My offer of $85k has already been accepted, just wating for my mortgage to be approved.
Gonna buy you a cuisinart? Get wall to wall carpeting? Get a wallet full of credit cards?
Gonna buy you a T-shirt…with an alligator on it?
Said Jeff-
“Safe sex” is good, but don’t you think $85k is a little pricey? 
$85k? Must be nice. Condos are averaging around $180k here. (About an hour north of San Francisco.)
Ja mon…
I work for a real estate comp & a condo in Pacific Grove, California came on the market for $699,000…at the Glen.
Congratulations, Jeff. What’re the details (size, rooms, etc)?
Condo info:
$88,000 Located in PARK SPRING, County: ARLINGTON, Zip Code: 22204. This single level condo home built in 1969 has 2 bedroom(s), 1 full bath(s), 1 half bath(s) and is approximately 1063 sq. ft… Rooms include a living room, master bedroom. Other features include window treatments. Recreation amenities include community swimming pool(s). MLS#: AR3299970
Additional Information
Master bedroom is 15 X 11
2nd bedroom is 14 X 10
Living room is 19 X 12
Dining room is 12 X 9
Kitchen is 13 X 9
L-shaped living/dining room combination
Bedrroms are carpeted Living room has wood floor
Dining room has wood floor
Kitchen has vinyl floor
Gas range and oven
Exhaust fan/hood
Disposal
Dishwasher
Central air conditioning
Electric air filter
Gas heating
Brick exterior
Extra storage available
Community laundry facilities
Close to public transportation
Model: CONTEMPORARY
Pets allowed
Congrats Jeff.
A question for you - what are the condo fees? I’m thinking of going the condo route with my next home (getting divorced so had to sell 1700 s.f. contemporary on 5 acres- its killing me) because I don’t really think I want all the yard maintenance headache and I think I would enjoy the recreational amenities that usually come with condo living (pool, tennis, golf, etc). I’m still considering all my options, but condo may be the way to go for at least a few years. If I want another detached home I’ll just keep the condo as a rental.
Thanks for the info.
L
I’m moving in to my new condo this Friday. All excited and everything to move into my first home and then you pop along with an $88,000 condo! No need for explicit details but I can say that my new place cost a damn sight more than yours did. That might be ok if my place was 4,000 square feet but it’s not. On paper, at least, it practically matches the description you posted (or near enough). About the only thing I have that you don’t is my own washer/dryer (after 15 years of apartment living and schlepping my clothes everywhere and digging for quarters I can’t tell you how happy that particular item makes me). Still, my washer/dryer doesn’t account for the difference. You’re looking at not quite $83/sq. ft. and mine was…let’s just say a LOT more than that…I’m embarrassed now to mention it.
Of course, Chicago is the third most expensive property market in the U.S. (behind New York and San Francisco) but I still hate you ;).
Seriously…congrats on the new place Jeff. I hope you’ll love it.
As for plnnr’s question I’ll be paying $160/month in assessments. That includes water, cable, garbage, maintenance, landscaping and so on. For Chicago that number is actually quite good. We saw MUCH worse including a $350/month assessment in one place PLUS they had THREE special assessments coming along including one for windows…perhaps $5,000 there. That $350 assessment got you no more than what I just listed for our new place. In my experience when looking for places the assessments were all over the place. On average in Chicago, in our price range, assessments were running $200-250 or so. Just another thing you have to pay attention to when buying a condo.
Regarding condo fees, it really depends on how big of an operation your condo is. My building is small enough for us to self-manage, so we don’t have to pay for a management company (the last one we had embezzled from us anyway). The fees are around $130, depending on the size of the unit, and we’ve still been able to build up our reserve account to $25,000. The building is an historic 100+ year old in downtown DC so we do have some upkeep issues from time to time, but we’ve been pretty thrifty about spending and watch every dime closely.
I have a friend in a large building in Arlington (300+ units) who pays over $340 a month in condo fees, just because of the amenities: upkeep on pool, front desk security, five elevators (three of which were replaced a couple of years ago) parking garage, etc. He lives on the 1st floor, so he has no need for the elevator. He has no car so he doesn’t use the parking garage. He never visits the pool (his choice, I guess). Too busy to use the workout room and has never hosted a party in the party rooms. Whenever he complains about his condo fees I remind him that HE was the one who bought the place knowing full well that he would never be using most of what the fees are going towards.
I guess my point is that you should aim for a smaller building and once you’re in, try to get a seat on the board so you can have a vote on what the fees should be and how your money is being spent. Last budget meeting we voted to lower fees by 5%, for the third time in as many years.
I’m not sure that the area one lives in has much to do with condo fees. When I call budget meetings every year, we discuss things like what needs to be replaced, repaired or repainted and set the budget accordingly. If we project a deficit then we might raise fees a little, but I don’t see this as having anything to do with the neighborhood or city you live in. We have never raised condo fees simply because we live in a pricy (for real estate) area.
OK, painters in the DC area might be a little more expensive than painters in Plotniki, Idaho, but not by much, and not enough to make a real difference in condo fees. And on the few occasions where some major job was hugely expensive, we have almost always been able to find another contractor to come in from outside of the immediate area (maybe 50-60 miles away) and do the job much cheaper. We have no problem paying an extra $100 or so in mileage charges if we can get a bid for $1000 less 
Thanks for the input thus far. It’d be interesting to price a few of the amenities separately (i.e., water bill, garbage disposal, fee for membership at health club with pool and weight room priveleges) and see what they could be had for in the “open market.” I don’t think many folks figure in the association fee when considering the price of the unit - they just see the mortgage payment (like for a detached house).
Anyway, thanks again for the info. More stuff to consider when making my decision.
Jeff, nice.
What kind of rules does the condo have? The ones for that place at the Glen are really strict.
A condo is a great investment - I bought mine for less than half of that $85k six years ago, and will vicinity-of-double-at-least my money whenever I sell it. Lots of freedom in a home-improvement sort of way.
Just remember that there’s no landlord to fix your leaky ceiling, air conditioner etc. Just about anything that breaks, you gotta shell out the moolah yourself.
Most important of all: beware the petty emperors, meddlesome senior citizens, haughty spinsters, and the prissy, anal yuppie scum who sit on the condo board. Make yourself aware on a monthly basis what those idiots are talking about and proposing.
Truth be told, this property was my second choice. My first offer was for another condo in Park Spring, closer to the parking lot entrance and facing Four Mile Run (a wooded area) instead of the street. Other than the location, the main difference was the kitchen had more work done (e.g. additional cabinet space; built-in microwave). Even though it’s been on the market since June, the owner refused to come below $92K. The condo direclty below that one is also on the market, the owner is asking $89k, but it obviously needs some work.
Condo fees tend to rise in correlation with the age of the complex. I’ll be paying $255, plus electricity. My brother owns a townhouse-style condo near Springfield, VA, which he bought new about six years ago; he pays less than $100 in fees. We also looked at a condo in George Mason Village, but at 844 sq. ft. it was a bit small for me & my girlfriend; it had a $275 condo fee which included everything, even basic cable.
A word of warning to plnnr, and anyone else in the market, stay clear of a HUD forclosure unless you have the money to spend on making the place habitable. We looked at a forclosure property in The Carlton and it was terrible! Plus, a HUD forclosure works similar to an eBay auction; the highest on-line bid gets the property.
I have yet to receive the condo documents from the seller, so I don’t know what the rules are yet.
Forgot I was going to mention that I happened to luck out on this deal. The owner is moving out at the end of the month and is in a hurry to sell.
Funny you bring that up Jeff, 'cause I’ll be moving into my newly bought condo in Richardson next week. Tri-level, 2 and a half baths, 3 bedrooms, built in 1973. Approximately 2,024 sq. feet, includes all the recreational amenities.
And the cost? $76,000. I thought I had overpayed, but now I’m reconsidering.
But the dues, yikes, its $224 a month, and I don’t even know what it covers.
Richardson? As in Texas?
(only Richardson I know of)