HOA fees - The buy/hold investors uncontrollable nightmare. Share your thoughts please.

[Account Closed]

Hi all,

Well here goes again... I am human... Every so many years I start to look at Townhomes in my area and the prices are perfect and the numbers for 3Br 2Ba are on target for awesome cash flow. THEN I see the HOA fees... "GULP" WHAT! HOW MUCH? I am not sure whom is running the organizations but I can't find "managed" properties that the numbers come even close to single families I manage. Oh, and by the way my properties are better landscaped, in safer areas and I provide more regular maintenance then these Condo and Townhome associations and I control the costs for the betterment of the the property as that will make my tenants happy then maintain cash flow/appreciation. WAIT! Then there are the "special assessments" Mold issues, Roof issues, Parking lot issues, Damn Issues, oh and my favorite EMBEZZLEMENT issues (google "Toms River NJ Saratoga Development $400,000 embezzlement" where the property manager killed himself after being caught steeling) Now the owners have to pay an additional $75 a month for ? years on top of there already high fees for no services except a cracked pool & to rebuild the reserve fund account . I might flip a townhome or condo if I get a great deal (and i mean great deal) but hold them NO WAY! Your thoughts and experiences would be appreciated..

[Dawn Anastasi]

I have always been against condos. However, I'm going to be buying a condo this month as I wanted to try it as an experiment. I had to ensure though that the rent less the HOA fee was my "adjusted rent" and that the "adjusted rent" made sense in order to invest.

So I found a nice, move-in ready condo at 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, with newer central air and furnace and double-pane vinyl windows (hopefully they didn't cost the owner $2,000 apiece!) with all the appliances.

So we will see how that experiment goes.