Monday, March 21, 2011

Buying pitfalls for Condos

While the market is good for deals of all makes and types, some caution should be taken when you are conducting your due diligence when your target home is a condominium.

Short sales and bank owned repossessions are plentiful and good bargains, but if you don’t research the rules and regulations of complexes that are grouped within a board of control you could be in for a rude awakening.

In the perfect world way back in the old times, lets call it pre 2005; condo units were built and sold rapidly. Now that we are in the time of lets say re-adjustment, regulations may have changed to accommodate the new owners of the community. When you write the contracts make sure you request a current non owner occupied percentage to owner occupied residences. Many lenders in today’s world my not load if the tenant occupied condo is above 10%. This would make it a cash deal only. Not only for the money side of the deal, but make sure that your buyers can qualify and be accepted to the closed condo system.

Finally make sure you research the insurance validity of the building as a whole. Just like the owners of the individual units have gone under, so may the board itself. Take a few extra steps when evaluating the property to save big headaches later.

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