Does this sound like good deal?

Question

1/1.5 condo. 760 sq ft. Asking $27,500. Does need appliances. HOA is $314 a month. Rents are anywhere from $800 and up. Seems like a good deal? 20% down 30 yr fixed. Still new at this so be patient. Haha

Rob Beland · Answer

@Preston Moody IIdo you have the ability to search for comps? Look for other units in the development that have sold recently and that are for sale now. Review the financials of the condo association. When were the roofs last replaced? Who is responsible for windows and doors? Who is responsible for decks? How much cash does the association have in reserves? Lots of questions.

Gilbert Dominguez · Answer

Have you heard of " Bait and Switch". Out where I live agents frequently pull this stunt. You will read $20K as the listed price but in reality it may be $220K or even $2M. $314.00/mo for HOA. How much do you know about HOAs? Does not include taxes, insurance, maintenance or whatever? You should think about investigation all these things?Your HOA dues will be much higher than your payments. How realistic is that? First of all right off the bat $314.00/mo for HOA dues sounds mid to high end range in which case I would expect a much much higher asking price. I may be wrong but it appears to me you are getting everything off of a listing and have not investigated anything. Advertising an asking price of $27K with a down payment of 20%. This suggests to me someone has financing arrangements. Do not be surprised if an agent tells you that was just hypothetical and they have nothing to do with financing arrangements which you will have to take care of on you own. Even if the asking price was correct there may be no one who would finance such a small amount of money. As a real estate investor or even just simply a home buyer you should be familiar with all the lending institutions or private lending entities in your area and know their policies and procedures, their lending rates and criteria. Do you want what you read to be true? Yes of course . Who ever listed this is counting on you wanting it to be true, that their hook.After you have fallen for this a few time you will learn that those types of listings are nothing to bother with because they are just a waste of your time. If you are truly interested then investigate everything thoroughly. Know exactly what the HOA guidelines and rules are and the CC&Rs are. If you are looking at buying condos then know all about condos and their particular kind of ownership and operation. You will hear this thousands of times do your own, " due diligence". That means fact finding.

Dustin S. · Answer

@Preston Moody II I would still check to make sure there are at least 2 or 3 management companies that would take it on you never know what could happen you could have to move or something and it should still cash flow with management self managing should be an extra bonus. Also I find professional managers are worth every penny you pay them a lot of the properties I have been looking at lately are properties that were managed by the owners and have been horribly mismanaged for years.

Preston Moody II · Answer

@ Dustin Salmon. Just saw your post and the HOA covers water, sewer, trash, maintenance and the such. Only thing not covered would be tax and insurance. I'm only looking for steady income. If Need be I could pay cash for the place. And as far as managing my wife handles my condo and my step moms condos and apartments.

Preston Moody II · Answer

Larry T. What information would like to know? I do know the HOA does not include tax or insurance. Average rent for the area is around $970 for a unit like this. As I mentioned in my first post please be patient. I was going over some listings and found this one. Place does not seem to need any work (based on photos) except kitchen appliances. So I thought I would throw it out there.

Dustin S. · Answer

First I would say lets see the other numbers are you factoring in Maintenance property management taxes and insurance?From what I see I would think it is not a good deal HOA seems pretty high. My other concerns would be.Can you get someone to manage it a lot of Property Mangers don't like condos or low rents.Will some one do a loan for $22K What are the misc loan fees going to be? Where I live most lenders don't want do loans less than $100k

Larry Turowski · Answer

@Preston Moody II The quality of your responses will be proportional to the quality of your question. You haven't put much effort into providing details or the analysis that you have done thus far. Would you buy this condo if this were all the information you had?

Jasmine Ansley · Answer

Here are links to a post and an article that I have found on BP that helped me decide.https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/816...http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2012/11/15...