Talk me out of a condo.

[nrubenstein]

No, 655. It's not a condo though. It's called a brown stone I guess. A couple of her neighbors got over 800 for theirs a few years ago. It's just the location. Bellevue is ridiculously nice and it's a great place to live. Just extremely over priced. I was actually upset with her when she bought the place. The house I grew up in just 35 miles south in Puyallup was a 3500 sq. ft., 4 BR, 4 bath, huge basement/game room with pool table, ping pong, shuffle board etc. on 1/2 acre with a very nice pool, hot tub, full basketball court and was every bit as nice as this place. She sold it and for the same amount of money got this town house in Bellevue.

God damnit I wish I still lived there. It was the best place to throw parties, and I'm sure I got laid way more than I should have in high school because my house was the place to be. 16-18 year old chicks + a little bit of alcohol and a pool and hot tub just makes their clothes fall off.

Hell, that's what I sold my condo for.

I will say that I do miss the view. July 4th parties were great when I could see the Capitol and the Washington Monument from my living room.

[nrubenstein]

Thank you nrubenstein - that's the kind of advice that I was looking for.

Oh yeah, one other thing: Make sure you look over the master insurance policy. It *should* cover the interior of your unit - if it doesn't, obtaining sufficient insurance to cover your ass is amazingly expensive. Some master policies do not cover the interiors, so there can be an insurance gap. Likewise, renovations may or may not (probably not) be covered.

[george graves]

16-18 year old chicks + a little bit of alcohol and a pool and hot tub just makes their clothes fall off.

Who need a sig quote?

[rhett325i]

Don't buy a condo. They are hard as hell to get rid of when the time comes to sell. They are the first to drop in value when the market begins to drop, and the last to increase in value when the market recovers.

George I know you are a tinkerer. Get a house that's a fixer upper, then leverage your r3v pals to help you fix it up.

[Pac1373]

I had a condo George,

regulations may be very different in the PNW, but in Western Canada this was the way it was for me. I cant imagine condo associations differ that much.

it was a town-house style. but here "condo" is the ownership type more than style of building.

it was horrible.

Strange neighbors are only the beginning.

it was explained to me that with a condo I as the owner, was responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of anything "inside the unit" and they handled anything on the exterior side of things.

Condo fee's we were told "hadn't gone up in years" great I thought.

in my first year they doubled.

the letter that came from the Condo association was the kicker. you need to know the term "Special assessment"


it is a fucking deal breaker.


the Condo association has the right to levy a Special assessment for repairs to the development if the condo fund is low, which through poor management it can be.

mine was $5k, payable in 30 days. it was on the lower side, some "owners" were on the hook for $10k.

btw, there is NO limit on the amount, or the frequency that a condo
association can levy a "Special assessment"

this made me immediately list my condo for sale.

be aware of EVERY detail of the condo associations financial state before you get involved.

we protested and had an expert come in to talk to the owners and form an association of our own, we voted out the existing condo association and voted in a new board, but at the end of the day, the units needed new windows/roofs and the former board had embezzled/miss managed the fund to the point of being broke...

hence even after a regime change, we were on the hook for the full bunt of the external repair.

just my personal experience, I would not EVER, EVER, EVER...consider a Condo unit again, even though some of the lifestyle can be appealing the financial exposure/ risk is not worth it imho.

cheers,

[Restoman]

What I am drawing from this conversation is that the owners that went in uninformed were and are unhappy. Here a townhouse sells within a week.

[Pac1373]

What I am drawing from this conversation is that the owners that went in uninformed were and are unhappy. Here a townhouse sells within a week.

I suppose you could sum it up that way, it was my first home, I depended on professionals to steer me in the right direction, and wound up almost getting hooped.

I did ask all the questions I thought there were.

it is hard to ask about things you don't know exist.

the internets weren't so awesome in the late 90's early 2000's so there was no help there...

alas, lived there less than 2 years, bought at $85,000.00 and sold for $125k. pales in comparison to paydays I made on subsequent homes though.

even still, I know about condominiums now, and fully understand how they work.

I guess they are a good "starter home" but why risk the financial exposure at a stage in life you are least apt to be able to deal with it?

I would not do it again.

[george graves]

Thanks guys.

/end thread.

[TwoJ's]

BTW George... when you narrow your city choice down a little bit better I highly recommend you at least come up and visit them before making a choice. I could show you around too.

[ieatmango]

get a real house, if you manage to come into some money it's esier to put a snapon lift in your driveway than in a condo garage, plus it's less likely to piss off the neighbors.

condos suck for other reasons,

less comfortable with bigger dogs

you're usually not allowed to work on your own car outside of the garage if there is a garage

harder to get 220v run into the garage so it is harder (if not impossible) to do good welding or have a good air compressor

can't go shooting beer cans at 3 in the morning

etc etc etc

now if you're a gay man with a toy poodle and don't own a gun or work on your car they're great.