4 Important Things To Know Before Buying A Condo

If you have been renting an apartment for the majority of your life the thought of a house may seem overwhelming.  Not everyone likes to wake up on Saturday morning and deal with yard maintenance, painting, roof leaks, air conditioning purchasing a condo in flissues, pressure washing or weeding flower beds.  If that doesn’t sound like something you would like to do then maybe a condo would be a happy medium between the apartment living and the full blown maintenance burdening house.

Condo living is like being in an apartment but better, you get the benefits of doing whatever upgrades you want to the inside like paint or flooring and on top of that instead of the rent going into someone else’s pocket you end up paying yourself with the investment of the real estate you purchased.  It sounds like a no brainer right?!  Well here are a few things to consider before you take the plunge on investing into your future.

1. Do your homework – as with any purchase you will need to find out as much as you can about the place you have set your sights on, with a condo though you need to be looking for the right issues.  Since the downturn in real estate it is important to understand many condominium properties are plagued with foreclosures and delinquencies and besides the fact of sounding like a great way to find a good price on a condo it actually tends to be a sign of both bad management and potential cost impacts that would get passed to the owner (you) through extra fees and higher HOAs.  Depending on how long the community has been hurting will also reflect what kind of upkeep has been done to things like the building’s infrastructure, pool and other facilities.  In the long run this typically hurts the value of your purchase and your steal-of-a-deal ends up being a bad deal.

2. Remember what you are buying – as it may seem a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo appears like 1100 square feet of freedom but you need to use the perspective that you are buying into a community with many other people.  All of your surrounding neighbors have signed the same clauses you have.  With any venture in business not understanding the surrounding financials, management and community would just be bad business on your part.

3. Ask for the budget – It may seem a little forward but finding out if the management has enough funding to keep things afloat and plans for large renovations or additions is very important.  You wouldn’t buy a car from someone that is in the middle of being repossessed would you?

4. Delinquencies – Even if you did find the deal of a life time you need to look at how many of your neighbors are up-to-date with their fees and mortgage notes.  This may not seem like a big deal but if you are looking to finance your purchase, many times there are regulations on how many units are delinquent and yes that is another sign that there may be a downward spiral.  If you have cash this may not sound like a problem BUT on the other side of that if you are trying to sell at a time with high delinquencies the person trying to buy your place may not be able to get financing.

It is important to go through these points and understand where the condominium sits with these issues.  Like they say if you find a deal that seems too good to be true, there may be something else hiding.  If you want to find out more check out www.MoversAtlas.com they have all the tools you need.

3 Good Reasons Why You Should Wait To Buy A Home

Most would agree, why would you rent if you could buy?! With interest rates as low as they are it should be a no brainer right?  Let’s just find a place and lock it in for the next 30 years… seems like a long time? That’s because it renting vs buying a homeis.  The following are reasons why you should NOT buy unless you know you are ready. You may not be thinking purchasing is all it’s cracked up to be after you read the top 3 reasons to rent.

1. Location, Location, Location – It may seem like you have found a good area that is safe and close to everything you enjoy on the weekends but what about your career?  Are you confident you are set up in a place that you will continue working for many years?  Since you like the area so much have you looked into the property tax rates and other local fees like insurance rates to own a home in the area?  What about your dream job or school you have considered for the past few years?  I will tell you that if you rent none of the previous items would be an issue, things like tax rates or your ability to be mobile would not be an issue.  I would suggest to really consider your future plans before you look to buy because getting out of a 30 year mortgage or selling a place you just bought is a huge hassle.

2. Affordability – If you are renting for $1200 a month you can afford a $1200 a month mortgage right?  Not exactly, there are a lot of costs that renting a place includes that you may not be aware of.   Just a small list of why being a homeowner may not be what you want right now; HOA fees, property taxes, mortgage fees, home insurance, yard maintenance and home maintenance.  These items may not seem terrible but when you add all of them up you could add another 50% to the mortgage costs.  Even if you feel like you could budget for it keep in mind some of these items are not announced and the leaky roof that could cost thousands of dollars as a home owner would cost you ZERO as a renter and the $1200 monthly payment stays that way.

4. Sensibility – If you decide the above reasons do not directly impact you or your decision to rent or buy, the last reason is sensibility.  Sensibility is more than just the numbers adding up it comes down to truly being able to make the purchase and be comfortable with your quality of life and standard of living.  Keep in mind you want at least 20% saved up for a down payment and ideally all the rest of your debt paid off, if you are in this boat then buying a home maybe your next step.  Sensibility also reflects the peace you have each month and the feeling that you aren’t stretched to pay your bills, save for retirement and to give when others are in need.

Not to make buying seem like a bad thing but if you are not ready than the purchase will end up being a curse more than a blessing.  Buying a home can also be one of the greatest investments you make in your life but if you make it at the wrong time it can be the biggest disaster.  I highly recommend purchasing a home but keep in mind it is still OKAY to rent for a period of transition, saving or relocating.  In the meantime do your research and continue to use tools like www.MoversAtlas.com when you look to rent or buy a new home.

Should You Buy a Home Close to a Fire Station in Florida?

When you’re looking for a new place to live, moving close to a fire station has both pros and cons.  Essentially, the cost-benefit analysis comes down to two factors: noise and response time to an incident.  Let’s discuss the noise issue first.  Fire Buying a home near a fire stationtrucks are…loud.  Truck operators blare their siren/horn in order to alert oncoming traffic that the truck is entering the street and to warn motorists to get out of the way, so that the truck can get to the accident scene as quickly as possible.  Individual city noise ordinances vary, but in most cases fire trucks activate their sirens as they are leaving their station, regardless of the time of day.  Therefore, you can safely assume that the fire station near your home will make noise and you will simply have to deal with it.  Resident annoyance due to sirens/horns is not a major concern for the folks who are fighting fires and saving lives.  Since you can expect noise, the operative question becomes how much?

In order to answer this question, you need to ask a couple more.  First, how many fire stations are in your community?  Have a look at our MoveMap to see the number of fire stations in your area.  If you live in a sprawling suburb and there is only one fire station, you can bet that it’s going to be fairly busy.  On the other hand, if the fire stations are distributed evenly throughout your area, you can expect less noise.  Next, inquire if the fire station is full time or part time.  Additionally, ask whether the station just responds to fires or if it offers emergency medical support as well.  In Florida, fire stations do much more than just fight fires, so knowing which events the station responds to is crucial to determining how busy it will be.  If you’ve got a couple of hours to kill you can always sit outside and observe or ask the neighbors.  This will provide a little firsthand experience to supplement answers to the above mentioned questions.

Although fire stations can present noise problems for some people, living close to them offers benefits as well.  The most obvious among these is reduced response time to an incident.  While incident response time depends on many factors, such as the amount of traffic, time of day, and staffing level, residents living close to a fire station can generally expect faster service in the event of an emergency.  In fact, folks that live sufficiently close can have lower insurance premiums than their more distant peers!  Insurance breaks aside, proximity to a fire station or hospital is an important factor for elderly persons and those with unpredictable medical conditions.  A more esoteric, but still important factor to consider is simply the peace of mind that comes with knowing that if an emergency occurs, help is only a few blocks away.  Finally, Florida is prone to hurricanes and emergency response centers like fire stations have a very high priority when it comes to repairing the electric grid.  If your home happens to be on the same part of the grid as the fire station, you can expect to get your power (and therefore, air conditioning) back more quickly than your neighbors.

So we’ve established that living very near a fire station presents both benefits and costs.  Whether or not you should live close to one depends on your unique situation.  Anecdotally, most people say that they get used to the truck noise and that it doesn’t wake them up at night or bother them all that much.  However, if you plan to resell you home in the future you should take time to consider the perceived impact proximity to the station will have on your home value/time on market.  While no definitive study has been done (to our knowledge), the common perception is that living close to a noise source like a fire station can negatively impact home values.  On the other hand, close proximity can actually be a selling point for people with certain medical conditions or concerns about fast emergency response time.  We encourage you to check out our MoveMap and take a look at how close your prospective home is to a fire station.  Then consider how much things like noise and response time matter to you.