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Housing question...what''s your preference?

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zoebartlett

zoebartlett

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Which type of house would be your first choice to buy? Why? Why wouldn''t you choose the other options?

1. An attached condo/townhouse (garden style, side by side, or other)
2. A detached condo (housing development where the grounds are kept up by a landscaping company and you pay a fee to an association)
3. A house -- no condo (whatever the type) for me!


I''m interested in seeing what people choose and what people think the benefits of one over the others are.
 
HOUSE. I hate living near people and I hate to have to deal with neighbor's crap, be it their unleashed animals, yard waste, loud parties, etc.


Plus condos are almost always harder to sell and I have seen many people get screwed over by their associations.
 
Date: 5/15/2008 5:59:10 PM
Author: neatfreak
HOUSE. I hate living near people and I hate to have to deal with neighbor''s crap, be it their unleashed animals, yard waste, loud parties, etc.


Plus condos are almost always harder to sell and I have seen many people get screwed over by their associations.
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Ditto...except even in a house you can''t get away from the neighbor''s unleashed animals, yard waste, or loud parties. And that''s even with a pretty strict HOA!!

Our next house will be out of a development and on some private property somewhere....hopefully. Just don''t want to have to live too far out.
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I don''t like condos. They are harder to sell where I live as well.
 
Date: 5/15/2008 6:15:33 PM
Author: luckystar112
Date: 5/15/2008 5:59:10 PM

Author: neatfreak

HOUSE. I hate living near people and I hate to have to deal with neighbor''s crap, be it their unleashed animals, yard waste, loud parties, etc.



Plus condos are almost always harder to sell and I have seen many people get screwed over by their associations.
Click to expand...

Ditto...except even in a house you can''t get away from the neighbor''s unleashed animals, yard waste, or loud parties. And that''s even with a pretty strict HOA!!


Our next house will be out of a development and on some private property somewhere....hopefully. Just don''t want to have to live too far out.
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Let me rephrase, a house NOT in a development.
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My preferences have changed as I realise what kind of space we actually need and what we can afford.

Honestly, we''ll never "need" more than a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom. And I prefer to live close the the High Street and train station. So for us that means a terraced or semi-detached. I want my own garden/yard.

Choice A!
 
House - but DH and I both grew up in the midwest, so condos pretty much remind us of our college apartment days (NOT good memories there). If I own, I want to have ALL the decisions about my property and I don''t want to hear my neighbors coming and going. Right now we live in a duplex, and since we have quiet neighbors, it''s very tolerable, but I wouldn''t want to own it.

And - condo association=ick. In his last apt, DH rented in a building where most people owned. He put a grill out on his balcony, and instead of someone coming and knocking on his door to tell him it was against the condo policy, it showed up in the condo minutes. Lovely.

Now, if we lived in a major metro area, I would go A all the way :)
 
House! FI and I like our space, and not having super-close neighbors. We''ve had enough of noisy neighbors for a lifetime! We''re also planning to have a nice backyard with an overhang, a concrete patio, a bit of lawn, and a big vegetable garden. We''ll see if we get it
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Living in a city, I probably have a slightly different take on this. For us, the options are more like:
A) small apartment/condo in a high-rise, with a doorman, elevator, etc.
B) larger apartment in a low-rise building, without a doorman, elevator, etc.
C) brownstone/walk-up with several stories, possibly a private roofdeck or garden area, but still attached to the other brownstones around it

We currently live in option A and love it, but have friends in both B and C who love it too.

Cons: We contend with some noise from the neighbors if they're having construction done or something, but it rarely bothers me... most residents are older and pretty well-behaved.
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Recently we had a problem with somebody smoking on our floor, but they seem to have stopped, so all is well. Our particular building doesn't have an on-site garage or pool, which would both be nice. Oh, and DH would love to have an outdoor space for a grill.

Pros: I am spoiled by having a doorman, front desk people, and maintenance staff. It makes me feel safe and taken care of, plus its convenient to have somebody right there if your sink clogs or spotlight bulb needs changing. Our condo fees cover cable, gas, heat, air, water, etc. so we don't worry about monthly bills for that stuff. And of course, location location location... our particular spot in the city is always in demand, so resale is never a problem. My dad recently listed my old condo and it sold for asking price in under a week.

We've talked about looking at brownstones to potentially gain some more space, but we're going to wait til the baby gets here, and see what DH's job situation is, before we make any major housing decisions. Otherwise, we'll probably head out to the 'burbs. At this point, I'm so accustomed to condo-living that I wouldn't mind transitioning into a condo neighborhood in the 'burbs before we purchased an actual house.
 
House. With a yard. A big one. So TGuy will have to mow the lawn.
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House. Shared walls=not so much.
 
We currently live in option #1 (garden-style condo). It''s in a fairly rural area, but it''s close to the highways and things to do. The view from our condo''s living room is so pretty -- right now, beautiful cherry or crab apple trees (one white and one dark pink), large boulders, and a good sized side yard. We don''t have too many people who use the entrance near our unit, and we never hear our neighbors (or the street noise at all). So I think it''s pretty much the perfect view from our building. The inside is very basic -- typical apartment-like but nicely done (thanks to the previous owner who redid the whole place not long before he sold it to us). I guess the point of typing all that out is that for an attached condo, what we have is pretty great, as far as landscaping around our place goes. I really like that about where we are.

I like the idea of a detached condo because, well, I hate yard work. I''m all for paying someone else to do it, personally, and if it''s professionally done, all the better.

I think when we look for a new place, we''ll go with a house but we''re open to looking at detached condos also.

Why are they so much harder to sell?
 
I think a condo is a good option for city dwellers or couples who just don't want to worry about any yardwork. Though if you find a house you love, Zoe, you can always have somebody else mow!
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I'd have to say I'd choose any option that isn't cookie cutter. We've moved around several times and lived in a very old single-family home, a new single family home, modern apartments and now we're in a 1920's apartment. I'd take this old apartment with original hardwoods and interesting features over the new single family home any day--I hated living in that house, it had no character at all.
 
Houses or apartments with character are the best, aren''t they, NEL? Your place sounds wonderful!
 
ny times article on condos

I just saw the above article recently, thought you might find it interesting.

I live in a townhouse, with plenty of space, great neighbors, so as townhouses go, its great. I'm a grad student, and was single when I bought it, and so didn't want to have to worry about mowing and things.

My biggest issues are the restrictions that come from from living with a condo association, which I really don't like (my opinions would extend to most HOAs as well). I don't like restrictions on what I can do outside or having to ask permission to do everything (like dig up a dead bush). And though they take care of snow and lawn and stuff, I know I could do it cheaper on my own--I hate overpaying for things I could do myself.

Condo associations are bad enough when they work well, but when they don't, it can be disastrous, like in the above article. Or if they don't build up enough reserves, you can be hit with huge assessments. You have to pay your money every month, but you can't always control how its spent.

I should add as a caveat that I grew up out in the country, with lots of space. I'm fairly handy and like doing things myself, so condo living is pretty opposite to what I'm used to and what I want. Some people might not mind the restrictions that come with townhouse/condo living, but I won't do it again (I'm moving in a year when I graduate). It was a good choice for where my life was the past few years, but not anymore.
 
I don''t mind condos, being that I live in one right now, but we live about 2 miles away from the local University, so resale should be really easy. And most of the students are either med students or older people (I have 3 neighbors, upstairs, late 30s professional lady, next door (we share a 6 foot kitchen wall with her)a female med student, and the other neighbor (30 foot wall shared) with a elderly lady who doesn''t make any noise, ever).
 
Date: 5/15/2008 5:59:10 PM
Author: neatfreak
HOUSE. I hate living near people and I hate to have to deal with neighbor's crap, be it their unleashed animals, yard waste, loud parties, etc.


Plus condos are almost always harder to sell and I have seen many people get screwed over by their associations.
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Ditto. Our realtor told us to look for a house, the others are harder to sell and don't hold their resale value like a house (that is just what our realtor said).

I like houses when we were in Hawaii we rented a condo and it was a nice condo but you could hear people walking above us and it drove me nuts.
 
I prefer a house. I do not want shared walls or having to deal with close living issues. I like living in a neighborhood but I do not want to feel my neighbors are on top of me.
 
Date: 5/15/2008 10:04:32 PM
Author: diamondfan
I prefer a house. I do not want shared walls or having to deal with close living issues. I like living in a neighborhood but I do not want to feel my neighbors are on top of me.
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Ditto. The houses here are spread out, so while it''s a neighborhood , we aren''t on top of each other.
 
And even so, you still get nosy neighbors and neighbors who cannot wait to nail you for something!
(the dog barking, the party you had and had too many cars on the street....) Living in a house does not eradicate it, as you can have sucky neighbors, but it does minimize certain problems the a shared wall or really close neighbors can create.
 
A house is my preference, but we''re moving from one to a townhouse condo in June. We''re going from a $4200 a month to a $1500 a month payment, so THAT is about the best perk. Also, it''s an end unit so we only have neighbors on one side and there are TONS of windows and great lighting

I''m not sure if we''re going to be happy there, but we have had a love-hate relationship with our house and its overwhelming maintainance issues: over an acre of landscaped yard and hard-to-keep-clean solarium windows. The townhome will be easy, but I''m already missing the idea of having a bit of yard work and am sort of dreading the unknown.

We''ll probably move in two years!
 
A house, definitely. I want the privacy, a yard (even if it's small, which it will be!), a nice little deck for entertaining, etc. I do not want to have to share walls/floors/ceilings with neighbours, etc. Basically, the further we are away from neighbours, the better! You also have more control over a single family home with regard to being able to modify and update the exterior and such. More room, as well. I just think it's the best fit for us.

My second choice would be a (nice) townhouse. I could deal with that if the location were good enough to off-set the fact that it's not a detached home. It would also have to be on the newer end of things as I've seen what can happen with older condo projects and the maintenence can be high. My last choice would be an apartment condo, though like a townhome I could deal for the right property -- ie, if it were really nice, fantastic location, reasonable condo fees (some of the buildings here are outrageous, particularly for what they include), roomy, etc.

In general, condos are the slowest to appreciate and the first to fall when the market softens. Of course, there are obvious exceptions to this rule like NYC and condos located in the downtown area of other major cities. But for the nature of the real estate market here, they're just not as sound of an investment as a home. That's another influencing factor for me as well.
 
Date: 5/15/2008 5:47:33 PM
Author:ZoeBartlett
Which type of house would be your first choice to buy? Why? Why wouldn't you choose the other options?

1. An attached condo/townhouse (garden style, side by side, or other)
2. A detached condo (housing development where the grounds are kept up by a landscaping company and you pay a fee to an association)
3. A house -- no condo (whatever the type) for me!


I'm interested in seeing what people choose and what people think the benefits of one over the others are.
Click to expand...
You might want to check out this article from the NYTimes a couple of days ago:

"Collateral Foreclosure Damage for Condo Owners"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/business/15condo.html?em&ex=1211083200&en=20bd44b8981898e3&ei=5087%0A

I wouldn't touch a condo, personally. Too tied to other people.

ETA: Oops! Didn't see that someone else had already referenced the article! It's early....I'm not totally "here" yet!
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A detached house with no HOA for me. I like having my own space and yard and don''t like being told what I can and can''t do with my own property - i.e. no privacy fences in the back yard and not being able to do my own landscaping. I also don''t like being right on top of my neighbors. DH and I did the apartment thing for a bit and that was enough for us! We''d move in with family before we did that again.

Condos are becoming more and more popular where I live (midwest) but they''re mostly advertised to the "older"/retired population and no so much families or singles. There are some townhouses around but they''re pretty much renters only.

Question for those who live somewhere with an HOA/condo association - can they really put liens on the property if you break their rules? Seems drastic and PITA if you ever want to sell if it''s true.

Jess
 
DH and I were talking about this not so long ago. I would love love love to live in a tiny apartment in a big city with lots of people around and nearby shopping, art galleries and museums. He would be most happiest in, say, a compound in Montana! I guess where we currently live is a sort of middle ground. It''s in a large planned development with nearby shopping, art galleries, and museums for me and lots of open space in the nature reserve for DH. The houses are close together which I thought I would hate, but, have come to love the cozy feel our neighborhood gives off. It''s *ahem* a bit too much nature for me as our house backs up to the reserve with nobody behind. DH makes fun of me because I have no trouble or anxiety walking around downtown LA, but, I refuse to take a walk in our neighborhood because there *may* be wild animals lurking in the perfectly manicured bushes, LOL!
 
As a first time home owner I must say a detached house is by far the best option if you have more than one person living in it. We get plenty of space for us, our cats, my stuff and the guests. Sure a detached house require maintanace more than a HOA condo or managed apartment, bu my DH happens to be really handy so he can fix majority of the things that need done should they arise.

However if I am still single and live alone, I would def prefer a nice high rise apartment unit in center of a big city. What fun can you have if you have to worry about leaking plumbing of the house as a single gal? :D
 
Definitely a house. Even just a small one with a small yard. That''s how we started out. And, well, I guess that''s how we''re kind of ending up 25 years later too! Heh. I would wish for a nice quiet neighbourhood and lot, but where we live, that would cost about a million dollars, so, not gonna happen.
 
A house, not a McMansion, with some form of a yard. I really dislike gated neighborhoods also. I think one can have a nice home with oout the snootiness of gates. And no HOAs . . .
 
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