Right now it looks like nothing for sale around the area it is in. Townhouse style condo. I would not want anything to do with maintenance fees personally but can see the attraction for people with zero skills.
Sent from my couch using my thumbs
I think the fee on a friend's TH condo is about $250 a month. He has a two car garage and can park another two vehicles in the driveway.
The upside:
If I understand it correctly anything exterior is paid for by the condo and inside by him. He doesn't have to shovel snow, garden or mow lawn. A lot of liability is on the condo insurance and he doesn't have to put away for a new roof. They just installed a new front door and fixed the steps. If he wants to he can park a six pack of motorcycles in his garage and even work on them. With the door closed there are no browsers in unmarked vans.
if you buy a bargain TH that has been trashed, light skill levels can turn it into a money maker because a lot of people don't even have the light skills. An IKEA kitchen and tart up bling.
The chances of a major structural event are minimal.
The downside:
I suspect he can't do anything interior that would go deeper than the drywall. He can renovate the kitchen and baths, tart up the decor, do flooring etc. He can't put on an addition, different windows, re-frame walls etc. The windows would have to be in keeping with the standard appearance of the complex. If he did a massive kitchen and bath upgrade, he wouldn't get much of the cost back. Most complexes have set values and nothing raises them very much. A dump does drive buyers away
He only has one adjoining unit so only one source of sounds and smells. The others have two sources.
High rise:
It's a different animal with lots of expensive maintenance items like elevators, parking garages, gyms, pools, exercise rooms. Even carpet is a big deal. The hall runners don't last long when there are ten families in a wing, following the same path daily. Parking security issues and four or more sources of noise / smell etc, no outdoor space. The typical fees are 3X the TH and there's a higher probability of a special assessment for balcony or garage remediation.
Other than the view (If decent) I can't think of a single advantage of a HR condo. Waiting for elevators, hauling groceries etc.
A personal thought. If you go by a friend's place and you see only his car in the driveway you might just knock on the door and say hi. That could happen with a TH or detached but with a HR you have to book an appointment. I lost touch with a friend when he moved into a HR. Maybe it was to avoid me.
A couple of hundred to avoid gardening and shovelling is OK by me. Triple that and losing the ability to do my own thing is all wrong. Someone else posted that they would want an industrial unit as a man cave. So would I. I actually did have one but it cost about ten grand a year to keep with no mortgage. The other factor was the half hour drive to the place where I kept the bikes. It wasn't convenient like an attached garage.
To each his own.
