Are Home Owner Association Fees Good or Bad in Condo Living

by Mt. Pleasant Condos on November 30, 2009

It’s still part of the American Dream… being a home owner is something all people strive to do and it is worthy. Owning your own home is one of the smartest financial decisions you can make, even when the real estate market crashes.

One thing that many people don’t pay attention to though are all the additional fees that go alone with owning a home. For example… it’s not just the mortgage. You also have insurance costs, maintenance costs, repair bills, improvement bills, and much more. It can get very overwhelming very quickly. In fact, with insurance, you have to insurance the things inside your house… the inside of your house as in the wall and floors… and the outside of the house.

It gets expensive.

But it doesn’t have to be that way though. Purchasing a condo can help cut down your costs because there is an additional fee called a home owners association fee.

At first you may think that this fee would cost you a lot more over the course of a year, but when you look at what it really covers, it’s a great deal.

These fees usually cover:

  • All lawn maintenance
  • All driveway maintenance
  • All exterior maintenance on the buildings
  • Any emergency like new roofs, leaks, or anything like that
  • Additional upgrades for improvement.

These fees can save you thousands of dollars over the course of the time you own your property.

However, you want to make sure that the association fees are reasonable for your condo complex. Unfortunately if you really want to do that, you might have to get involved in the board of directors and see where the money is really flowing.

There are some complexes that are more “luxury” and have some pretty high costs associated with them. But that is the price of living in luxury.

Here’s a tip that might help you… consider paying the association fees upfront during the beginning of the year. Document that payment and that will help free up cash flow for the rest of the year and the rest of your purchases.

As you can tell, home owners association fees and owning a condo can really help you save money. It’s much cheaper than owner an actual house and much less of a headache. So if you’re in the market for a property then take a serious look at purchasing a condo.

If you enjoyed this article, you might really enjoy these other articles we have to offer you:

Mt. Pleasant Condos keeps bringing you more great content to help you learn about living in a condo and how to buy, sell, and successfully live in one.

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