High Tide Aquatics

Buying a Condo. What would you look out for

Blaise006

Blaise006

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Hi All,
The fiancée and I are putting in offers for condos (prefer houses, but this market is to rich for us to have a chance) around the peninsula.

Curious what your thoughts, concerns, and questions might be or anything you wish you had determined prior to buying your own place.

I would need to consolidate tanks. Likely upgrade to 200- 260 gallon. It is possible I’ll just keep the 125. That is TBD.
 
You'll want to get a good idea of what the plumbing/electrical/structural situation is. I.e., is it up to code, and what year's code? From there, you can decide where and how big a tank can go. No large, unsupported loads, everything needs to be carried by something structural.
 
For large tank check the weight limitation of floors, for my condo in SF, I choose ground floor and talked to property manager about tank limitations.
 
If you know anyone that does construction/contractor work; I'd have them attend any inspection you do.

Not sure how it is for a condo vs a single family home. But our inspector failed to notice things like the electric cook top had a burner that didn't actually have any temperature control. The oven was missing a control knob (it was replaced by a generic black knob.. which is useless). Also the fence around the entire property was rotting out -- on both sides of our house you could "shake" the fence because so many posts were rotted.

Not that I know how much that would have changed things -- but when you move into the post inspection negotiations you can maybe get something back if you notice and call attention to these things.

That said, in the market today, good luck on negotiating anything back versus negotiating how much you have to give up -- eg x months of free rent, etc.

Also, I wouldn't plan on any type of large tank in a condo. You would need to ask, but similar to apartment buildings they usually have rules in place. They don't want your 200 gallon tank leaking water all over the unit(s) below you. That, however, is 100% entirely based on the building.
 
I used all the little things wrong with the house as leverage late in the process to push back on getting money back when we closed.

So to that point; remember that your agent most likely does not give a sh** over negotiating for a few thousand $. A house selling for 500k vs 510k doesn't move the needle on their commission.

Our inspection came back with the house having termites (I think they were required at that point to fumigate, which they did), and then also having water damage in the subfloor of both bathrooms (not required to fix).

I pushed hard on the subfloor issue -- something like $2,000 repair estimate. The seller didn't want to kick back money. Our agents ended up splitting the cost to get me to close :). I figured we were far enough down the process at that point that I could push it a bit and nobody would want to blow up the deal over that. And it worked out.

So while little things like a bad fence, broken appliance, etc might not seem like a lot. They add up to something where you could potentially push for some money back at closing to cover the broken stuff. It also made me feel a lot better after being forced to pay over asking and provide a 1 month rent free rent back due to the sellers market.

We ended up using the money to get our popcorn ceiling removed and repaint the inside of the house -- I looked at the subfloor myself, it was passable, and we will deal with it in the future when we eventually actually want to remodel the bathroom.
 
H2OPlayar said:
You'll want to get a good idea of what the plumbing/electrical/structural situation is. I.e., is it up to code, and what year's code? From there, you can decide where and how big a tank can go. No large, unsupported loads, everything needs to be carried by something structural.
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This; which, to be honest, is a good idea regardless of whether you're planning on putting a tank in or not. Electrical is a big one; though this could be me being paranoid given our house in Michigan almost burned down because of hack-job wiring, and because our current condo's previous owners had some wire connections outside of a junction box in the attic/crawlspace.
 
Aside from build quality and construction standards, a couple things I should have considered when I was in my last condo:
  • Noise transfer: Are the floors thin? Will you have someone above you that you can hear footsteps/kids/dogs running around? This drove me crazy. Or if you have someone below you will they complain about your footsteps.
  • Parking: Is the parking situation adequate for your needs and the frequency you plan to have guests? Some unregulated places are completely packed that it's impossible and others can have draconian permit rules.
  • Ventilation: My wife cooks a lot, so when we found out that our microwave/vent hood that's commonly found in apartments was the recirculating kind, not good since there was no duct available to the outside.

If you happen to be on ground level with a concrete slab foundation, 200+ gallons is no problem. Any level higher you'll probably want some guidance on what's possible and optimal placement depending on the joist positions.
 
CaseyP said:
Aside from build quality and construction standards, a couple things I should have considered when I was in my last condo:
  • Noise transfer: Are the floors thin? Will you have someone above you that you can hear footsteps/kids/dogs running around? This drove me crazy. Or if you have someone below you will they complain about your footsteps.
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Also seconding this.

My downstairs neighbor has been awesome and very tolerant, and I felt terrible when I realized that 1) our living room and dining room were each above his bedrooms, and 2) our hallway is built right on top of the dividing wall so noise transfers easily. Carpets and soundproofing pads have helped, but that could've easily been noise complaints if they'd chosen to be a dick about it.
 
jhuynh said:
ever think of commuting a little farther to get a better home for a better price? market here does suck, but it's an investment.
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I think about it all the time. I’m not huge on paying a butt load of money to then have an HOA tell me what I can and can’t do/have. I can’t justify taking on much more leverage to spring for a house on the peninsula.
 
xCry0x said:
If you know anyone that does construction/contractor work; I'd have them attend any inspection you do.

Not sure how it is for a condo vs a single family home. But our inspector failed to notice things like the electric cook top had a burner that didn't actually have any temperature control. The oven was missing a control knob (it was replaced by a generic black knob.. which is useless). Also the fence around the entire property was rotting out -- on both sides of our house you could "shake" the fence because so many posts were rotted.

Not that I know how much that would have changed things -- but when you move into the post inspection negotiations you can maybe get something back if you notice and call attention to these things.

That said, in the market today, good luck on negotiating anything back versus negotiating how much you have to give up -- eg x months of free rent, etc.

Also, I wouldn't plan on any type of large tank in a condo. You would need to ask, but similar to apartment buildings they usually have rules in place. They don't want your 200 gallon tank leaking water all over the unit(s) below you. That, however, is 100% entirely based on the building.
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Thanks, I’ve been reading all the HOA bylaws and disclosures of each place before we consider an offer.
We have lost out to three offers so far all because we don’t want to give up certain protections. It’s hard to believe what people are willing to give up.
 
Unless the market calms down, you will probably get beat up until you go into "f' it" mode, unfortunately.

It was nuts 5 years ago when I bought and amazingly has just gotten more nuts. My sister is going through the same thing in Colorado -- she lost out on so many places that she had to just step away and take a break from it.
 
It’s a sellers market right now however I’m in a townhouse and setup a 75G with 30G sump across floor struts so I wouldn’t have to reinforce floor. A 200G would require floor bracing so yeah employ your best construction friend to help you plus run GFI 20 amp dedicated circuits and RO/DI lines to your tank! LOL
 
xCry0x said:
Unless the market calms down, you will probably get beat up until you go into "f' it" mode, unfortunately.

It was nuts 5 years ago when I bought and amazingly has just gotten more nuts. My sister is going through the same thing in Colorado -- she lost out on so many places that she had to just step away and take a break from it.
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It's actually a good time to buy a condo. Not quite the sellers market for a condo as it is for a single family house.
 
Visit at different days and times (AM and PM)
Visit Neighborhood Websites (like Next Door)
Visit or contact local PD to see about crime activity/safety
 
I think there would be totally different considerations depending on whether you want to live in this condo temporarily to build equity toward your forever-home or house purchase in 3-6 years (then suffering with the conditions is a little is more acceptable) or just want your final home to be the condo in which case it better be acceptable on many levels.
 
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