I want you guys to discuss house vs condos

[stepee]

Like say if I wanted to buy a place that is for me to live in and I very VERY much do not want a yard and would need that to be paved. And considering my main concern is to be close to a downtown as possible and that I never plan to have children, you can see why at least in passing a condo might sound appealing to me.

 

I figure investment wise a house is better but I’m not sure how much so and i’m sure there are plenty of other things too.

 

I have a feeling most people are anti condo but whatever opinions you have I’d be interested in. I’m just starting to think about the idea here so I don’t have any hard opinions myself yet. I would also want to sound proof at least one room in the condo and would need to be able to do that. 

I also don’t mind the hoa as much with a condo since I wouldn’t really have any outside area that I’d have to worry about keeping up appearances with and it just feels different in a maintained building like that. But I would not accept hoa with a house.

[TheLeon]

I’m probably never going to be in a position to buy anything, but I never want a house. Would love a condo tho

[Brian]

I don’t see an issue with a condo outside of HOA and being subject to its bullshit. Owning anything that builds equity is a positive. Good luck on your search. 

[Guest]

The first thing to do is rid yourself the idea of home ownership as an investment. The primary dwelling place is most often somewhere between a net negative and break even for people when you factor in the TCO vs. renting!

 

Now that you have that out of the way, condos/townhomes/etc. typically have smaller maintenance costs over the long run, and it sounds like such a thing fits your lifestyle well!

[Ominous]

Condos can be harder / more expensive to get financing on. Loan level pricing adjustments, HUD approved lists, budget approval. 
I'd never live in a PUD or condo. 

 

HOA dues can go to a yard company if you own a SFR. Also owning a condo doesn't exclude you from needing to do upkeep on your "house". Doesn't matter if it's attached or detached, a roof isn't going to pay for itself. 

 

You'd need to review the covenants, conditions and restrictions before buying to know what the associate does, and does not, pay for. Many people make incorrect assumptions about what is covered that actually leaves them under insured in the event of a loss. 

 

[Fizzzzle]

Disclaimer: don't pay attention to me, I don't own a home and probably never will.

 

Depends on if you are viewing your home as an asset or as... well, a home. Houses will appreciate in value in ways that condos can't because you actually own the land. As long as the population keeps going up in an area, land in that area will appreciate in value. Condos are, by their very nature, more volatile. Relatively speaking, anyway. You own a piece of housing that degrades on a piece of land you don't own.

 

That said, if I ever do own my own home (lol), I don't think I'd think of it as an investment. As such, condos honestly sound pretty good.

 

If you want to be as close to downtown as possible, there's no fucking way you're going to afford a detached home unless it's in the rust belt.

 

You remember MILLION DOLLAR WATERFRONT PROPERTY? Now it's million-dollar city-front property. A detached home that's close enough to city amenities so that you don't have to drive 5 miles to do anything is the real prime real estate. My dad owns a house like that and it's almost doubled in value over the last five years. He massively overpaid for it in 2002, but if he sold it now he'd walk away with like a cool million after the dust settled.

[SuperSpreader]

4 hours ago, stepee said:

Like say if I wanted to buy a place that is for me to live in and I very VERY much do not want a yard and would need that to be paved. And considering my main concern is to be close to a downtown as possible and that I never plan to have children, you can see why at least in passing a condo might sound appealing to me.

 

I figure investment wise a house is better but I’m not sure how much so and i’m sure there are plenty of other things too.

 

I have a feeling most people are anti condo but whatever opinions you have I’d be interested in. I’m just starting to think about the idea here so I don’t have any hard opinions myself yet. I would also want to sound proof at least one room in the condo and would need to be able to do that. 

I also don’t mind the hoa as much with a condo since I wouldn’t really have any outside area that I’d have to worry about keeping up appearances with and it just feels different in a maintained building like that. But I would not accept hoa with a house.

 

Condos are great for all those reasons. My first home was a condo and I sold it for 325k profit. I sold my second condo for 200k profit and now live in a home I'll probably only break even on. 

 

Try to do new construction because if you work direct with a builder they will cover all closing costs and sometimes have banks with favorable financing terms. Also with new construction you're getting in at a lower price point assuming it eventually goes up. The builder will artificially keep HOA costs down during construction. Another plus of a new build is that there's no offer war, if it's available you put the deposit down and it's yours. They'll typically fix anything you find wrong during the first year is ownership and you'll have some customization options (floors, counters, appliances, window coverings, wall colors) 

[TUFKAK]

I’m going to both agree and disagree with sbl here. 
 

yes your primary residence isn’t an investment so you should prioritize aspects of your home you will enjoy. For me that was a yard, fireplace and a room I could turn into a game room. 
 

But at the same time you should consider the attributes that will lend to appreciation in the home.

 

I went house over condo as where I live I wanted out of the city into the suburbs in a space I’d enjoy over a condo/townhome. The cost of my house here would be 2 and 1 at best back in the city or alameda. But, if I had bought in the city or alameda the appreciation of that home would be greater than the house here.

 

in summation, buy what best fits your life but still consider it an investment in the periphery of your choices.

[SuperSpreader]

10 hours ago, TUFKAK said:

in summation, buy what best fits your life but still consider it an investment in the periphery of your choices.

 

This is important both ways. With my first condo we modified it to taste and that means when we sold we had to modify it to others taste, which costs money. So consider with any changes, home or condo if they are too niche or what it would cost to make it more appealing in the future if you sold.

 

Now we take the approach of making everything as classic and matching the house as possible, but modernized. We have the quirky stuff be our things that fill the home, which later easily fit in a box when we stage and don't require painters, carpenters, electricians. 

[SuperSpreader]

Oh, another thing, pets!!

 

Our first condo we had no pets and we lived in Uptown Oakland by the Fox theater, it was an awesome urban lifestyle and while the place was small we had the lake, lots of food options, Bart to the city, everything right outside our door. 

 

When we moved to San Diego we moved to the "Civita" neighborhood which is a planned walkable community with a huge park, so we got dogs. But this also meant I was walking them 4x a day. This gets exhausting and time consuming especially if you have meetings. 

 

Now we live in a house with a yard, we do 1 walk a day and the rest of the time they spend time in the backyard. It's easier on us and easier on the dogs. Sometimes they'd drag their feet for the late night walks because they were tired but I needed them to pee for the night, now it's just, he goes out, pees and runs back in and pops into his bed for the night, way easier. 

 

Urban spaces like Uptown Oakland would suuuuuuccck to do that late night walk in. There isn't a ton of green space and it can get sketch and empty at night. 

[SuperSpreader]

Another learning: don't use black grout in bathrooms, the only thing you can readily buy is white caulk so maintenance is a time sink chore. 

[Brian]

35 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

 

This is important both ways. With my first condo we modified it to taste and that means when we sold we had to modify it to others taste, which costs money. So consider with any changes, home or condo if they are too niche or what it would cost to make it more appealing in the future if you sold.

 

Now we take the approach of making everything as classic and matching the house as possible, but modernized. We have the quirky stuff be our things that fill the home, which later easily fit in a box when we stage and don't require painters, carpenters, electricians. 

The only counter is that if you plan to live there a long time, then make decisions that will make you happy.  ROI shouldn’t be a factor unless you know you plan to sell in the short term.  

[TwinIon]

16 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

Disclaimer: don't pay attention to me, I don't own a home and probably never will.

 

Depends on if you are viewing your home as an asset or as... well, a home. Houses will appreciate in value in ways that condos can't because you actually own the land. As long as the population keeps going up in an area, land in that area will appreciate in value. Condos are, by their very nature, more volatile. Relatively speaking, anyway. You own a piece of housing that degrades on a piece of land you don't own.

 

That said, if I ever do own my own home (lol), I don't think I'd think of it as an investment. As such, condos honestly sound pretty good.

 

If you want to be as close to downtown as possible, there's no fucking way you're going to afford a detached home unless it's in the rust belt.

 

You remember MILLION DOLLAR WATERFRONT PROPERTY? Now it's million-dollar city-front property. A detached home that's close enough to city amenities so that you don't have to drive 5 miles to do anything is the real prime real estate. My dad owns a house like that and it's almost doubled in value over the last five years. He massively overpaid for it in 2002, but if he sold it now he'd walk away with like a cool million after the dust settled.

Yeah, it's trite, but when it comes to land it really is location location location. Buy a home that is in a desirable location that is likely to remain desirable (close to city, close to water, etc.) and the value will, at the very least, keep pace. Buy somewhere cheap, and it will probably be a net cost over time.

 

The other thing is timing, which is harder to judge. When we bought our home in 2015, I felt like we'd missed mistimed the market and overpaid, but we were happy to at least be homeowners. Our home is probably worth double what we paid (not taking our significant renovations into account). The location is good, but we also happened to buy right before a ton of work started to be done in the nearby area, so having a single family home 5min from so much high end shopping, transit, etc. has really worked out in our favor.

[SmugPrick]

Own a condo and 2 houses. Condo barely appreciates in value, houses on the other hand go up. My house in WA doesn’t have much of a yard, just a patio really. But then again a lot of houses out there are like that. Just look around and find something that suits your needs

[stepee]

20 hours ago, SmugPrick said:

Own a condo and 2 houses. Condo barely appreciates in value, houses on the other hand go up. My house in WA doesn’t have much of a yard, just a patio really. But then again a lot of houses out there are like that. Just look around and find something that suits your needs

 

Yeah I’ve thought about in the future should i get into the housing game maybe do a condo to live in and a house as an investment. Do you rent out your houses?

 

Also thanks for the replies guys, all good stuff to process!

[skillzdadirecta]

The only issue I have with condo are those damn HOA's.

[skillzdadirecta]

On 4/23/2023 at 8:21 PM, TUFKAK said:

I’m going to both agree and disagree with sbl here. 
 

yes your primary residence isn’t an investment so you should prioritize aspects of your home you will enjoy. For me that was a yard, fireplace and a room I could turn into a game room. 
 

But at the same time you should consider the attributes that will lend to appreciation in the home.

 

I went house over condo as where I live I wanted out of the city into the suburbs in a space I’d enjoy over a condo/townhome. The cost of my house here would be 2 and 1 at best back in the city or alameda. But, if I had bought in the city or alameda the appreciation of that home would be greater than the house here.

 

in summation, buy what best fits your life but still consider it an investment in the periphery of your choices.

Yeah my Ex bought her house back in 2017 for 700K plus and it's now worth damn near 2 Million and will only go up because Apple is building a massive campus down the street from her. She bought a second house for her mother and sister for 8K plus and that one may not go up much more but I suspect it will. Homes can still be an investment if you manage to have the capital to buy and get into the right place at the right time.

 

I just bought a house in Jersey with my parents and we got a pretty good deal I think for the neighborhood. I'm probably not gonna buy in my neighborhood in LA because homes out there don't go for below a million and I love the neighborhood but unless something changes, I'm not gonna be able to afford a million dollar house especially considering what you get for the money. My plan is to buy out of state, Jersey and North carolina and have family live them while I continue to live my bachelor life in LA. 

[stepee]

1 hour ago, skillzdadirecta said:

The only issue I have with condo are those damn HOA's.

 

Yeah really dislike how you are stuck with a HOA. I’m sure that’ll make my sound proof room idea harder too.

 

It’s also funny how expensive the monthly is at some I’ve looked at like you buy the condo but still pay the $1200 a month in total dues and taxes and it’s gettin damn near to just the same price as rent. And I’m talking that much a month if you had the condo paid off, that’s just additional for the hoa and taxes and shit.