I have been considering buying a home for myself and I keep going back and forth between buying a condo or a detached single family home. I bet some of you have been faced with the same dilemma or maybe you are currently considering buying as well. Hopefully we will both find this information useful and be able to determine which is best for each of us.
Let’s start with the pluses of buying a condo in Rancho San Diego. The biggest attraction to a condo for me is that there is much less maintenance and work involved with owning one. I would not have to mow the lawn, weed gardens or sweep walkways. Because I would not be responsible for the landscaping, my water bill would also be lower. Then there is the exterior maintenance, many times the HOA is responsible for maintaining the roof, the stucco, the exterior wood of the building. If I buy a single family home and the roof starts to leak, it would be my responsibility to get it fixed, along with slab leaks, broken sewer lines and lots of other repairs. I also really enjoy a pool and with a condo I would not be responsible for cleaning and caring for it.
So, what are the negatives to buying a condo? Well, first and foremost there is no HOA fee. These fees in the Rancho San Diego and El Cajon area are about $200 - $350 per month. These fees can go up at anytime and special assessments can be added as needed. These fees are forever so even if I pay off the mortgage on a condo, I would still be responsible for a monthly payment. The second concern is that most condos are attached to another unit. I will have neighbors very, very close and depending on who owns or rents the attached unit, it could be horrible!
What are the pluses buying a single family home? Number one for me would be more privacy. There would be some space between me and my neighbors. I would have a driveway and parking would not be as much of a concern. The exterior would look the way I want it, with no limitations set by an HOA and the rules and regulations. I would not have to pay the monthly HOA fees.
Finally, what are the negatives of owning a single family home? The responsibility for the landscaping and all of the building maintenance would fall on me. Single family homes tend to be more expensive than a condo. In my price range I can afford a condo built after 1980 but the single family homes in my price range were built in the 50’s – 60’s and they tend to have much less closet space! Also, if I buy a single family home it will not have a pool. I do not want to have to be responsible for maintaining it and I would have to pay additional insurance.
So those are my thoughts on condos versus single family homes. What are your thoughts? Do you have anything to add?
1 comment:
This is really interesting blog post and gives good info to the readers. That information would really help those people, who are interested in setting up their residence.
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