Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny199r
There can always be the issue of what if you buy a condo that has artiricially low condo fees because of all the cheapos on the condo board (not uncommon) in a building that is prime for big projects (20+ years old). It's possible that due to bad luck, you move in and get slapped with a big special assessment.
The other big fee for every condo owner is realtor/transaction fees for buying/selling the place.
5% of 320k is a lot of rent money.
Having to shell out Money in either of those scenarios is never going to be the problem of a renter.
You still get the benefit of amenities by renting.
I think people have to be out of their minds to buy a condo.
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Perhaps I kinda misread the previous post. In Calgary right now, I totally understand the argument that buying a condo or townhouse right now seems kinda silly with how low some of the rents are. I was mainly saying that you get stuff for your condo fee and bringing up that it might make sense to own for others in different circumstances or scenarios.
We are unlikely to boom any time soon, but my old condo once rented out for more than double what it rents out for now. Some people don't want that to happen to them like how this might happen in hot markets like Vancouver or Toronto. But I doubt the risk for that in Calgary is very high.
Rent vs own, the throw away costs in typical owning vs renting are basically property taxes, mortgage interest and a little bit of the condo fees (not insurance, utilities etc). Yes the trade off of control land lord vs self is quite balanced right now, but in future it could tilt unfavorably to a renter.
The selling commission I think is actually closer to 3% than 5%, but it's probably offset by a principal place of residence exemption for tax purposes in terms of taxes on a similar investment gain. The real question about owning vs renting is often better boiled down to control and responsibility IMO. There's other factors sure, but usually they're kinda subsets of those two. A special assessment is generally because not enough was put away for something to be repaired. Plenty of people don't put away enough for a repair on their home, but we seemingly view many "costs of owning a home" differently than a cost of owning a condo.