Time to walk away?

[William A.]

I am looking at acquiring one bedroom condos.  I have a suspicion that these may not be easy to rent out.   I checked the Section 8 Listings, and found three neighboring units that  - One that was listed in Jan/14 and two in April/14.    Craigslist shows three units that were listed in June, July, and August.

[Ursula B.]

@William A. You got some great advice from @Gerald Harris . I actually prefer condos to SFRs despite the HOAs, but you have to buy into the right association. I'd also advise against owning more than two units in any one complex.  One $2K special assessment will mean $2K times the number of units you own.  Can get costly real quick!

Call the HOA management and find out what is going on. The last complex I was interested in had no master insurance policy because they were broke. So I could buy all of the insurance in the world, but if a strong wind blew over the building, it would be impossible for me to rebuild my 3rd floor unit.

Good luck to you!