Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
You underestimate how much people value being able to handle those expenses independently. In my home I get to decide how to prioritize installing new windows, upgrading the furnace, painting the exterior, replacing a fence, etc. I can do them in the order I want, allocate the money to suit my preferences, choose exactly the options I want. And I can put sweat equity into the work.
With condos these decisions are all made collectively by people who may have different values. For a homeowner, something as basic as a new fence is much more stressful than regular home expenses because you have to wrangle with another household over the type of fence, the cost, even whether it needs to be done in the first place. With a condo, you have to wrangle like this over everything.
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I'm pretty sure that's not how the majority thinks. I know people who barely know how to change a light bulb... and no, that's not an exaggeration. They literally call their parents to go to their place to help fix "broken things" in the home. People barely want to tackle IKEA furniture let alone swap things like light switches. People will throw good money at a premium for that luxury of not dealing with it, and I'm not complaining about the fees that repairmen and plumbers charge. Plenty of people would rather spend tens of thousands of dollars to more rather than pay a few grand to fix a freshen the place up. "Look how crappy the front door looks and I don't like the paint color any more! Gotta move!"
The vast majority of people think that a crappy place needs regular repairs and a good place should rarely have repairs. You see it in how people perceive cars, and it's amplified for homes.
Condo fees are considered kind of under the rug for many. "I'll pay for someone to deal with the laborious crap of home ownership so I don't have to deal with it." It's not completely collective, it's purely done by a small group who makes decisions on behalf of the collective.
Your opinion is not wrong and I think a lot of others on CP hold similar opinions. However, I am quite certain we are all the minority. The vast majority of people inexplicably do not expect things to go wrong and thus often have really poorly funded rainy day funds. A condo is supposed to force you to do this via reserve fund, but many times due to owner/operators making decisions or influencing the decision on condo fees, they refuse to put in more than the minimum.
I agree many do not want to deal with others for repairs etc. where you have to deal with neighbors, but I feel like reality wise, there's significantly more people in general who just don't want to deal with it at all until they absolutely have to. I feel like this is pretty apparent when you go and see many of the homes that have not been refreshed. There's evidence of neglectful repairs and corner cutting everywhere. The proper addressing of repairs (when they ultimately occur) in a home seem to occur mostly with minority home owners who take pride in their home or when someone goes in and does a full on reno.
I potentially have roof, windows, HVAC and grey pipe to address in the next 5-7 years which ain't cheap and might float close to $100K due to circumstances. But they'd basically be non-issues for 20+ years after done. That's not including a few ideas for improving the place via reno. The average response is more like, "Eww, what a concept. Why didn't you buy new?" vs "Hmm... that's quite a project, but it'll be great once it's done.".
To do everything I want in the place to improve/upgrade it and get rid of annoyances in the proper way probably would cost me $180-220K right now (damn materials spiking) which is around $80-120K over the roof/windows/grey pipe/HVAC. But then I'd have barely anything to worry about for 15 to 25+ years and I'd have a sexy brand spanking new looking place. Others don't think that way and they'd rather just move/cash out and pay someone the premium of $30-230K for a pre-done place like that or do nothing and let their place fall derelict as time goes on.
Luckily, with the spiking of homes right now, a HELOC would easily cover it if I decided to finance it rather than save up for it.