Can I live in a condo?

mike_frontier · 10-02-2005, 01:46 AM

How many of you gays and gals own or live in a condo?

I have a job promotion which I am considering taking, but its in a whole different city/state. The state where the new job is at Denver, Co.

Right now I live in the burbs of Austin, TX and I have an 150K home (when I got it new 4 years ago) which by all means if my home was in Denver it would be an easily 400K home.

I been looking really really hard at realtor.com and looking and new'ER homes in the Denver surround areas and alot of them @ the 150K price mark looks OLD, RUN DOWN and POS. I by all means want to move to Denver, but I am hesitant on a home to buy where my wife & kiddos would be happy with for a long time. I really do not want to spend over 165K mark and looks like CONDOS in the Denver area seem to be affordable and also BRAND - NEW, not old and run down on some of the homes that I searched in Denver area.

So my question to you guys is how many of you love the condo lifestyle? Any of you have a family that live comfortable in your condo?

The condo I am looking at is 1/2 the sq ft size of my home here in Austin, so yes I will be getting rid of alot of my junk. On the good end,, no huge yard maintance (now I can sell my weed eater and lawn mower) and taxes are wayyyyyy lower in Denver. Anyone here like to share thoughts?? I perfer not to rent. I would love to buy instead and make an investment/equity in time. I never could really understand givin my hard working money away to leaseing companies. Thanks all for any suggestions.

BTW I have 2 kids (2 & 7 year olds) and THE wife and NO PETS.
Condo I am looking at is about 1600 sq ft, 2 story 3 bed rooms 2 baths. 1 game room (for my theater / stereo room) . I dont think it has a garage though.

So condo no? Yes?

Kirk Gunn · 10-02-2005, 06:58 AM

2 kids in 1600 sq ft with no yard ? and no garage to store their scooters, bikes, sports equipment, etc ? May be a bit tough, imo. Your 7 yr old is growing fast and will be adult-size (with adult-size friends) before you know it !

Hopefully your company is giving you a promotion or salary adjustment to cover the increased cost of living. A 165k limit seems a bit low for that area.

Good luck, you've got some tough decisions ahead !

mike_frontier · 10-02-2005, 09:43 AM

lol.. damn your right. And I am into mountain biking also. How about if I found one w/ a garage

??

Jay H · 10-02-2005, 10:11 AM

I'm a biker too, you don't put your bikes in the living room???

You can't even find a $165K POS where I am from (NYC metro area)!

I'm a very active outdoors person and I just bought a house here with no garage, but it has a full basement and also a large deck. I am considering putting walls underneath the deck so I can store my kayak and my bikes can go in the basement. The house right now has a full basement with outside door access but since the outside door was built on a new addition to the house, it opens to a foyer and then a right angle turn to the original outside door. No way I'm getting my sea kayak to make that turn. So either I demo the original door so the new outside door opens up to the basement or I move the outside door to go inline with the inside one.

Anyway, if the condo is on the first floor, then it is possibility to put both kids into one room and make a bike room as the third bedroom? Probably wont fly with THE wife, but who knows... if she's into the sport too, maybe it would work.

Jay

GordonL · 10-02-2005, 12:43 PM

Going from a single-family house to a condo means you won't be able to watch your movies or play your music as loud as you like. A lot of condos don't have adequate soundproofing and you might get unlucky and have obnoxious neighbors. Or your neighbors could be the unlucky ones.

Some condos have outrageous condo fees.

I'd reconsider the fixer-uppers especially if they're in nice or up-and-coming neighborhoods. They have the most appreciation potential.

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mike_frontier · 10-02-2005, 02:29 PM

Thanks all. Actually its a town home, not a condo.

I am going to look at some newer model homes 1998 and UP.

Some of the older homes did major home improvements in the inside, but outside they are horrid.

Jay H · 10-02-2005, 06:43 PM

Not sure about texas too but I thought I'd add that prices for townhouses in my area are pretty much the same prices for single family houses, so unless you are really adverse to doing yardwork, to me, I'd rather live in a house.

Jay

Leila Dougan · 10-03-2005, 12:21 AM

Perhaps your best bet is to rent something short-term (6 mos or so) while you search for a house. It'll be much easier to do when you already live there and 6 mos will give you enough time to find a house you'll like.

Scott L · 10-03-2005, 12:45 AM

I actually changed my mind about condos when some roomies and I went townhouse hunting on Saturday. We were set on a TH but the realtor said the condos are newer, bigger, and nicer. We took his advice and the ones we visited looked great with ample room, and were modern (no 70's styling here). Also nice that the exterior is taken care of in case you have lazy neighbors.

Downside is the decks (if they had one) weren't nearly as big as a townhouse, and we like to BBQ in the summer. Also only the pricier ones had a single garage available, with two extra outdoor parking lots.

This is the POV from 3-4 single guys though. But, imagining kids in the area isn't hard to do. Growing up at around 7-8 my family lived in a small condo in Jersey. I met lots of friends and could ride my bike around/play sports for fun. Admittedly, the house we moved in to later was so much cooler.

While on the subject I might as well mention the cheapest price around here was 495k.

165k sounds like a dream!

mike_frontier · 10-03-2005, 07:37 AM