Читать книгу The Ten Commandments of Condo Buying: The Most Important Things You Should Know Before Buying - Dan S. Barnabic - Страница 6

2 BEWARE OF BARGAIN PRICES WITH HIGH MAINTENANCE FEES

If you come across a condo unit that’s selling at a rock-bottom bargain price, think twice before signing a contract. Condominium complexes may have no choice but to sell their units for a song – sometimes as low as $25,000 per unit. Because of mismanagement or poor construction, sometimes coupled with a drop in the real estate market, these complexes may have depleted their reserve funds to cover maintenance and repairs. They compensate for low selling prices by charging higher than normal monthly maintenance fees.

In other words, what you save on the price of the unit, you’ll end up paying back in higher maintenance costs. Over time, you may find yourself imprisoned in a financially troubled complex with a unit that’s nearly impossible to resell.

Many buyers of these “bargains” are driven by the notion that writing a monthly check for higher carrying costs will pay off in the long run once the market turns around. They think that, when they eventually sell their unit, its value will have increased to the point that it will recoup the costs they’ve racked up in paying those higher maintenance costs.

Unfortunately, it may take months – or, more likely, years – for the market to improve. These unfortunate owners may end up losing money. Worse yet, they may be bombarded by a myriad of ongoing demands from their condo board through special assessments to replenish the reserve fund, service the common loan, and pay for legal fees, etc. Should unit owners be unwilling or unable to meet these demands, the board will place a lien on the units and eventually take them over and sell them – at a bargain price – to the next crop of unsuspecting buyers.

Historically, financially weak condo complexes are prone to being wound down, through voluntary or involuntary bankruptcies.

Bottom line: Beware the marketing schemes of desperate condominium complexes promising better days in the future.

• STEER CLEAR OF CONDO COMPLEXES THAT OFFER UNITS AT BARGAIN PRICES BUT WITH EXCESSIVELY HIGH MONTHLY MAINTENANCE FEES