1. Is Buying a Condo to Live in a Good Move? Don Levy
The answer to that question is yes and no. There are a number of reasons why this is so. Your lifestyle is one of the main determining factors whether it will be a good choice for you or not. It could be a good choice if you like to socialize because there are usually plenty of activities where you can meet and socialize with the other residents along with amenities (swimming pool">swimming pool, tennis courts, etc.) you probably would not have in your single family residence.
Another plus is that all of the upkeep on the exterior of your home is taken care of so you don't have to worry about cleaning gutters or painting. The grounds maintenance and landscaping is also taken care of, including clearing snow. This is a real plus if you travel a lot because you don't have to worry about any thing happening to your exterior or landscaping.
Many condo locations are in areas that are very desirable such as close to the ocean or a lake. Many times a single family residence in the same area would be out of the condo buyer's financial reach. You'll also find that most condo projects are safer due to be fenced and gated with either a gate guard or requiring a key card to open the gate.
Although condo living is very similar to apartment living a condo is an investment and will appreciate just like a single family residence. Condo will usually give you more living area for your money as the price per square foot is lower than a SFR. Many times the interior amenities are also superior.
Due to the fact that condo values usually lag behind single family residences so even when single family residential prices are increasing rapidly you can still find bargains in both new and resale condos.
There are also a number of negative features to living in a condo including no outside area that you can call your own. It's all owned by everyone in the project. This means you can't go out and dig around in the flower beds.
One of the biggest negatives to a lot of residents is that you have to get permission to do any modifications on the exterior, no matter how small. Things you take for granted are many time not allowed such as a TV dish or possibly even hanging plants from the roof of your patio.
There are HOA (homeowners association) fees every month whether you use the amenities or care about the landscaping. Many times these dues are not enough to do the proper maintenance to the property and then the residents get hit with a special assessment which can totally destroy a household budget.
A gripe that many owners have is the HOA committee becomes a clique where the proper attention is not paid to the good of the rest of the residents. I was a real estate appraiser for a number of years and often ran across a instances of that when doing appraisals in a condo development.
Another big negative was that was quite often litigation against the builder or maintenance people due to shoddy workmanship or not completing the project. Sometimes the builder went bankrupt and left the project holding the bag.
Another minus is the fact that condo values usually start decreasing in price before single family residence values and at a faster rate. They also usually start increasing in value after single family residences and at a slower rate. Historically condos are usually harder to sell than single family residences.
If you are thinking of buying a condo you need to do your homework, even more so than if you were buying a single family residence. Before you even consider the development talk to as many residents as you can and ask them every question you can think of. The more people you talk to the more you'll learn about the project. Don't believe everything you here though whether good or bad. Try to validate each persons opinion by asking why they think the way they do.
Talk to the manager, president of the HOA or anyone else is a position of authority to find out if there are any special assessments coming up, such as a roof replacement. It's not very pleasant to move in and a short while later find out you'll have to pay a couple of thousand dollars for your share of replacing the roof. Find out the amount of the HOA fees, when they last raised and by how much, giving you an indication of the project's financial condition.
Find out how many vacancies there are and what they were caused by. If a lot of the vacancies are caused by foreclosures it's probably a place you don't want to purchase in. One of the problems with foreclosure vacancies is that less HOA fees are coming in and there may have to be a special assessment to make up the money. With regular vacancies the owners of the unit will be paying the dues.
Other statistics you need to know are how many rentals there are and determine what the ratio to owner occupied is. If there are more than 40% non-owner occupied units you may have a hard time getting a loan. Another piece of information that will help you make up your mind if this place
is for you is how many units are for sale and why they're being sold. If other people don't like the project you may not either.
Determine if there is any ongoing litigation? Condo projects often seem to be a magnet for law suits. Many times lenders won't lend in a development if there is pending litigation.
Check out the CC & R's (Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions). These are the rules you'll be living by so it would be a good idea to read them thoroughly even though they are usually 2 or 3 inches thick. You'll probably find some sneaky little things in there that you hadn't given a thought to.
As you can see there are a lot of pluses and minuses to buying a condo and it definitely isn't for everyone, although many people swear by them. For instance if you're gone a lot this is perfect because you don't have to worry about exterior building or yard maintenance. Your place is relatively safe due to the proximity of your neighbors. When you come back home all you have to do is relax. On the other side of the coin if you like puttering in your yard and keeping to yourself, you probably won't be too enthused about condo living.
If you really want to be sure of what you're getting into with a condo you might think about doing a lease with option to purchase instead of an outright purchase. Try not to put much down for an option fee, try to get rent concessions and make the lease term short. If it turns out that condo living doesn't really turn out like you wanted, you can just walk away at the end of the lease with no further expense.
Condo is short for condominium and is described as a development where the owner of a units owns the interior of his unit and everything else is owned by all of the residences as 1 percent of however many units there are. A townhouse is similar except the owner owns the land that the unit sits on.
2. A Do-It-Yourself Property Tax Cut Guide
Don Levy
Now that real estate values have fallen you are probably paying less in property taxes than you were in the past, but you may think you're still paying too much. If your tax bill is higher than you think it should be, what should you do? The first thing you probably did
was to call the tax assessor. What you were told was likely along these lines:
"Your property tax amount is based on our latest appraisal of your property. If you don't think it's correct bring us proof that our figures are wrong. We'll take a look and decide if your assessed amount should be corrected. Any information you provide must be valid and clearly show that a lower amount is justified."
At this point you have to make a rational decision. Are you certain that your property is worth less than the amount it was assessed for? If there is no doubt in your mind, then you need to make another decision. Is the amount enough to offset the time or money you spend to prove it? The last decision is should you hire a professional appraiser to get your property value or do it yourself?
There is a cost either way as the appraiser will charge you and if you do it yourself it will cost you time. Many people do it themselves for the satisfaction of proving the government wrong by their own work. Others do it to save the money. Today there is so much free assistance from the Internet, real estate salespersons and title companies that almost anyone can make a professional looking presentation without spending a lot of time. Besides that it's fun.
Before you decide for sure that you're going to put together your proof get some more information. What is the reason you believe the value is too high? Sometimes people hear that the house around the corner sold at a lower price than your assessment value. If this is the case you need to find out why. Either go online or call a realtor to get more details on that sale. What you're going to do is to compare that house to yours. The key piece of information is going to be the circumstances of the sale.
If the sale was a foreclosure, short sale or some type of distress sale then this will not be a value sale to use for determining the value of your home. You should also get the statistics from this sale such as: square footage, bedrooms and baths, location, condition, etc. If this was a
distress sale or the house is vastly inferior to yours, then you may want forget it, especially if this was your main piece of evidence. If you decide you want to keep going then follow the steps below.
Before you start, go online and get a copy of a residential appraisal report or get one from a real estate agent. This will be the best way of putting your information together to present to the assessor. Go online to get instructions to filling the report out or get books from the library or your R.E. agent.
If you have determined the house around the corner is a valid sale put all the information on your report and make your adjustments. If the data from the report validates your suspicion that they have assessed your home too high then you'll need to find at least 2 more sales for your proof. These sale should be within the past 6 months in a similar neighborhood (preferably within a 1/2 mile) as ours as well as similar is style, age, construction, etc. The more similar the sale is to yours the more valid it will be as a comparable.
Below you'll find the questions you need to know about the any property that you'll be using as proof of value:
1. What was the condition of the property? Were there any upgrades, such as new kitchen or bathroom?
2. What was the square footage of the property? How many bedrooms and baths?
3. What kind of amenities did it have? What kind of flooring for example, fireplaces, pool, etc.
4. What is size of garage?
5. How was landscaping?
6. Was the location bad, such as backing to busy street, next to something undesirable, etc, or was it good, such as having a view, near a park, etc.
7. There will other information that will be helpful to know so be a good investigator.
Put all the addresses and other information on the appraisal form and make the proper adjustments. Remember if the item is superior to your property make a minus adjustment and if inferior a plus. When you finish total the adjustments and add or subtract that total from the comparable property value you're working with. Looking at the value of each property after the adjustments will give you a good indication of what your property is worth. In theory the adjustment make all the properties the same.
o get a better indication of the value of certain items you should consult a real estate agent. They'll be able to tell you how much more a 3 car garage is worth compared to a 2 car or the value of an extra bathroom in the type of property you're appraising. Be careful
and get as much information about each property as possible.
Getting a value for your home compared to other similar ones is not that hard. You may have to do a little studying to get the concept, but you should be able to find all the information you need on line. Real estate agents will be a great help if you can find one that been in the business for a while. They can also help you come up with a valid value using the 3 comparable adjusted values. Don't try to make the value come out the way you want as the assessor will see right through that and you'll for sure get turned down.
Don't be afraid to give this a try because the worst that can happen is that you'll be turned down. If that happens find out why and do a better job next time. The more you do this the better you'll get at it so don't give up. Just get some new comps and give it another try.
3. What You Should Know About Timeshares
Timeshares are a great way for people go on a holiday and still be able to own in their favorite getaway. The actual invention of a timeshare was back in the 1960's in the French Alps when a developer and resort owner decided it would be valuable to people to “stop renting a room” and “buy (a piece of) the hotel”. The idea caught on and soon became popular all around the world.
There are a few different types of time share ownership, so first let’s define what those are:
Fixed: a fixed timeshare is exactly as it sounds, a fixed time – usually a week or more. Typically the resort will use a normal annual calendar and sell the use of a particular unit by week number. If, for example, you owned week #1 and 2, that typically means you have your unit for the first two weeks of the year, each year, meaning the first 2 weeks in January.
Floating: A floating timeshare is still a fixed amount of time, but the specific dates are what is actually ‘floating’. With floating timeshares, the owner owns a number of days or weeks, let’s say for this example 7 days, or one week. That week will typically have some indication of when it may be used, for example ‘one summer week’, defined by the constraints of the calendar season ‘summer’. The owner then must reserve which week he or she wants during the summer. There is usually great competition for the holiday weeks, so often a floating timeshare will be exclusive of the holiday weeks, as those will typically be sold as ‘fixed’ timeshare weeks, often at a much greater price.
Rotating: a rotating timeshare is designed to combine the advantages of the floating timeshare and the fixed. The owner knows which week is his or hers in advance, but it will vary to give each owner equal chance at having the holiday week. The rotation can go either forward or back on the calendar and season, rotating through all owners.
Now within those three types of timeshares there are two types of ownership: deeded and right to use. You can probably guess the difference just by the name. The deeded timeshare means you actually own a fraction of real property, to be bought and/or sold under the community by-laws as an owner pleases. The ‘right to use’ contract is just that, you have bought the right to use the property for a specified amount of time, over a period of time, most often measured in number of years. At the end of that number of years the timeshare ‘owner’ no longer has rights of that unit, its facilities and time slot.
Now timeshares have grown so in popularity they have spread into other industries. When it originated it was primarily just resorts, and typically those with a more apartment-style accommodations. Now you can buy a timeshare on a cruise ship, a timeshare of a campground, even a timeshare of a yacht or high end private jet. But the business model says the same. You are purchasing a slice of time/ownership of that entity for your own use and pleasure. And, depending on the type of ownership you have, can share that with friends and family, and in some cases even sell it to someone else to use.
Whatever timeshare you select, just make sure you have someone you trust advise you in the purchase, especially if it is your first time. You will be, once the contract is signed, legally bound to that ownership with all its rights and responsibilities. You are essentially tied to that contract until it ends by a date, or its sale, or other designated end of the agreement. So make sure you do your homework and research that the company has a history of good solid reputation in the industry. Then, when all your ‘due diligence’ is done, enjoy it to the fullest! For More Information on Time Share Resales - Please Visit:: http://www.Timeshares-Resellers.com
