anyone looking for a condo or investment property?

[brewercm]

exactly! homeowners association fees are for the birds!

Well, maybe just not real accurate. It should've been more like "homeowners association fees are for the lawyers!". :angry

[z28pwr]

Maybe somebody can help me out here but I don't see how Condo's are a good investment.

You pay $60K for the place which is ~ $420 a month for 30 years
Then you pay $222 a month for maitenance
Then add anohter $175 a month in taxes
Then add Insurance which is another $40 bucks a month.

So now you are paying $857 for a condo when you can buy a house larger then the condo in that area for about $110K which puts your payment at $1100. The maitenance is what really kills you, you are waisting $2,664 a year just for "maitenance". and your condo won't appreciate much more then the maitenance fee a year.

i think you are missing the investment part. a home is an investment but its not going to provide you income while you are living in it. im on the NE side of town and dont know that area too well but id imagine a 1000ish sq/ft apt would rent for $900-1000 easily (they do over here). with my rusty calculations that is $200-300/month investment income. IIRC the average rental home takes 5-10 years to turn a profit. for this price, the condo turns profit from day 1.

I was looking around and saw that there is an 850 SQFT condo in Fountains Condominiums which they are trying to rent for $650 and says negotiable therefore If we assume that the one for sale would rent for $850 a month then it would be a wash since you will pay close to $850 for that condo after taxes, hoa & mortgage and considering the low appreciation rate you are much better off buying a home, specially since in 5-10 years as the rent may increase so will the HOA dues and yes eventually after 30 years that condo will be yours but you would have been better off getting a home since the average HOA of a home is much lower. If it didn't have such a high HOA it would definately be an investment but I think the high HOA kills it. Just my point of view.

[tony]

I was looking around and saw that there is an 850 SQFT condo in Fountains Condominiums which they are trying to rent for $650 and says negotiable therefore If we assume that the one for sale would rent for $850 a month then it would be a wash since you will pay close to $850 for that condo after taxes, hoa & mortgage and considering the low appreciation rate you are much better off buying a home, specially since in 5-10 years as the rent may increase so will the HOA dues and yes eventually after 30 years that condo will be yours but you would have been better off getting a home since the average HOA of a home is much lower. If it didn't have such a high HOA it would definately be an investment but I think the high HOA kills it. Just my point of view.

i see your point, its not for everyone. houses are a smarter choice for the majority of us but for someone im sure thats not a bad deal

[Triggerman]

the key to these condos are location and low HOA, an area such as the medical center will always be a good rental/selling area. if you're able to rent out the condo to cover at least the mortg.and HOA dues then your gaining positive equity since the renters are the ones paying the loan off for you. not only will you not be using you own money, you will also be getting the tax and interest benefits for tax purposes.

lets face it ever since the fortune magazine article came out about san antonio our property values are going to continue to rise over the next few years whether it be homes or condos. being that we live here we better all take advantage before all the out of state investors come in and inflate the real estate market.

although i agree owning a home can be a greater investment especially if your living in it, but as a renters aspect a condo has alot of positives.

[GaryP]

Just a note about rental properties. When a mortgage company evaluates the profit/loss from a rental property they use something called an "occupancy factor." They assume the property is going to be empty 25% of the time. This a little conservative in my opinion, but when have you ever known a bank to not be conservative? Here's what that means in practical terms.

Monthly rent: $1000
Monthly income: $1000 X 75% = $750
Assume your monthly costs for the rental property are $700 (principle, interest, taxes, insurance, & HOA fees)
Net income = $750 - $700 = $50/month

So that ends up as: Gross income/.75 - Costs = Net income

Now, that does not take into account the tax benefits of the rental property. That is only a calculation of monthly profit/loss on the property itself. In this scenario, an adjusted income of less then $700 would be shown as a liability, not as income. That means that if you were renting it for less then $933 ($700/75%) a month, at least in the eyes of the bank, you are taking a loss on the property.

This is how we evaluate rental income for the purposes of determining income on a rental property that is being purchased, or current rental income when someone is purchasing another property.