purchasing a single condo unit as a rental

[Edwin Lau]

I've been thinking a lot about buying a condo unit 2bed 1bath and using it as a rental unit but the numbers don't work and I'm left wondering what sort of investors actually make these purchases and how it makes sense to them.  Any insight would be appreciated!

A recent 2bed 1 bath condo unit came up last week for $286,000 in a good location (right by the subway station), condo fee @ $654, 925 soft.  I spoke to a mortgage specialist that said roughly my monthly payments would be ~$1000-$1200 over 25 years with 5% down.  So at minimum I would need to charge ~$1854 just to cover these costs and that's already really high for that size condo at that location, they usually go around $1600-$1700 tops.  

I would have nothing extra for when things break or anything for that matter, it would be out of pocket which doesn't seem to make sense to me if this condo is to be an investment.  Is this just a case where the numbers don't work or am I missing something big?

[Steve Kachniewicz]

condos can make you money If you know your market and do the numbers. I own 2 condos and I cash flow positive on both. Plus I never have issues with tenants because the assoc takes care of almost everything. You just have to find the right deals. With a house you have much higher taxes and many things can go wrong. Single family homes are a money pit pure and simple. I lived in a condo for 7 years and barley spent a dime. I bought a home and all I do is spend money fixing this and replacing that. Houses are more time consuming as well because the tenants could care less about the lawn, landscaping and keeping up with general maintenance. What control do you have in owning a single family home? The furnace breaks you fix it. Gutters leak you fix it. Tree crashes through the roof you fix it. Ect.....