04-27-2025, 08:41 PM
DeusxMac wrote:
Buy a condominium?
God, no. Bad idea. Fees and surprise assessments will kill you. We had a condo in a resort-ish area several years ago. First few years were good… we rented it out for four months/year, which was enough to pay the mortgage for the rest of the year. We were able to use it for ourselves the rest of the year. Then the housing market crashed and rental rates plummeted. We switched to renting it annually, which barely covered the mortgage. Sold it for a loss after about 12 years.
During that 12 years, I think the condo fee tripled. We had one special assessment for some building repairs at one point (I think it was a couple thousand dollars). Got a notice right after we sold that there was going to be another assessment for roof repairs that was several thousand dollars. Their repair reserves weren’t enough to cover it because so many people moved out or foreclosed. Then that condo collapsed near Miami and the state passed laws saying condos had to have a ton of money in reserves to pay for repairs. Might not be the same everywhere, but I’d never buy a condo again.