coop purple!") or a belief that single family houses appreciate more.
I personally don't see assessments as the big bad wolf that some do, if you are going to be in the property long-term. The work has to be done one way or another. The dues have to be high enough to support that, or there has to be a special assessment. Everything else is just accounting.
Theoretically, living in a condo smoothes out the maintenance costs, but doesn't eliminate them. Houses, on the other hand, have very lumpy maintenance costs. Assessments and underfunded reserves introduce a bit of the lumpiness, but at the same time, they keep the monthly HOA fees lower, which can make the properties more marketable.
I personally don't see assessments as the big bad wolf that some do, if you are going to be in the property long-term. The work has to be done one way or another. The dues have to be high enough to support that, or there has to be a special assessment. Everything else is just accounting.
This is right! If you want to be in a condo where everything outside is done for you, you have to pay for it. I would rather be in a condo that has already assessed and scheduled all the major maintenance that will need to be done to every building, than the one where they couldn't get agreement to invest in repairs, and first responders are now trying to dig everyone out.
I love our condo for all the usual reasons, but it was brand-new when we bought it. Still being built. We saw the rebar going down to bedrock (we're on the beach, so that's important).
Love our pool. Love no maintenance. But I briefly had an older condo on the Gulf Coast built in the 80s and it was having major problems, it turned out. Massive assessments. $18,000 before we bought and another $25,000 after we sold. Dodged those bullets. Plus, $580 HOA fees as opposed to $160 here.
My only advice is to buy NEW if you can find a new condo you like. And maybe NOT a high-rise.
(we have 3 stories and are on the 2nd so no elevators to fail)
In theory, condo living would suit my needs pretty well. I’m looking at one right now that was really appealing until reviewing a prior inspection report and the HOA’s financials.
For the third time now, I found the HOA to be severely underfunded and a special assessment looming. In this case, the buildings will need to be resided. This is going to be a big job and the cost, right now, is unknown. The HOA is aware of the problem and will eventually get a contractor for estimates and repairs.
I feel if I move forward with this, I’ll be doing so missing some critical information. Such as…how much are these repairs going to cost? If this was a single-family house, I could go get my own estimate from a contractor of my choosing and make a smart decision.
Besides the possibility of shared walls, would you say the HOA component is the bigger reason why people prefer single-family homes?
You can get single-family homes in an HOA where they maintain common areas. Those are usually much cheaper to live in. Dues wise. Because instead of paying several hundred dollars a month you might only pay a couple hundred dollars a year for mowing and paying somebody to come out and change the garbage can in the playground.
I can’t say that I am a pro at this, but I have worked in several HOAs over the years and some of them are willing to pay more monthly to avert special assessments. But some of them would rather keep the dues as low as possible and do a special assessment when necessary in hopes that while they are living there it will never be necessary. It appears that’s kind of what happened in Florida. They were going to have a special assessment of 136 units divided by $15-$20 million. That’s a whole lot of money to come up with, and a lot of them can’t. Which means they have to finance it. Not the thing that you really want to do when you’re in your golden years and you’re living on a very limited income.
I’ve seen a few seniors run out of money, it’s not pretty.
Plus you also have to think about when you’re in a condo situation like a stacked building — a lot of times an older building is built to the code that was required when the building was built. I have run into situations where 20 years later the code is different, and depending on what is being done in the building they are not allowed to get away with the grandfathering excuse. If they’re updating it, there are other things that will have to be updated to come up to code. So your job that was going to cost about $120,000, it is now going to cost $250K.
__________________ Solly says — Be nice!
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Solly says — Be nice!
