House vs. Condo

[Guest Julius Quasar]

With a house, you get a yard, no HOA (unless you live in a gated community, or, God Forbid, a Planned Urban Development), you can do more to your home, and not have to deal with too much BS from your neighbors, and choose which trash services, utility company services, and insurance company services you want to go with.  You get more privacy (no neighbor banging on your common wall telling you to keep it down).  Plus, if a neighbor breaks something in his place, or wants a new roof for his house, everyone in the neighborhood doesn't have to pay for it.

With a Condominium, you have lower maintenance to your residence's exterior, you can get great deals on utility companies rates and insurance policies (though the Home Owners Association insurance policies usually only cover your residence from the outer wall to the dry wall, anything in the residence/unit itself is the individual homeowner's lookout, not the association and its insurance policy's lookout), and you can know who your neighbors are much better.  There are issues with certain Home Owners' Association getting taken over by despotic assholes, steep HOA dues, and if you're late on just ONE, you face automatic liens on your home (especially in Commie-fornia).  Although a good HOA won't do that stuff to you, and having an HOA can unite neighbors against a nasty neighbor.  However, some HOA's can pass the most asinine rules, though if you got some reasonable board members on your side, or the majority of the homeowners on your side, you can overturn those rules.

I prefer a house, for the privacy if nothing else. 

[Sabre]

Hugh Laurie? :P

[Guest Para Astaroth]

A house; nothing fancy that sticks out like a sore thumb. :hehe:

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Hugh Laurie?

WHHHAAAAT!?   

Oh, wait, NOW I get it, haha! Very funny! 

A house; nothing fancy that sticks out like a sore thumb.

Yeah, exactly, no "McMansions", especially. 

[Sarita]

Hugh Laurie?

Yes please.

["User"]

This reminds of an interest rate/mortgage article that I just finished reading this morning about how people go so deep into debt that they won't be able to afford much when interest rates rise again - sucks to be them lol.

I'd prefer a house.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Definitely a house.  Nothing sucks more than the HOA wagging their finger at you just 'cause "you were making too much noise at midnight playing a video game", according to your common wall neighbors.

[Kid_Cortet]

I live in an apartment.....dont get me wrong it is great......the place is freakin huge...but i would prefer to be in a house with a yard and freely play music loudly

["User"]

Just realized something...why is this in the mature section?  I'm going to move this

[Guest FoXXX]

House.

[DZComposer]

A house. In a NON-HOA neighborhood.

Condos are pseudo-ownership in a way because you only own part of the building. Thus, there are additional contractual rules you have to follow to move into one. Buying a condo is a lot like renting an apartment, except you get some title to the property.

Houses are great. They're very private, and you can pretty much do what you want with them. Unless you live in a neighborhood with an HOA. -F-Bomb- HOAs. I don't want people telling me what plants I can or cannot plant or what design my fence has to be or where I can or  can't park my car on my own property based purely on whether or not the HOA board likes the way they look. Safety issue? Fine. I can live with that. It's probably a good idea to keep people from cultivating poison sumac in their flower beds. BUT, "I don't like the way that fence looks" us NOT an acceptable reason to tell me I can't put up a fence of that design.

Good fences make good neighbors. If I want to put up a 10' tall privacy fence to keep neighbors from looking into my windows or back yard, I should be able to.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Just realized something...why is this in the mature section?  I'm going to move this

Well, I figured it should be there because the people in the mature section are old enough to own real estate (minimum 18 years to sign all/any lease or mortgage documents).  Sorry.

A house. In a NON-HOA neighborhood.

Condos are pseudo-ownership in a way because you only own part of the building. Thus, there are additional contractual rules you have to follow to move into one. Buying a condo is a lot like renting an apartment, except you get some title to the property.

Houses are great. They're very private, and you can pretty much do what you want with them. Unless you live in a neighborhood with an HOA. -F-Bomb- HOAs. I don't want people telling me what plants I can or cannot plant or what design my fence has to be or where I can or  can't park my car on my own property based purely on whether or not the HOA board likes the way they look. Safety issue? Fine. I can live with that. It's probably a good idea to keep people from cultivating poison sumac in their flower beds. BUT, "I don't like the way that fence looks" us NOT an acceptable reason to tell me I can't put up a fence of that design.

Good fences make good neighbors. If I want to put up a 10' tall privacy fence to keep neighbors from looking into my windows or back yard, I should be able to.

^ This.  HOAs suck A-S-S.

My Uncle owns a condo in a dozen unit complex, they pay $500+ per month in dues, and they got no damn amenities, just an electric gate (paid for by the owners of the front units), a dumpster, and a green space less than 200 square feet, no gardener, since the HOA fired him.  The HOA dues cover NO UTILITIES either.  Crooked bastards. 

[DZComposer]

Condo associations generally don't pay utilities. In theory condo association dues are supposed to pay for maintenance, but in many cases they do not. Basically owning a condo is like renting, but you get title to part of the property. I don't see the benefit.

BTW, leasing doesn't pay utilities either. I currently lease an apartment and I have to pay for everything except trash pickup and internet.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Condo associations generally don't pay utilities. In theory condo association dues are supposed to pay for maintenance, but in many cases they do not. Basically owning a condo is like renting, but you get title to part of the property. I don't see the benefit.

Generally they don't, but I've know some that do pay utilities, some pay for communal lighting/watering of the green spaces with sprinklers, others pay even the utilities of private units.  A loft building in LA I looked at had $550 dues per month, but that covered security, trash pickup, general bldg. maintenance, security, insurance from the outer wall to the drywall, the homeowner's personal unit's gas bill, basic cable bill, local phone bill, and water usage bill, but not the electricity usage bill, but yeah I know what you mean.

I still don't want a condo, you and everyone else I know says, "the benefits outweigh the burdens" and I agree.  I know some people who owned them that hated them, though I know a few who loved them (still do), but w/e.  A house is usually more desirable.

BTW, leasing doesn't pay utilities either. I currently lease an apartment and I have to pay for everything except trash pickup and internet.

I know.  Usually leasing or rent doesn't pay utilities, though I've seen it done before, but it's not a general thing, since it's too expensive on the landlord's part.  Hell, you'd get a fully furnished unit before you got utilities paid for. 

Lofts may seem cool when you're younger, but when you're older you'd say "What the f*** was I thinking!?"  The "Gentrified Former [Fart] Factory Lofts" could lose their value and appeal real quick (they're usually located in crummy neighborhoods).  Your typical "condo" or townhouse can be a pain, you got your neighbors taking your parking space, or blocking your garage, and banging on the common wall and saying "Shut up in there!".

Nothing beats a single family residence detached [house] in a non HOA neighborhood.  Gated communities are nice, but don't always keep out intruders.

[Legion]

A house, why?

Because I don't like being disturbed whilst I go about my business on the internet. That and I can play my music as loud as I please.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

^ Very good.  Personally, I'd like a spooky old Victorian house with a large porch, a good sized basement, on a large [weed choked] lot, in a quiet neighborhood (and possibly next door to a cemetery).  :lol:

[Legion]

^Sounds like my kind of neighborhood, I'd love a place like that.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

NEVER buy a timeshare condo.  Especially in Aspen, Colorado.  You can only ski during the WINTER, after all. 

["User"]

NEVER buy a timeshare condo.

Lol, why not?  I've been a part of time share programs for a number of years and they're kick ass. 

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Lol, why not?  I've been a part of time share programs for a number of years and they're kick ass.

Well, I won't lie, some timeshare condos are okay, in like Hawaii or any other "Good-weather-all-year-long!" place.  But some places, like Aspen, you can only get to use it 1 or 2 weeks a year, and the only time Aspen is really fun is during the ski weather, only available in the winter, and you might not be able to use your Aspen timeshare condo in the winter.  Also, some 3rd world countries have the timeshares, but the area is unstable, due to civil unrest, wars, etc.

["User"]

Well, I won't lie, some timeshare condos are okay, in like Hawaii or any other "Good-weather-all-year-long!" place.  But some places, like Aspen, you can only get to use it 1 or 2 weeks a year, and the only time Aspen is really fun is during the ski weather, only available in the winter, and you might not be able to use your Aspen timeshare condo in the winter.  Also, some 3rd world countries have the timeshares, but the area is unstable, due to civil unrest, wars, etc.

I'm with RCI, which is one of the best rated ones out there.

https://www.rci.com/RCI/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_RCI

It's international, so our timeshare is pretty much anywhere in the world. :)

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Well those are okay (my security guard friend from San Diego that I told you about has one of those.). But some timeshares are bad.

Anyways, whichever you choose, house or condo, be careful how you buy, make sure that it wasn't built on a toxic waste dump or something like that.  Inspecting the site is not enough, you gotta do some research.