Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

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Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by Paste Human »

I love the neighborhood I live in, and a condo across the street just went up for sale for what seems to be a decent price. While on the webpage for it I happened to notice two others in my price range. The one I like the best (the yellow building) has been on the market for a while, so I'm hopeful that I could talk them down bit. Anyway:

http://www.pedersonrealty.com/listing/d ... null&pid=1

http://www.pedersonrealty.com/listing/d ... Avenue-S-1

http://www.pedersonrealty.com/listing/d ... venue-S-#3

I put them in order of favorite to least favorite.

I'm not crazy about the idea of a condo due to not having a yard and the association fee, but not having to worry about stuff like replacing a roof or a leaky basement or a crack in the foundation is a reasonable trade off. Another issue is that most of the houses that go up for sale in my area have way more square feet than I need, and are almost always out of my price range.
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by Dr. Gonzo »

You should buy condoms instead, they save more lives than condos.
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by happiness and harmony »

i would rank them lyndale, colfax, aldrich. loads of nice touches in those first two that are completely absent in the third. but colfax is only worth it if you could talk them down from that outlier price of theirs :oldryan:

i have never been a fan of the idea of paying a monthly hoa fee on top of your mortgage, it seems like you are stuck with a minor rent despite owning. and since none of the listings describe any amenities i must pull the :ickface:

also none of the three offer a yard, which would make me a sad panda. if it were me i would be looking at homes in the same price range, you can find uses for any extra square footage (abattoir, beef jerky collection &c) and are possibly more likely to get a return on your investment since you will be the one in charge of any repairs or improvements

a daunting step, but a worthwhile one :santa:
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21 Oct 2020, 20:08
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by Paste Human »

The idea of a hoa fee bugs me, but when combined with the mortgage it works out to roughly what I pay per month now anyway. Plus it covers heat and potentially costly repairs, so I can live with it. I also currently live with a buddy who can finally pay rent, so if I were to move I'd probably just ask him to cover that fee. If he moved on there are a couple friends I wouldn't mind offering to rent out a spare bedroom.

Over the past couple years I've hardly done any research at all about what is available in my area, but it would almost certainly have to be a condo because run of the mill houses generally go for 400-650K and way more square footage than I need or even want. I'm not dying to get out of my apartment or anything - I would definitely buy my unit if that was an option and the price was right - but I am getting tired of throwing down rent every month and getting no equity out of it.

For now I'll probably casually keep an eye out for what seems to be a good deal. And luckily my living situation is good enough that I don't have much of a problem waiting for prices to finally start coming down to more reasonable levels. If there is an outright crash and I make it out the other side with a job then I'll put a lot more thought into buying an appropriately sized house.
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by happiness and harmony »

if you have a roommate coming along or are willing to have one for awhile then that changes the math somewhat. getting even a few hundred dollars a month would be a nice help

have you gotten pre-approved for a loan and such, or are you just browsing
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21 Oct 2020, 20:08
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

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For now I'm just browsing. If it becomes obvious to me that the urge to get away from renting has some real staying power then I'll probably swing by my bank and ask some questions.

I checked my credit rating a little while back when that whole data leak with one of the companies that does that happened. I don't remember the exact number, but it was high enough (within the top 1%) that I'm not concerned about the conditions of a loan. I can also make a big down payment, but I'm not sure whether that makes sense for a variety of reasons. It did also occur to me that there's always the option of paying everything off early and eventually having it as something I can rent out if and when buying a house seems like a sensible idea.

I'm pretty clueless with this stuff, so I have a lot of research to do. Feels good to have options though.
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

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if you can make a fairly big down payment -- at least 5% -- you should definitely do so. it means you start off with more equity in the property & are closer to paying off your mortgage insurance, at which point your monthly payments drop. when we bought a house earlier this summer we borrowed some money from meine mother to jump from 3.5 to 5% down because the difference between those two figures worked out to about $100 per month less over the next five-six years

& of course you can put a shitload down but you will want to keep some money in reserve just because spending it all at once would be a foolish thing to do

i could talk about this all day & will gladly do so if it would be helpful :santa: we didn't know a damn thing going in :eek:

ein nick has much to say as well :beer:

also didn't lummo buy a house not long ago :huh: :llama:
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by Methuselah Honeysuckle »

Our pmi just dropped off last month :gay:
vega wrote:But when I am meeting she is a round circle like egg. :oldryan: . She is eating 88% of foods and I am paying 100% bill.
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10 Oct 2021, 21:53
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by Methuselah Honeysuckle »

When we were looking at buying no townhouse and no HOA were my 2 points I wouldn't budge on. You struggle to get a return on them here b cause there's new ones popping up all the time. The HOA shit I just didn't wanna fuck with at all. Not really interested in someone telling me what I can and can't do on the property that I own.

We put 10% down on ours and it did make a big difference in price. Somewhere in the neighborhood of an extra $125 a month it ended up saving us. I wouldn't go over the standard 20% because you want something for when an issue comes up. Unless you are flush with cash in which buy the damn thing outright and avoid the bank :idea:
vega wrote:But when I am meeting she is a round circle like egg. :oldryan: . She is eating 88% of foods and I am paying 100% bill.
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but now I want to suck her soft parts.
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

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Nick wrote:Our pmi just dropped off last month :gay:
:::::::::::::::::::::::::
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by Methuselah Honeysuckle »

$97 cheaper now :gay:
vega wrote:But when I am meeting she is a round circle like egg. :oldryan: . She is eating 88% of foods and I am paying 100% bill.
Ninny wrote:
10 Oct 2021, 21:53
but now I want to suck her soft parts.
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

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morbid board eli wrote:if you can make a fairly big down payment -- at least 5% -- you should definitely do so. it means you start off with more equity in the property & are closer to paying off your mortgage insurance, at which point your monthly payments drop. when we bought a house earlier this summer we borrowed some money from meine mother to jump from 3.5 to 5% down because the difference between those two figures worked out to about $100 per month less over the next five-six years

& of course you can put a shitload down but you will want to keep some money in reserve just because spending it all at once would be a foolish thing to do

i could talk about this all day & will gladly do so if it would be helpful :santa: we didn't know a damn thing going in :eek:

ein nick has much to say as well :beer:

also didn't lummo buy a house not long ago :huh: :llama:
The down payment is something I'd probably have to comb over with my lender. I'm very comfortable putting down 20-30% for something in my price range, given that it would still leave me with plenty of breathing room to live comfortably and handle unexpected events (e.g. car dies).

I don't have a crystal ball, but if I could get it paid off in 10-15 years (and if the place lets me do it) I could see myself renting out the unit for a while and using some of that money to go toward building or buying a house. Not that I want to be a landlord, but having an asset that can generate income if need be seems like a smart idea. And using that income to go down to part time or get a lower paying but easier job once I start falling apart might be a nice option.

Like I said I'm not crazy about the hoa issue, but I'm also not ambitious when it comes to stuff like getting a hot tub, throwing big parties, or having a compost heap in my backyard. As long as the neighbors aren't nazis I'm pretty sure it won't be an issue. A small, nice house in a nice vibrant part of town is ideal, but I can't seem to find anything that fits that description. So we'll see what happens.
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by happiness and harmony »

if you can afford to it that much down you can likely qualify for a 15 year mortgage, which would be a fuckton of win
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by Methuselah Honeysuckle »

Even if you do a 30 year loan it's not like you have to take the full 30 to pay it off.

Some hoas are ridiculous with the rules. No trucks in the driveway, front doors/siding can only be certain colors, grass can't be over a certain height. Fuck everything about an hoa :fuckoff:
vega wrote:But when I am meeting she is a round circle like egg. :oldryan: . She is eating 88% of foods and I am paying 100% bill.
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10 Oct 2021, 21:53
but now I want to suck her soft parts.
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by happiness and harmony »

hoas are bullshit
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by Methuselah Honeysuckle »

The absolute kind
vega wrote:But when I am meeting she is a round circle like egg. :oldryan: . She is eating 88% of foods and I am paying 100% bill.
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10 Oct 2021, 21:53
but now I want to suck her soft parts.
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

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no hoa for our lands :gay:
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by Paste Human »

I get the feeling that the whole hoa thing is a lot bigger potential headache out East as opposed to the Midwest. I've heard horror stories out of NJ, NY, Mass, etc but nothing around my parts. I think where I'm from it really does just go toward repairs (winter will fuck old buildings up) and heat, as opposed to granting power to beady-eyed tenants who want to wield power arbitrarily. Plus having a roommate pay it would make it an afterthought. The hatred is amusing though :redneck:

Paying off the mortgage early is another thing I'd have to look into. I know my father was assessed with a penalty for paying his 30 year off early, but then a co-worker I spoke with didn't have to deal with any of that for doing the same thing.
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

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morbid board eli wrote:if you can make a fairly big down payment -- at least 5% -- you should definitely do so. it means you start off with more equity in the property & are closer to paying off your mortgage insurance, at which point your monthly payments drop. when we bought a house earlier this summer we borrowed some money from meine mother to jump from 3.5 to 5% down because the difference between those two figures worked out to about $100 per month less over the next five-six years

& of course you can put a shitload down but you will want to keep some money in reserve just because spending it all at once would be a foolish thing to do

i could talk about this all day & will gladly do so if it would be helpful :santa: we didn't know a damn thing going in :eek:

ein nick has much to say as well :beer:

also didn't lummo buy a house not long ago :huh: :llama:
:santa:

we put down 20% and then my parents and her parents paid for the closing costs. the difference we're paying per month vs renting, even with household repairs allowed us to pay them both back in 6 months. it's something like a 28% difference per month. even though the last few places we lived in were nice - having shitty landlords who either took forever on maintenance requests or just plain neglected them, especially when one considers how much we were paying in rent - well, we had had enough.

we didn't know jack shit before we began the process - did tons of research and our realtor actually helped out a lot. if you can, try to get a loan from an actual mortgage company. while it might seem like it would make sense to get one from a bank - I will say that banks are the fucking worst when it comes to getting a mortgage - you never talk to the same person twice (everything is outsourced), shit gets lost and mis-communicated and i've seen it happen to several people now where the bank ended up screwing them over on a purchase because they didn't process the paperwork correctly despite the buyers having all their shit together.

and we flat out told our realtor that we didn't want an HOA. I've heard people complain that you can't find any houses in nice areas that aren't HOA but that is a load of bullshit. I was even willing to compromise if we found a nice place that had a very minimal HOA (basically pay a reasonable amount to keep common areas mowed, community pool) Luckily we found a great place with no HOA and couldn't be happier.

Personally, I wouldn't even think about buying a condo (they don't usually have good resale value unless demand is through the roof) unless it was like beachfront or something - and even then.
rhino wrote:
20 Dec 2020, 07:48
I'm just getting buzzed up and making dumb threads :bacon:
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06 Aug 2021, 04:32
i dont think youre appreciating how much of an idiot i am
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

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20% down :al: lummo has fat doll hairs
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by Methuselah Honeysuckle »

We ended up using the mortgage company that our realtor recommended. I'm sure most have people they like to work with so it's worth asking about.

Sorta like lummo I was tired of dealing with shitty property management companies. The complex did a treatment for bed bugs but they fucked up and we got them. Instead of heating the apartments in the proper oder to keep the fuckers from running it looked more like a bingo board. Between that, the noisy drunk mexicans and sky high house rental prices we decided to buy. A house would have ended up running us somewhere around $1400 at the time and that's only gone up in the last 7 1/2 years.
vega wrote:But when I am meeting she is a round circle like egg. :oldryan: . She is eating 88% of foods and I am paying 100% bill.
Ninny wrote:
10 Oct 2021, 21:53
but now I want to suck her soft parts.
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

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morbid board eli wrote:20% down :al: lummo has fat doll hairs
to be fair it was her money. she had a CD and an old 401k from a previous job that weren't really doing anything. so we kept my retirement savings and cashed hers out.
In the meantime I payed for all the moving costs, inspections, insurance, etc so it worked out.
rhino wrote:
20 Dec 2020, 07:48
I'm just getting buzzed up and making dumb threads :bacon:
Verbal wrote:
06 Aug 2021, 04:32
i dont think youre appreciating how much of an idiot i am
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

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Nick wrote:We ended up using the mortgage company that our realtor recommended. I'm sure most have people they like to work with so it's worth asking about.

Sorta like lummo I was tired of dealing with shitty property management companies. The complex did a treatment for bed bugs but they fucked up and we got them. Instead of heating the apartments in the proper oder to keep the fuckers from running it looked more like a bingo board. Between that, the noisy drunk mexicans and sky high house rental prices we decided to buy. A house would have ended up running us somewhere around $1400 at the time and that's only gone up in the last 7 1/2 years.
we were renting a house and like I said it was nice but last summer the AC broke and it took the property management 3 months to fix it. in the summer. in florida.
there were times I would come home and it would be 90F inside the house - opening windows only does so much at that point - if we were lucky it would cool down to 80 inside at night.
It got so bad that my parents actually loaned us a portable AC unit that they keep for hurricanes (can hook up to a generator if needed) just so we could at least sleep comfortable at night.

before we moved to lummo's cowtown we were renting a townhouse for about 5 months and it was the same shit, only the dishwasher broke soon after we moved in (they never did fix it despite eventually sending someone out to work on it. cheap bastards) as well as having to deal with the property management not even bothering to clean the place after the previous tenant left (they had 3 big dogs and it seemed as if they never once cleaned the place the entire time they lived there) we cleaned it our selves including renting a steam vac - actually had to take them to small claims court over that to reimburse costs and time (had to call out of work just to get it done so we could actually clean thoroughly before bringing our stuff in). ugh.

we lived in another townhouse before that for about 5 years and it was great - the landlord was also the owner of the property so any and all issues were fixed immediately and not half assed. If one can find an arrangement like that, then renting is not so bad. property management companies can fuck off.
rhino wrote:
20 Dec 2020, 07:48
I'm just getting buzzed up and making dumb threads :bacon:
Verbal wrote:
06 Aug 2021, 04:32
i dont think youre appreciating how much of an idiot i am
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by happiness and harmony »

renting from the owner is usually a good bulwark against fuckery like that :idea:

not repairing an air conditioner any time of year in florida is the bully shits. but not doing it in summer is murder-worthy :shake: :waa:
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

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buy condo, regret nothing, prosper
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

Post by deckard »

i wanna buy a house not sure what condoms are
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

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The place I currently rent from has tons of properties, but thankfully they're awesome about repairs, and maintain my building (and presumably all of them) in such a manner that repairs have been fairly uncommon. Maybe once or twice per year, which I think is pretty good considering my building is over 105 years old.

It's just that the rent is getting to be what I would consider high. When I moved in six years ago I think it was 850. Now it's up to 970. There's a chance I could talk them down given all the new buildings that have gone up 5-10 blocks north of me over the past few years. Plus I've noticed that units in my building have stayed vacant for weeks at a time recently. There used to be a waiting list to move in.
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

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970 a month is lower than all but one place i have lived since 2009
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Re: Thinking about buying a condo. What do you think of these?

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This is a one bedroom 800 square foot apartment with no off-street parking, which can be problematic when it snows. It's also actually closer to 1000 per month when you factor in the water bill, which was originally not a separate payment that I had to make.

I love this place and neighborhood and I'm fine staying indefinitely, but assuming I stumble upon something appropriate for me that I could see myself happily living in I've reached a point where I'd rather be paying a mortgage than rent.
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