Condos are better for professional types who don't want to worry about landscaping, painting the exterior, or fixing the roof. Excellent for busy singles.

Homes appreciate more, and are the ultimate domestic dream for many, especially families.

Apartments are temporary and much cheaper, with the least amount of liberties in terms of changing to taste.

Buying is a great investment, but the first year is a huge adjustment. It's incredibly expensive!

emm said:

o my god that is so fucking cheap!

muirdo said:

muirdo said:

NDRU said:

i do realize that
you do pay for that though... at one point i noticed i had paid $4000 in interest and only $1000 of principle on my mortgage

if you can pay more, it will pay off in less years

i was willed some money so could make a large downpayment so i was lucky

emm said:

I could afford that. Can you move your home here, please?

emm said:

I wish try $1009.00 and that was just for the mortgage but I did buy in what "the market" considers a major city.

emm said:

That's pretty typical to pay more on the interest at first. Feels wrong, though.

NAnomaly said:

That still sounds cheap!

NDRU said:

I know compared to other areas and places true but it still hurt when I wrote out the check every month...pain is pain.

NAnomaly said:

definitely!

well thanks for all of the tips/experiences/advice that all of you have been giving me.

hmm, so i guess in summary it's either:

if you can afford....opt for a house or a townhouse, depending on if you want a lawn or not, lifestyle, etc.

if you can't afford...then rent...

is this what most of you are saying?

I hope to buy within 2 years but I'm unclear on the difference between a condo & a townhouse

the difference between a CONDO and a townhouse can be confusing ... even for me and i am in the industry ... it has to do with more LEGAL things (rights of the owners)than ... well .... you know ... drive by and look ... and say ... "oh that is a townhouse " ... with a condo you own a PART of the association .... with a townhouse you own a deed (much like a house )...

in general --- with a condo ... you own the inside of the place - they used to say you own INSIDE the walls ... so in other words .... if the roof starts to leak - NOT your problem - the association takes care of it ... etc ... the negative with a condo is that- in general - you have higher monthly fees and you cant do things like plant things .... if u are into gardening , etc .... also you cant add on usually - if u wanna add a porch or a patio , etc

HOWEVER ... with a townhouse - in general ... you own the land .... and therefore alot of the time you CAN have a garden or plant your favorite plant in the side planting area ... etc ...AND you do own the roof ! ...

here is where it gets confusing ... BECAUSE ... i can show you townhouses that have higher fees that maintain the roofs ...and that also do more of the outside lawn mowing and snow shoveling and ... also have rules that you cant do things outside like plant a garden ... alot of times you must read the declarations and such .... and they spell out what you can and cannot do .... very bland reading ... but .... you really should understand that they are designed to make the community continue to look nice , etc ...

SnidelyWhiplash said:

Awesome, thank you so much for this info! So if I don't give a flying shit about gardening (which I don't), go condo - I 'll just pick one that looks nice outside already

its been a few yrs since i had a class on it .. but also i think there are other "classes" of condos ... like co-op , etc .... most condos that people in the city think about area multi leveled whereas--- around me ... there arent many differences between a condo and a townhouse to the naked eye .... my mom still thinks this one place near us is a condo and i keep telling her ... "no mom ... that is a townhouse " .... lol .... i used to sell a competing townhouse - and my townhouses did have very low fees (like 10.00 a month just to pay for the common area and the mowing of the common areas)--- versus the other townhome that had like 69.00 a month (but they paid for mowing of all the ground and painting ... and the roof when it went bad , etc ) .... i was always selling the fact that 69.00 x 12 = a hell of a lot of money !

having said that --- the other townhouses (not mine) sold like hotcakes because they were in a lil better school district .... (most of them were at least) ...

missfee said:

the other benefit to renting is that you're not responsible for fixing anything. Of course, getting your landlord to fix stuff can be harder than doing it yourself...

Okay here's my opinion on this topic:

As others have said, renting an apartment is throwing money away and you don't want to do that if you don't have to.

I have lived in a condo for the last 17 years, and let me tell you, it's not all it's cracked up to be. You have to pay a maintenance fee every month that can be pricey (I pay $170.00 per month, and I feel it's a big ripoff, quite honestly). Plus, you can be assessed at any time to pay extra money when the condo association decides that they don't have enough money in the reserve to do some renovations or whatnot. The place I live at is notorious for trying to pull that shit all the time. One time, they tried to get people who lived in a one-bedroom condo (such as myself) to pay a higher monthly maintenance fee from those people who owned two and three-bedroom condos. Their reasoning was, "It will raise the value of everyone's condo" blah, blah, blah. What a bunch of bullshit! Luckily, we got to vote on it, and of course I voted no. I wrote on the ballot form something to the effect of, "Are you people crazy? What are you smoking? To ask people who own a one bedroom condo to pay more money than people who own a two and three bedroom condo is ridiculous, and I am not paying it. Decisions like this make me wonder just what kind of "board" we have around here." Luckily, this idea got voted down, but the board of the condo association where I live is notorious for coming up with harebrained ideas like this all the time, and it drives me insane. When you live in a condo, you have no control over how your money is spent for repairs and whatnot, you have people on a board deciding it for you, and that can really suck at times.

Another drawback to owning a condo is paying for property taxes on land that is not soley yours. I just got my property tax bill for the last six months, to the tune of $748.00. I wouldn't mind paying this if the little yard in the back of my house was mine and mine only, but it's a backyard that is shared with everybody else with who lives in the building. Again, another ripoff all the way around.

Also, several people mentioned condos that used to be apartments. If you do decide to move into such a building, I suggest making sure that the soundproofing is good. Some former apartment buildings have lousy soundproofing, and the sound can really carry. The place I live at has thin walls, and every sound seems to be magnified. When a person slams a door, talks in the hallway, runs the water, etc., you can hear it, sometimes at hours that you would not like to. I can't tell you the number of times that I have been woken up from a sound sleep because the bitch downstairs has slammed her closet doors.

Of course, if you buy a free standing condo or townhouse, the above mentioned issues that I've mentioned might not be as much of an issue.

My recommendation is to buy a house. If I had it to do all over again, I would have stayed at home a little longer to save more money so that I could buy a house. But I moved in here when I was 26 years old because I was ready to move out and be on my own. Right now, I am saving to buy a house so that I can get the hell out of here. It won't be until a few more years, but I'm stashing away as much money as I can so that I can make this dream come true. I'm determined to make it happen, come hell or high water, no matter what.

psychodelicide said:

If you think that's pricey, you would not want to be livin' in my 'hood. What city do you live in?

condo

Ace said:

I live in a "rich" neighborhood, but the condo was cheap, so that was why I bought it. Where do you live?

psychodelicide said:

Toronto.

Ace said:

Where abouts?

JustErin said:

"Entertainment" District.

Ace said:

Had to look it up to know where it is.

JustErin said:

How come our giant erection (the CN Tower) is rendered, but not its nuts (SkyDome)?

...Oh, I'm sorry: I mean "Rogers Centre".

Ace said:

That means nothing to me as well.

I've only been to Toronto maybe 10 times.

JustErin said:

SkyDome was purchased by Rogers Cable a year or two ago and they renamed the stadium. But anyone who actually refers to it as "The Rogers Centre" can slurp my nuts.

By the way, I can see the CN Tower from my window and, thanks to Conan O'Brien when he did his show here, I can no longer look at it without picturing it in a wrestling match with Seattle's Space Needle.