With falling real estate prices and Obama’s tax credit for first time home buyers, I’ve been feeling a lot of pressure to buy a home. My brother was talking to me about the benefits of buying a condo, and I was really struggling to understand why I would want to do that.
I don’t think that buying a condo is necessarily a bad idea. I’ll probably buy a condo when I get sick of renting. Thing is, I’m not sick of renting yet. So it sounds like I would spending more money per month for something I don’t want because it’s on sale and comes with a good mail-in rebate (and because the thing I don’t want will theoretically worth more in the future).
Again, I’m not saying it’s a bad idea. I’m just going to take some time to research it and make sure it’s something I really want to do. That tax credit isn’t going to mean much if it makes me rush into a bad situation.
The trick it to find a place where your mortgage isn’t more than rent would be. Whether or not that exists depends on the market where you are.
That’s what I need to research.
One more thing about owning a house/condo: Anything that breaks, anything that needs to be maintained, you fix it or it doesn’t get fixed. One of the joys of renting is calling up the landlord and saying, “The ______ is broken, come over and fix it, please.”
That’s one thing I’m a little confused about. It does seem that with condos you pay a maintenance fee (usually for mowing loans, cleaning gutters, etc), but I don’t know if that applies to radiators, sinks, etc.
From my experience, the association fee will take care of all the exterior items (mowing, clearing snow, etc.), but everything that’s on the interior that needs fixing, you have to take care of yourself.
Good to know. Thanks!