Vote for a Condo
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I have to sit down and make a final decision when I have all the relevant information and talk about it with my sister-in-law because I will have a Trust Fund and she will be its primary trustee.
She will use her power of attorney immediately to pay for a car titled in my name, a home in my name, and make a dispersement of about 20k I will then have basically as a checking account to pay bills and expenses for the rest of the year.
I will not have a mortgage. I won't have any lien holders. I don't have any debts.
Yes, there are a lot of moving financial and legal parts to owning a fee simple property by way of condominium ownership.
But the main reason I'm willing to do it is because I can't afford a single family home and I want a better quality of life than living in a rented apartment or a mobile home.
I added the HOA monthly fee which included insurance and and the prorated monthly property tax for one of these apartments (I don't remember which) and it worked out to be approximately $750/ a month.
I paid almost $900 in lot rent this month.
I understand the costs of condominium ownership can and do change.
It's in my favor that these are not condominiums built in a way or place that would make them prone to experience structural damage.
It's also in my favor that I'll have money if it's needed.
This will give you an idea of the housing market I'm up against!
Link to video -
Oh, in the US you need a car!
I don't care what anyone says about walking, biking, or taking the bus, you are dead in the water without a car. The efficiency differential is along the lines of you might be able to taxi round trip for 30 minutes of metered time, and it's expensive, or spend 2 1/2 hrs total riding a bike, or up to 5 hrs walking, to accomplish the same task.
All of the roads and the locations of the places you need to go were heavily imprinted on our infrastructure and society in the 1950's.
I got my first car when I was 16. I had one until about 7 years ago.
Living without a car in the US works for some people in large cities but for most people in most places being able to drive is something they value very highly.
My car's going to be a used car with almost no miles on it and I know it will be dead reliable, efficient, and durable.
I'm a car person. I've researched cars since before I was old enough to drive and I've bought many used cars and some new ones. This will be easy for me.
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Yeah, in Florida especially you need a car.
Daniel, if you want to learn to cook, let me recommend this - IMO the best learn-to ever. It teaches you techniques that you will need and gives you easy recipes to use with them. I had the 2000 version, but it was updated in 2018. $9 for the Kindle edition, but you could probably get it at the library to check it out.
https://www.amazon.com/Cook-Without-Completely-Updated-Revised/dp/1524761664
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Link to video
I'm a Tampa native. I never heard of people living like this let alone paying this kind of rent to do it until a few years ago.
It's almost unbelievable.
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Link to video
Local Jacksonville news story about a woman's experience with a corporate landlord.
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Too bad #1 doesn't have the view of #2.
One thing that would bother me a lot about #1 is that it looks like there could be a lot of foot traffic right by your windows.
#1 has the better kitchen, but didn't you say you weren't much of a cook?
#2 has a more pleasant exterior. And that view!
I don't like the ultra shiny floors in #2 and if I lived there I'd be covering the floors with lots of rugs.
@Bernard said in Vote for a Condo:
Too bad #1 doesn't have the view of #2.
One thing that would bother me a lot about #1 is that it looks like there could be a lot of foot traffic right by your windows.
#1 has the better kitchen, but didn't you say you weren't much of a cook?
#2 has a more pleasant exterior. And that view!
I don't like the ultra shiny floors in #2 and if I lived there I'd be covering the floors with lots of rugs.
Yeah, that floor might need a rug.
I saw a rug once made by a specific people in a specific place that I've wanted (or a copy) ever since.
The pattern is a series of rectangles covering the entire rug and in the center of the rectangles are plant motifs.
The rug's design represents a garden.
The problem is I don't remember what it's called or any other details about it.
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I didn't understand this until yesterday but both of these apartments are on the 3rd floor.
#2 obviously has an elevator. #1 does too.
"Condo Info
Unit Floor In Building: 3"
This would explain #2's view.
I got some good news from my cousin. She finished some paperwork and is getting ready to send other paperwork to the attorney's office.
She said, "We're moving along." And said this time period is, "... the last little while."
That was a relief.
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So, I was on my phone and a text from the Estate popped up followed by one from my cousin.
She sent me an advance because my brother and I have to have received the same amount in advances by law.
This means a) my brother needed or wanted more money in advances than me, making me the more responsible one--
and...b) the final accounting went to the probate attorney's office earlier in the week.
Long story short, it will probably happen in March.
Now that it's winding up, I'm kind of freaking out about the decision of the home to buy.
It's a big decision and I haven't done this before.
You'd think I'd be ready but I'm not-- there's so much to know-- and you hear so many stories.
I'm going to have a talk with my sister-in-law and drag all the variables and figures on the table.
I've always thought and continue to think this wouldn't be half as stressful if I weren't living with a drug addled grifter with a personality straight out of hell.
His karma is coming.
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Link to video
Short video about buying a manufactured home and its true costs.
Buying land and a new manufactured home was something I considered for a minute.
I decided it would be too complex and expensive not to mention these homes are made of new materials that are filled with toxic chemicals and would smell like it not to put too fine a point on it.
The attraction was land but all things considered I'm glad I won't be buying a mobile home (words used if built before 1980) or a manufactured home.
The safety factor in winds, floods, tornadoes (we had one here!; my first), and hurricanes by itself rules it out for me.
There's nothing safe about them. One here got almost reduced to matchsticks during Milton. My roof got torn apart. It started raining in my house a few months later. I had to buy a new roof. It took an entire year to fix the damage I could and to clean up the mess.
One in a park across the street actually got lifted into the air and then dumped upside down during the tornado.
I see several here that were clearly lifted into the air at some point and landed on their iron rails in a jacked way leaving visible damage and nothing where it should or like it should be. These ended up still being livable.
A number of homes have basically been abandoned out 400 total. These are on the market for 10k.
The one place I like in this park sold as of yesterday.
I always wanted to live in a small concrete block condo building built in the 60's and 70's since I lived in Hawaii. Those apartments were mega $ as you might imagine.
I think I would like living in an apartment building. Even before living for almost two decades in Hawaii I wanted to live in an apartment in the City. I thought great. No snow shoveling. Nothing like that.
Oh, and I learned that private equity firms often buy land lease parks, decline to renew the leases, effectively putting people in the street, renovate all the units, and then rent them. Yikes!
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