Condo Shopping (Buying)

[Rickey Mayes]

Hello All 

I am currently in the process of condo shopping. I am look for affordable condos no more than $250k so I can keep the down payment low. But I am open to other financing possibilities. I am posting this to hear from you all suggestions on how I should approach purchasing a condo. This will be both of our first home purchases.

Questions such as: 15 year or 30 year mortgage, 5% down 10% down or 20% down. Also how to make the payments go down when we are ready to rent it out in the future (3-5years).

It is just me and my fiancé as of now. This is not going to be our “forever” home since we do want a family, so do keep in mind that eventually we want to list it up as a rental property or sell it if we have to. But I would rather rent it out so it could be our first/foundational rental property and we can continue to grow our portfolio.

We've been looking to rent for a while now but with the local rent pricing it is just as expensive/affordable to purchase your own condo than to rent. So we are just asking for suggestions on how to go about purchasing a condo. 

[Noah Laker]

What's up Rickey, I'm a broker and investor here in Sacramento, and I manage about 100 rental / airbnb properties. With a Condo, couple things to note:

1) Financing can be a challenge, but as long as the building is in good condition, you should be fine. You can do less than 20% down (as low as 3.5-5%) if you intend to occupy the home for at least a year.

2) There will be an HOA (homeowners association) which restricts rentals, so be sure to read the CC&Rs (governing documents) to ensure that your rental strategy is allowed, even if you intend to live there at first, eventually you'll be transitioning it to an investment property, so this will be important. Most HOAs in this area don't allow short term rentals, only long term tenants.

3) Make sure you have a great team to guide the transaction so nothing gets missed!