Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
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I just looked in Brookline at a condo listing - $550k for 800sq ft, 1 bath, 1 br
Yep never moving to Boston
Yep never moving to Boston
Home buying thread
- Thread starter Pasteton
- Start date
Condo pricing is always a bit weird though. Universally it always seems to be expensive because of the amenities and finishes. Ever here in Columbus they're building luxury condos in the suburbs and I honestly have no clue who is going to pay $600-$800k for a 2k sqft condo in this region. I don't care how dank the gym is or how smooth the granite countertop is in the bathroom that is a stupid price for this area.
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I don't think I'd buy a condo or townhouse anywhere outside of Manhattan/Brooklyn or Washington DC/Georgetown. When there's easily available single family homes people are not going to want to buy condos.
The only people I feel it makes sense for in this region is if you're single and constantly out of town. But like you said in regions where you can get a detached with a yard for basically the same price as a condo it just doesn't make sense to me. In my current neighborhood one of the borders is condos. When they were building new they were ~$30k more than the detaches. Now that the neighborhood is mature the condos on the secondary market sell for as much and usually a bit less than the detaches.
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I don't get the "constantly out of town" thing although I hear that a lot as a reason to buy in high-rises here in Dallas too. What, yard guys cost 20-30 a week during the summer, thats too much of an expense? So instead I should pay $500-1000/mo in maintenance? I don't understand that. How is a condo fundamentally better for people frequently out of town than a detach?
Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
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I don't think you'll find a detached anywhere near boston for a reasonable price, there's just no way. My house was $265k and I lived about 50 miles south
Mail too. My neighbor is constantly out of town and you can tell by those fucking Super Shopper things they put on your mailbox. I'd be nervous it would be extremely obvious to any would-be burglars that I'm not home. I think there is a bit more safety and security when you're not home if you live in a skyrise.
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In the town I live in you can tell the police that you are going out of town and they will collect your mail and check on your house daily. I agree the risk of burglary is very small in a skyrise with doormen but at the same time, I have a burglar alarm and honestly there's nothing in my house worth stealing.
Might be my privilege but even when we travel the nanny is still there so she brings the mail in and turns on lights etc.
Khane
Got something right about marriage
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You guys are crazy. Condos are awesome for all the reasons houses are a pain in the ass. Don't need to worry about lawn care, snow removal, major damage repairs to the exterior of the house, etc etc etc.
Condos make sense for a lot of people who don't really like doing things like yard work or exterior upkeep but want their home to look nice.
The next property I buy will either be a new build so I can make it exactly how I want, or a condo. Fuck single family homes.
Condos make sense for a lot of people who don't really like doing things like yard work or exterior upkeep but want their home to look nice.
The next property I buy will either be a new build so I can make it exactly how I want, or a condo. Fuck single family homes.
I think Cad's argument is you could just pay landscapers to take care of all of that for you if it really isn't your bag and pay less per month than condo fees. But personally I think there is inherent value in just completely and totally taking it off your plate. But my parents have had lawncare for a few years now and it is pretty much just fire and forget. Landscapers come by, mow their grass and leave a bill (technically they have a tab.) The guy who does their lawn also does their driveway in the winter if my dad doesn't feel like busting out the snowblower.
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Definitely seems like the condo boards jew you on the fees and hire their cronys at high cost. Some of the condo maintenance fees I've seen are just out of sight and then if there's any kind of big improvement they hit you with an assessment anyway, so it's not like your fees are the end of the road.
TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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All setup in my house now finally. Had to get a lot of house stuff to make it not totally empty as I never really had much belongings to begin with.
Have some of my idiot skydiving friends living there with me. I was against roommates, but they're never there and neither am I really. That and having a $200 a month effective mortgage is fucking sweet. I'll post some pics when I get around to it!
Have some of my idiot skydiving friends living there with me. I was against roommates, but they're never there and neither am I really. That and having a $200 a month effective mortgage is fucking sweet. I'll post some pics when I get around to it!
I'm closing on my first brand new (new construction) house next month. Awesome place in a great development, 3500 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, 2 car garage, half acre, everything I was looking for. Stoked as hell to close and move in, but dealing with the fucking builder has been a giant pain in the balls. We (my fiancee and I) bought the last house available in the development so it was a straight up, non-contingent sale. Because of that, the builder and his pocket realtor know that they don't have to do a damn thing for us.
The price was decent, but some of the things that I assumed would be common-sense-included in the house (like a garage door opener, fans in the bathrooms, bath vanities with drawers, to name a few) are all add-ons. I'm cutting this dickbag checks left and right, because we don't really want to move into a house that doesn't have a lot of basic shit that we were looking for. Add on top of that the abysmal granite selections that we had to pay extra to upgrade to a decent looking slab, and more money for the bathrooms to have granite tops instead of laminates (house was north of 500k).. Blaagh.
We really wanted the house and had a short punch list (we did get him to kick in central air and a few misc things), but in hindsight an hour or two just walking around the house without the realtor following us around would have saved me a lot of headaches, and probably a decent amount of coin too.
TLDR: Armchair advice if you're buying brand new is to be thorough as fuck and assume nothing is included other than what you're looking at.
The price was decent, but some of the things that I assumed would be common-sense-included in the house (like a garage door opener, fans in the bathrooms, bath vanities with drawers, to name a few) are all add-ons. I'm cutting this dickbag checks left and right, because we don't really want to move into a house that doesn't have a lot of basic shit that we were looking for. Add on top of that the abysmal granite selections that we had to pay extra to upgrade to a decent looking slab, and more money for the bathrooms to have granite tops instead of laminates (house was north of 500k).. Blaagh.
We really wanted the house and had a short punch list (we did get him to kick in central air and a few misc things), but in hindsight an hour or two just walking around the house without the realtor following us around would have saved me a lot of headaches, and probably a decent amount of coin too.
TLDR: Armchair advice if you're buying brand new is to be thorough as fuck and assume nothing is included other than what you're looking at.
The problems with new houses is that, while they often look pretty, some developments focus on the bottom line and do some things cheaply or in the most half-assed manner possible for ROI on their part.
Palum
what Suineg set it to
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Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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I know when they do these developments and have a model home, that model home will cost twice what they quote as a normal house there by the time you add in all the extras that are in the house.
Paying extra for air tho really takes the cake. Knew a guy who bought a tract house about 25 years ago and got a huge discount on it because they had installed all kinds of shit backwards. All the doors opened the wrong way and such.
Paying extra for air tho really takes the cake. Knew a guy who bought a tract house about 25 years ago and got a huge discount on it because they had installed all kinds of shit backwards. All the doors opened the wrong way and such.
Even better advice: skip new construction entirely. You're most likely getting a oversized home depot mcmansion on an undersized lot with a lot of irregular work right down to the stud spacing. On top of that, you will be dealing with a homeowners association until the day you sell.