Quote:
Originally Posted by timun
$277 is barely enough to cover heat, water, sewer, and insurance on that condo too. That place is ripe for "special assessments" down the road.
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What's also stupid is that the difference between $277-300 or $350 isn't horrific, but by funneling all that extra into the reserve fund early, the risk and likelihood of a crippling special assessment is decreased significantly.
I used to own a condo down town in a building built in 1970. I paid $350-450 in condo fees a month because the place was old, but the board was excellent and the reserve fund was exceptionally robust. I got hit with special assessments twice when the cost of a repair/project were in excess to the reserve fund budget. Both times, I thought the numbers were reasonable. Once because the June floods blew up the cost for the replacement like 300-400x costing me $4-5K for my unit factor in special assessment (and the board was good enough to pre-plan and take 3 instalments for the special assessment/work hard to try and wait out the fee increase) and once because they went beyond just replacing balcony railings with safety concerns and had the contractors clean + paint the balconies while they had the equipment to improve the overall value of the units ($400 special assessment or something which was an absolute bargain).
Everything else was always expected to be covered fully if not 80-90% by the reserve fund. We had unit door/lock replacements/upgrades, modern dual pane windows replacements, parking garage door replacement, storage room upgrades, security system/key fob entry upgrades etc. with no special assessments.