Condo vs. Single-Family Home: Which is the Smart First Buy for You?

so you're trying to decide about buying a condo or town home or a single family home as a first-time home buyer I'm going to help you think about some of those pros and cons and hopefully you'll make a really good decision for yourself I'm Shah Hill getting you over the hill to home ownership and helping you confidently buy your first home so let's talk about single family versus condo so one of the pros to single family is you're not as close to your neighbors there are no shared areas shared walls shared spaces for the most part um you're not connected to anyone so that's a big Pro of single family living because whatever your neighbors are doing in a condo or a town home you'll likely be more impacted by than single family homes where you have more space in between the homes so A major advantage of single family is you're farther away from your neighbor where with condos a disadvantage is is how close you are to people right um and that could be an advantage for some people some people want to have people around them especially if maybe they're single that sort of thing so that could be a pro for you as well number two is you have more control over your property if you're doing a single family a single family purchase so things that you want to do with your property you're on a lot you own that land you don't have where sharing land so your grass has to look a certain way maybe and your your Shrubbery whatever you know you're doing has to look a certain way to match the neighborhood even if you're in an HOA for a single family area generally speaking there there will be more rules with condos and town homes than there will be with um single family homes because what one person does impacts more of the community because you're so attached than if one person does something in a single family community so just be mindful of that one of the other pros of single family is more square footage generally speaking you're going to have a larger home if you buy a if you buy a single family house versus a townhouse and again that could be a a con or disadvantage for some people because they don't want to have to take care of so much space but if you want more space then you'll probably find more space with a single family home now the cons of single family Liv living is high maintenance you're going to have to make maintain the lot the land that you're purchasing the single family on mow the lawn rake the leaves take care of the trees all of those things it's going to be your responsibility so you do want to check if you are wanting a condo because of the low maintenance you want to see okay what are my condo fees that I'm paying for the M maintenance of my property and can I take the money that I would pay them and pay my own professionals to take care of my lawn to take care of my shrubs all of those those things you want to be able to weigh those out because one of the major major pros of condos and town homes is that you don't have you know it's low maintenance you don't have to worry about much most things outside of your home are taken care of for you and you don't have to worry about them where single family not only do you have to take care of the inside of your home you also have to take care of the outside of your home one of the other Pros with condos are amenities a lot of times you'll have a cond community that will have more amenities than a single family community so you might have things like a concierge or you may have you know activities and a you know a workout room those sorts of things where you may have less of those options in a single family community you know you could find single family with amenities but sometimes you'll find more in condos and town homes depending on where you're living all right let's talk about cost in most areas the cost to buy a single family home because you're owning the land that you're you're on is going to be more expensive than buying in a condo or a town home because you're you can put more condos on the same amount of land more town homes on the same amount of land so it's less expensive for them to build those types of properties typically so it is going to be less expensive in general sometimes to buy a condo or a town home than it is for you to buy a single family home so that is very important to think about as well so let's recap for single family you're not as close to neighbors less shared areas um you have more control over your property you'll probably have more square footage but some of the cons are higher maintenance higher cost and perhaps less amenities now let's recap for condos for condos there are lower maintenance you might have the possibility of more amenities they're typically less expensive than single family you have shared areas which may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how how you see it you have less square footage typically in a town home or a condo and then my last one is for a condo you just have less control over your expenses sometimes because if there's something that needs to happen in a condo then there might be a special assessment made to all of for example say the elevator is no longer working and that's going to be a major expense then everybody in that Association may have to chip in and fix that if they don't have enough reserves which there are more things like that because you have more shared areas than if you were in a single family HOA Community okay so if you are thinking about buying a condo or a town home I want you to watch this video next it's kind of the five things I want to make sure that you are aware of before you buy a condo or a condo or town home thank you so much for watching if you have any questions please put it in the comments

Channel: Shaheedah Hill

Views: 4,110

Keywords: Shaheedah Hill, First time home buyer, First time homebuyer, First time home buyer tips

Id: t36po6VBang

Length: 6min 5sec (365 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 27 2024