Considering buying a condominium? Be warned. Owning a condominium is quite different from owning a single family house and comes with its own particularities. Before you pull the trigger on purchasing one in the condo market, make sure that it will match your lifestyle first.
The benefits and drawbacks of condo living need to be weighed against your own criteria. Which one is more important to you, security or proximity to your neighbors? Do you like the community living lifestyle? Here is a list of the basic pros and cons of condo living to help you make your decision.
Advantages:
Location
You will find a lot of condo developments in the middle of cities, where space is a premium. If you like this lifestyle where you are in the center of the city as soon as you walk out of your door, then getting a condo is an excellent choice.
Security
Having neighbors around makes it a lot easier to lock up and leave for a vacation or an extended period of time. Also, condominium buildings often have security features, be they buzzers or a guard service. This is particularly helpful if this is your second home, and you are only there for part of the year.
Low Maintenance
No more shoveling the snow or mowing the lawn! In a condo, you do not need to worry anymore about plumbing problems or leaky roofs, the fixes are done for you. There may be some cases, if it’s your fault, where you will have to pay.
Affordability
While condominiums have a wide price range, the lower range is often within the budget of first-time buyers and singles who may find single-family houses unaffordable.
Perks and Amenities
Most condominium developments offer a range of amenities in the common areas. These may include swimming pools, tennis courts, workout gyms and other features that might not even be affordable if you had to get it on your own.
Disadvantages:
You Own Zilch
If it's a condo, you don't really own the land it is sitting on, you just own a 'share'. Realistically, you just own the space between the walls of your unit, and the rest of the common areas you share the ownership with the other tenants.
Communal Thing
Shared walls and common areas mean that you are more likely to hear your neighbors or run into them more often. Also, as part of the homeowner’s association, you will have to coordinate with neighbors to come to decisions regarding the common areas.
Monthly Fees and Dues
These fees go towards the maintenance and upkeep of the common areas. There are occasionally additional assessment fees to handle larger repair jobs. Your fees may also be paying for amenities, such as a swimming pool, that you may not use.
Resale Value
Condominiums are more sensitive to trends in the real estate market than single-family homes. If the market goes down the tubes, as what has been happening recently, it's almost sure that the condo values will be the most affected and worse, the last segment to recover.
Rules
Condos are governed by a set of rules called Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions, aka CC&Rs. Take note that these rules may cover pets, noise levels, renovations and sometimes even what color of curtains you can put on your windows.
The Association
Since the association is made up of homeowners like you and me, instead of paid professionals, the efficiency levels might not be as expected. Note that if you want to make changes to your unit or if you want to rent it out, these are the folks you will need to get approvals from.
Just remember that condo ownership is totally different from owning a house, and you need to make sure that the condo lifestyle is for you.
Author Resource:-
Monty is a retired teacher living in the middle of the Las Vegas desert. In an effort to relieve his boredom, he has gotten into promoting a random collection of sites such as this one for baby halloween costumes and even condos overseas i.e. condo manila.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.NewAgeLivingArticles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
