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with a condo often parking spaces are an extra cost. also there are "condo fees" so make sure you know what those fees are as they will greatly effect the monthly price.

Man, smurf condos.  They're just apartments you have to buy.

I own a condo. It's just under 1000sf in a small 6 unit building close to the parks and T but outside the overpriced areas of the city. I'm paying more than I was paying for an equally sized apartment in the same area, but I'm investing instead of handing every dollar of rent over to some random dude who doesn't give a smurf about bettering my home. Of course, right now I'm paying all my money to some giant bank (In the last 2 years, I've paid a couple dozen grand and nearly every dollar went to interest) but that's just the way it is for the first, what, like 15 years(?) of any mortgage. But the good news is that around here the market isn't tanking. It's not rising as fast as it normally does, but it's still going up and that's where I'm going to see a profit even though I won't be here more than a couple more years. I paid $290K about 2 years ago and the 2 places upstairs have since sold for $330K and $350K. If I stay 2 more years could conceivably make about 100K...maybe not, but $50K certainly wouldn't be unreasonable.

So yeah. I dig the condo. $300K was my budget so I was looking at:
Downtown...HA! Nothing. $400 might buy a couple hundred square feet with no windows. No thanks.
Burbs...I could have gotten a small house with no yard maybe 45 minutes out the city and driven in to work every day. Shyah. No thanks.
Instead, I went to the end of the T where I could afford but still be near everything, have enough room to live, share a tiny yard (but have access to parks), and buy into an area that was going nowhere but up.

Anyhooz, I don't know your financial math, but if you think you can pay your rent and still save up to buy a decent house in a couple years in an area you actually want to live, then keep renting! But if you can get in on a cheap condo now and put up with it for 4 or so years you'll almost surely come out of the deal in a far better position with the cash to be wherever you want to be.

They protect against STD's and pregnanc....wait, did you say "condos"?

Or maybe it's nice over there, I haven't been to the east side a whole lot since I've moved back (though I've seen the riverside area, and I know that's worse than it used to be).

CrashingtehWarehouse wrote:

They protect against STD's and pregnanc...

I should say so.  Who would want to have sex with this?

bratboy wrote:

sad

Here's the single biggest downside. I found 2 of what i think are cockroaches. Since i've enver had them or seen them, i can only guess, but i've ruled out every other bug. I'm not sure if i have them because of my neighbors, or the major tree trimming they did yesterday, but this sucks. The HOA is scheduling an exterior spraying. I need to call someone about the interior.

These are very small. Well, not small like ants. But small compared to there. I just talked to my daughter on the phone. She was here when we got back from vacation and she thinks they showed up while we were gone.

justine wrote:

These are very small. Well, not small like ants. But small compared to there. I just talked to my daughter on the phone. She was here when we got back from vacation and she thinks they showed up while we were gone.

Or maybe your daughter left them? Nah, coincidence, I'm sure.

We are battling with ants in our (second floor!) apartment right now.  I don't know that I've ever had a place in Texas that didn't have ants at some point, no matter how clean.  One of them somehow got in my clothes and bit me yesterday morning while I was getting dressed.

justine wrote:

bratboy wrote:

We are battling with ants in our (second floor!) apartment right now.  I don't know that I've ever had a place in Texas that didn't have ants at some point, no matter how clean.  One of them somehow got in my clothes and bit me yesterday morning while I was getting dressed.

Then you already know the downsides to condo living basically. Any problems you have in an apt, you're still going to have in a  condo, but generally the neighbors care a lot more about their condo/building.

The ants are in his place because it's an apartmentt? They don't go into houses in the same are?

That sounds like a downside to living where they live, not a downside to living in a condo...

edited for stupid mistake

Last edited by Kendall (2008-08-21 5:47 pm)