Questions to ask when buying a Condo

Has that neat condo complex coming up on your way to work been playing in a constant loop in your mind? Perhaps you've just read about a great condo complex in a neighborhood that's said to be the next biggest thing in your town. Or maybe you're thinking that living in a home where everything is compact and kind of expertly taken care of by the condo board would be a great idea. The condo lifestyle really works out for lots of people. It's kind of like living in a retirement community, minus the food. There's a pool, a gym, a concierge, security – you just have to worry about nothing at all. So what do you need to know? Are there any specific questions to ask when buying a condo?

When you've made your mind up that living in a condo is exactly what you need to go for, it's time to learn more about it before stepping in. You need to ask the right questions of your real estate agent, the homeowners' association, the people you'll call your neighbors one day, and so on.

It's difficult to know what questions to ask when buying condo when you don't really know the complex. Ideally, you'd like to sit in on the condo board meetings to see what kinds of problems are brought up. If they won't let you sit in on a board meeting, you can try to finagle a few meeting minutes from past gatherings to read. If the condo has an existing owner, you could just go and ask them for copies of the minutes.

It would be a bad idea to interview the condo manager – the person whose full-time job is to make sure that the entire place runs smoothly. Nothing can be worse than life in a condo where the manager is unresponsive or uncaring. Sometimes, condos have no managers at all. You just have residents coming together to make decisions. This will cost you less in maintenance fees of course. But it can be a rather difficult experience getting a motley bunch of ego-driven people to pull together who don't want to give an inch to anyone else. Basically, if a condo complex doesn't have professional management, you want to try to see if there is a better option available elsewhere.

There are a few basic questions to ask when buying a condo. For instance, since condos don't come with garages or attics, do residents get any personal storage space to put stuff in? How about homeowner’s insurance? Condos usually get a policy for the whole building. You want to take a look at the policy to see what exactly they cover. The policy shouldn’t be an old and outdated one that doesn't offer enough coverage. Ideally, the policy will cover all your belongings.

The homeowners’ association fees you need to pay can be quite exorbitant. You want to make sure that you can live with it. You'll probably have asked someone who lives there for a proper itemized breakdown of what exactly goes into the homeowners’ association fees. You don't get a tax break for this, you have to be aware. If there is a lot of delinquency when it comes to paying monthly dues, you probably don't want to get caught up in such a situation.

Basically, you need to go in with your eyes wide open when you buy a condo.