Condo or House?

[Thor Jr]

I am in the market for a new dwelling and since i have never owned a condo but many houses i need to get info on condo living. I am not sure if i am a condo guy per say but i am capable of adjusting if i need to.
Just a little about me is that i am a private guy, like to listen to my television at a loud frequency and dont want to always get into a conversation with everyone you encounter in the lobby or hallway. I am not unfriendly but sometimes i just want to get in and relax. Also, from experience, some ladies are very vocal and loud, will this be a problem in a condo atmosphere? I know what a house will give me, i have had 7 homes in my life and know the luxuries a home will give me so what will a condo give me? I am single at the moment with no children that i know of but would like a child in the near future and i am looking into adoption. I also over the years i have gathered many things and need a place big enough for all my stuff, like furniture, tools and odd pieces here and there. I also have stuff that i have been collecting for years now and need to have them in a temperature controlled rooms not in a garage or storage space.
I hope this is enough info for you to draw a conclusion and give a reasonable opinion.

I have also thought about just keeping apartment in town for work and buying a house on a lake someplace and this would solve my extra space problem. But may not meet all my needs in the future.

Thank you.....

 

[gaby]

Hi Thor Jr......don't know how old you are...but reading your text i think housing is more convenient for you....noise--vocal ladies--adoption---need of spaces.....IMHO house is the right answer....and the important you are the boss.

Am living now in my fourth condo and i love it BUT am certainly older than you....am very very quiet and like to b à proximité de tous les services BUT i have to pay of course all taxes PLUS condo's fees and big money to buy a parking lot.....and of course you can't do what you want and you live sous la gouvernance d'un syndicat with whom it's not always easy to deal.....perhaps when you get older.......my two cents et en toute amitié.

 

[jalimon]

Do you live in Montreal or out? For me where I live a condo is ridiculous. I see all these peoples buying condo along the highway 15 like 30 north of montreal in boisbriand, mirabel... I dont get it!

But in Montreal or close suburbs it's a good question indeed.

Cheers,

 

[gaby]

Oh another important thing ...condo is very convenient also for ME cause i don't like to take care of business around the house summer or winter.....not in my nature..lol...don't know about you...

 

[EagerBeaver]

Thor Jr.,

I have lived in condominiums my entire adult life. I am now on my 3rd condo which I bought built new 15 years ago.

In all those years I only remember one time asking a neighbor to turn down stereo volume, which was in my first condo.

The condo where I have resided the last 15 years is in a rural and quiet area. I live in a stand alone building which has 2 ranch condos. In the past 15 years my neighbors were first an elderly couple in their 90s and then a succession of 3 divorced single women, all in their 50s, all pleasant women who mostly kept to themselves. One of them I remembe she woke me up on a Friday night at around 11 pm. I had fallen asleep watching a Rangers hockey game and heard the doorbell ring and there was my neighbor who was holding a large tray covered with aluminum foil. She then explained that she had catered an event and they had a whole tray of food left and it was some kind of chicken with a creamy mushroom sauce which was actually very good.

In my 23 years of living in 3 different condo complexes these are the biggest issues:

1. Parking and guest parking. A huge issue at my current complex because the buildings are pretty close together. We have garages and then one guest parking spot as well as the spot in front of the garage. I have read the bylaws on parking and they are not well crafted but some neighbors have interpreted the common areas to mean they can park anywhere so this can and has caused problems. Also commercial vehicles are not allowed to be parked in common areas (driveway).

2. Owner-Renter Occupancy Ratio. Lenders want to see it at 90% owner occupancy. The condo boards start to freak out if it dips below 80% because lenders see an asset being devalued by renters who don’t give a shit about the property. We have also had a lot of issues with renters.

3. Dogs. Some condos regulate the size of dogs allowed eg under 25 pounds. We did have a nuisance dog issue and the owner of the dog (a renter) was requested to remove his animal after it killed another owner’s dog by ripping open it’s neck. The nuisance animal was a larger dog and the smaller dog who was killed was a 15-20 pounder. Dogs that are territorial can be confused by common grounds. Some landlords have no cat and no pet leases.

4. Pool maintenance and etiquette. We have a swimming pool and there seems to be perpetual conflict between those who care about and obey the pool rules and those who do not. Our pool is self maintained by the board thus saving money.

5. Snow removal and landscaping. We have had many issues with timely snow removal and there is a problem because of the layout of the property, which is there is no place to put the snow when there is a lot of it. Not enough space. When we had the 35 inch storm in February 2013 I could not even see coming out of my road the snow was piled so high. On landscaping: trees always a problem. Their roots cause pavement issues and I had to get the board approval to have one cut because it bubbled my driveway. Also some trees encroaching the buildings had to be cut.

6. Improvements. I needed to get approval to put a spigot on my deck, to install a main water shut off, and to perform pest control on the periphery of the building to eliminate ants. Remember the principle of common grounds means you can’t just build stuff or use the common grounds as if it’s yours. It’s communal. But if it’s reasonable and in a proper place they will allow a garden.

7. Parties. We allow parties at the condo clubhouse but it has to be rented and paid for. There have been many parties including bridal showers there and I have seen food trucks allowed to the clubhouse to serve party guests. The clubhouse is a free standing building adjacent to the pool.

Condo living totally suits my personality. BTW my common charges are $240/month.

 

[hungry101]

I've always been a home owner. I enjoy taking care of my yard. I also think that the monthly fees that you pay are horrific. Take that 240$/month and invest it in a mutual fund and tell me what you have over a 30 year period.

Here is a short article about pros and cons of condo ownership. https://money.usnews.com/money/pers...easons-to-buy-a-condo-and-3-reasons-to-beware

 

[EagerBeaver]

Take that 240$/month and invest it in a mutual fund and tell me what you have over a 30 year period.

If I owned a house I wouldn't have the $240 to invest, contrary to the fiction promoted by your statement. It would be spent on a variety of things over time- landscaping costs (grass, mulch etc.), buying a lawn mower, weed whackers, hedge clippers, snow blowers and plows and shovels, and the Big Daddy expense would be the new roof that you will pay for 100% but I don't, except as a small contribution from my common charges, along with 125 other people. And this is not even to mention insurance costs, painting costs for exterior walls and decks, cleaning of gutters and chimneys etc. All on you. It's likely a wash over time. The only real advantage is that you call the shots on landscaping and maintainance of the property when you own a house, and don't have to ask for permission to do things by way of self help, and do not have to accept potentially substandard landscaping by third party contractors not of your choosing.

 

[ShyMan]

I have also thought about just keeping apartment in town for work and buying a house on a lake someplace and this would solve my extra space problem.

That would be the ideal living arrangement.

It sounds to me that you would be most happy with living in your own Castle -- a detached single family house with a two to three cars garage, low-maintenance backyard, and a decent shed in the backyard.

More and more families with young children are living in condominiums located in prime locations. So, if you should adopt children, they'll have places and friends to play with even if lived in a condo.

If you can swing it financially, I'd say buy a small condo near your work and buy a large house in a nice suburb.

Walls are paper thin in even what they call "luxury" condos. Condos do have noise regulations -- so usually, you can have loud music in your unit until 10 pm and no loud noises until after 8 am. The lobby staff will get to know you and will not bug you when they see you after they learn your preferences and habits.

You will be happier if you can substantially reduce your daily commute to and from work. So, I'd buy a condo only to be closer to work but then what if you were to switch jobs later. So, buy a house that you love.

Like Jalimon said, I don't get why anyone would buy condos along freeways -- breathing in those fumes and living with traffic noise. Hey, to each his own.

 

[Thor Jr]

Wow, i can see so many pros and cons and so much information and useful, thank you all for the well thought out answers. And i am with gaby about the maintenance part of a house, at least on the outside, but i love to do renovations, was looking for a fixer upper as long as it wasn't the lawn i had to fix up. Not into mowing and shoveling. Back in 2002 i purchased a home on a half acre with flowers, trees, and bushes, well the first time i jumped on my ride on mower there was no more flowers left when i was done even the rose bushes were gone, only thing is that roses are resilient, they grew back.
I can purchase a home and have someone take care of the outdoor stuff but houses are expensive and too big in the area i am looking in close to work but plenty of condos reasonably priced and very new to the market. I have also looked at townhouses which have little backyards and plenty of room for all my stuff.
EB, you included so much info on both bad and good aspects of condo living. So much to think about, thank you. They say condo living is not for everyone but you dont know it if you dont actually experience it.
I am just looking for a place to relax in for the next 15 years till i retire and head south.

Thank you for all your responses, everyone's contributions were important to my decision making.

Also, my work calls for me to work evenings 70% of the time where i would arrive home around 10pm so my up time would be after the 10pm curfew you mentioned about noise levels, if this makes a difference in my decision.

 

[Sol Tee Nutz]

Personally I would never live in a condo, enjoy my privacy too much, do not like people living on the other side of the wall, ceiling or floor and also mentioned earlier... condo fees.
As for the costs EB put out there, no need to hire people to do this unless you are handicapped in some way. 1 month condo fee pays for a lawn mower, 3 months pays for a snow blower.... That is at $240 a month, most condo owners I know pay far more than that.

 

[EagerBeaver]

How about a new roof when you need one? What’s that going to cost? And when the driveway needs to be re-paved? And when you need to steam clean the deck/power wash it and the siding? These are major expenses the condo owner doesn’t bear on his own.

 

[EagerBeaver]

I do agree on the storage issue. I have very limited storage at my condo for things like bicycles, fishing poles etc beyond the small space in my garage. My condo is a ranch built on concrete slab. No basement. I do have an attic crawl space where I can theoretically put weather-insensitive items like a Christmas tree. With a townhouse condo the layout could be different, but always look at a possible new property to live with your storage issues in mind. It’s probably the only real negative in my mind. I have more to store now then when I bought it.

I use the area under my deck to store some gardening pots and other deck accessories.

 

[cloudsurf]

Personally I would never live in a condo, enjoy my privacy too much, do not like people living on the other side of the wall, ceiling or floor and also mentioned earlier... condo fees.
As for the costs EB put out there, no need to hire people to do this unless you are handicapped in some way. 1 month condo fee pays for a lawn mower, 3 months pays for a snow blower.... That is at $240 a month, most condo owners I know pay far more than that.

Actually the savings on heat and A/C over a comparable size home will cover about half the condo fee.....not to mention savings on property taxes and insurance.

During and after my marriage , I`ve rented apartments , condos , duplexes and owned 4 houses. Now I own a small condo near a forest and river in the burbs and am pretty content. Only downside is the agencies charging an extra travel fee to bring escorts to my place......lol

There are lots of pros and cons to buying a condo verses a house.....most well covered in this thread.
It all comes down to your comfort level with each pro and con
If you can afford a small country home as well as a condo downtown then you`ll have the best of both.

 

[Sol Tee Nutz]

^^^^^^^ Good points. My elec bills are about $220 a month ( air and pool ) and insurance is $1,000.00. Not sure what condo insurance costs or their elec bills.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Actually the savings on heat and A/C over a comparable size home will cover about half the condo fee.....not to mention savings on property taxes and insurance..

I mentioned the insurance savings earlier but I don’t think it’s registering. With a condo all you are insuring is the contents between the 4 walls and for liability. If the condo has a tree fall on it destroying the roof, the Master insurance pays on that. Therefore the actual contents insurance is minimal. I pay something like $100 a year just on the contents and liability. When you insure a whole structure it’s a lot more.

For this reason, because the Association is on the hook for such damage, they will require that you use only licensed and insured contractors. We had to have the dryer vents cleaned in all units and they brought in one company to do the job. Theoretically these guys could damage the common elements or fall off a ladder and hurt themselves, so the Association understandably attempts to regulate the use of the contractors to do any work on the units (also including furnaces and water heaters).

One complaint I have heard is that the Condo Boards tend to rely on the advice of the Property Manager on these issues and some property managers take kickbacks for using “their guys” who aren’t necessarily the best tradesman. Note that most Property Managers are one man outfits, usually with a wife or girlfriend serving as their “office manager”- their office is often a home office. Our first Property Manager was excellent and I met many highly competent tile installers, plumbers, electricians and other tradesman through him. After around 10 years he was fired, however, due to inability to control his alcoholism combined with a failure to timely pay vendors, leading to complaints to the board and his termination. His two successors have been duds. The first one died of cancer after a very checkered two year run in which his health problems may have affected his performance, and the current one stands accused by my neighbors of being a kickback guy. I also heard an accusation that he retaliated against a neighbor for NOT using one of his contractors. So you have to know how to deal with these guys and always question them on their recommendation of any contractors.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Funny story about my first neighbor, an elderly woman whose daughter bought her the condo after a downsize and the sale of a house she had lived in for around 60 years with her husband. She never adjusted to the condo life and I used to feel sorry for her, especially after her husband died and I often saw her alone. So I would occasionally go over there and bring her tomatoes and basil I was growing in pots on my deck at the time (I gave up the tomatoes after finally declaring defeat at the hands of a local Cardinal who was very skilled at dive bombing and knocking the tomatoes off the vines). One day I brought her some tomatoes and basil as she sat in her living room. Her living room, like mine in a similar but opposite blueprint, had a window looking out into the common grounds between the next building to ours. As we were chatting, a neighbor was walking his dog, stopped a few feet outside her window, and as we watched, the dog took a massive dump leaving a steaming pile of shit which it’s owner then scooped up.

She looked at me in disgust and said, “does he have to let that dog shit right outside my window?” She seemed appalled at the invasion of her privacy and solitude. I then explained that the dog had shitted on common grounds and it was something the neighbor could do so long as the shit was scooped up.

This highlights her adjustment issue with common grounds and privacy loss.

I use to walk around naked in my condo but if the curtains are open, it’s dangerous because people will walk their dogs by my windows and occasionally look in. Query whether doing so would amount to chargeable indecent exposure if a neighbor randomly walked by and peered in only to see you buck naked with an erect pecker. I have thought about it and concluded that there is an inalienable right to walk nude within one’s own condo, but it’s best to draw the blinds when doing so. For some reason the area south of my deck seems to be a popular dog walking area, likely because my deck faces a grassy area that abuts the woods. I frequently see deer in my backyard feeding at the tree line.

 

[cloudsurf]

INSURANCE

Beav you are forgetting about one component of condo insurance.

If your condo is responsible for damage to the building such as a flood or fire emanating from your unit, then you are responsible for all the damage and better have insurance in case. Its not a high rate but it ads cost to the content insurance and is not covered by the master insurance.

 

[Chigen]

If it is just a place to sleep, a condo is OK. For privacy you have to be in a house.

 

[EagerBeaver]

INSURANCE

Beav you are forgetting about one component of condo insurance. ........

I actually have quite a bit of experience litigating flood but not fire losses. Water pipes freeze all the time especially when the owner dies. Master insurance pays for damages to structure, sheet rock and mold remediation. Owner insurance pays for damage to contents. This includes hardwood floors and carpets. If water hits hardwood floors they buckle to the ceilings. So yes the owner should have insurance for that.

I was smart about it. Rather than get hardwood floors my floors are porcelain tile that looks like hardwood. Indestructible. Water doesn’t do anything. Porcelain also far more durable than ceramic which is fragile and breakage can occur from settling concrete if it’s new construction.

Around 8 years ago my water heater which is in a utility closet in garage leaked into my hall carpets and sheet rock. My insurance paid for all damage and mold remediation, through dehumidifiers.

 

[ShyMan]

I am just looking for a place to relax in for the next 15 years till i retire and head south.

. . .


Also, my work calls for me to work evenings 70% of the time where i would arrive home around 10pm so my up time would be after the 10pm curfew you mentioned about noise levels, if this makes a difference in my decision.

Then, I would buy a condo or a townhouse. You sound like you're in your prime earning years. Commuting to and from work is cutting into the quality of life significantly for most people.

I had a condo that was a 10 to 15 minutes walk from my work. It was blissful to wake up 30 minutes before I was supposed to be in the office, shave and shower and walk to the office. I was happier at work. And after work, I was able to do lots of fun things without worrying about getting home too late.

Condo living is perfect for singles or couples without children.

In every condo I lived at, even the loudest neighboring units (between 6 pm and 10 pm) became very quiet after 11 pm until 8 am the next day.

Live life now, if you can, because tomorrow is never guaranteed. In 15 years, lots could and would change in your life -- you could become fabulously wealthy in 15 years.

More and more people are moving back to downtown cores and living in high-density homes -- high rise apartments and condos.