real estate!!

[Zen]

Good for you!

I'll probably be moving to a condo within two years, I wish it were a cool, modern place downtown but our downtown has been gentrified and prices are out of this world. Well, my world anyway

[tulip]

Good for you!

I'll probably be moving to a condo within two years, I wish it were a cool, modern place downtown but our downtown has been gentrified and prices are out of this world. Well, my world anyway

That's one of the reasons I moved away from DC.

[IFjane]

Congratulations, Tulip!!! How exciting!

Where downtown? I get to Richmond every now and then....and a couple very very good TE friends live down there. One even works downtown.

[KayTee]

Sounds awesome, Tulip! And does your new condo happen to have a river view? Living there should be quite convenient for access to great local bike routes. (BTW, I'm the TE-er who works in downtown RIC.)

[Trek420]

Congratulations! And selfishly on my part, whew!

I'm just glad anytime I hear/read of someone buying. Hey, instead of reserving a cool place downtown you could just buy my pad instead (after I do the hard part of course, living through the construction mess and finish a remodel for you ).

It's not cool or near downtown, more on the cute, lotsa greenery side. But I'm a 2 mile flat bike ride to BART and from there the wonders of downtown SF and the Bay Area.

Right now the kitchen looks like this though.

Condos, the good news - you're not an owner. The bad news - you're not an owner. This can mean rules, more rules, delays and missmanagement unless you luck out and have a real good HOA.

HOA fees are not tax deductable so consider if you can afford them how much more house could you buy?

But the flip side is your home needs a new roof, gutters cleaned, sidewalks repaired .... you're free to be off riding

[tulip]

Thanks, all. It's quite exciting. It'll be nice to own something and pay less than I'm paying in rent. And it'll be so cool and sleek, just my style!

Jane and KayTee, the prospective place is downtown; there is lots of redevelopment going on in the area. The Fan is out of my budget at the moment, and I'm a city girl and I am not interested in the 'burbs. I like other parts of Richmond, but this place was just right. Richmond has a great program to encourage preservation of historic structures: 10 year property tax abatement. I won't be there that long, as I would like to get a bigger place when my situation allows in a year or two. It's very small, but I used to live in Paris, and it's a pretty good size for Paris (okay so Richmond isn't quite Paris, but at this price, I can go to Paris a few times a year)!

Trek, yeah, I debated about a condo vs. a house. My budget is really tight given the divorce and my budding consulting business. Plus now that I live alone, I'm not wild about being in a single family house all by myself. I also travel alot and don't want to leave an empty house as much as I would have to. And my other houses (both single family) were alot of work! I know there are condo fees, but they are low in this case.

This will be the third place I have bought, so it's not a new process. I'm still looking for other places in case this one should fall through for some reason.

[Zen]

Richmond is the Paris of Virginia, dincha know?

[Mr. Bloom]

HOA fees are not tax deductable so consider if you can afford them how much more house could you buy?

But the flip side is your home needs a new roof, gutters cleaned, sidewalks repaired .... you're free to be off riding

Amen...but while HoA fees are not deductible, neither are home maintenance expenses. For my condo (home #2), my fees are only 2/3 of what I pay Larry The Lawn Guy to cut the grass at Home #1...but at Home #2, I worry about nothing outside. I consider it quite a good deal...

Condos, the good news - you're not an owner. The bad news - you're not an owner. This can mean rules, more rules, delays and missmanagement unless you luck out and have a real good HOA.

I encourage you to get on the board for the HoA and consider a couple things:

• Many new condos keep the HoA fees way too low and don't reserve for long term maintence; it's better to pay a little more monthly now, then to have to cough up a huge increase or assessment for a problem later.
• Make sure the rules balance personal freedom AND maintaining property values. What one owner views as wacky and cool may be a huge deterent to potential buyers...and that hurts value. By the same token, a bunch of rigid rules won't necessarily help values either.
• Hire a management company to manage day/day stuff and be the "hammer" when something goes awry.

My condo is 20 years old, but we have a six figure reserve and haven't ever had an assessment or had an increase in dues in 10 years despite:
- maintaining all the grounds,
- resurfacing the parking lot,
- replacing all the cedar shake roofs
- and dealing with ongoing unit repairs.