Flabuck wrote:
I have to take some exceptions to your statements about condos not planning or overstating the life expectancy of an asset. That exception lays in the fact that how many individual homeowners save money for long term repairs every month, my guess would be few, how many people who are landlords of single family homes place money aside for long term repairs, I would guess the answer is few as well.
Point well taken and endemic. However, I know I keep money set aside for long term stuff as well as unexpected stuff. Heck, I have to set aside $X per month to ease the pain of property tax which comes due 2x per year. That's for me, myself, and I.
When one buys into a condo in a state which does not mandate reserve studies and reserve funds, one is purchasing a pig a poke and you underscore this reality by throwing out one of the other aspects of condo living: What are the other "co-owners" doing relative to their owed fees and just how solvent is the entire project? Those with an abundance of foreclosed, dues in arrears, etc., etc., etc. compels one to think quite carefully about purchasing a "condo". If the reserve study AND reserve fund are started from the beginning, one does not confront the 30% increase written about.
Case in point: I purchased a condo apartment on Maui which had an operating fund and a "sinking fund" (whatever the hey that is....still don't know....). Now all of this was done before I got smart law wise about the places are run. The monthly fee was like low. However, after purchase and going through the reams of documents and demanding from the "professionally managed management" full financial disclosure, I learned. Got on the Board; did what I do best; and the fee went up 110%@ month to get that reserve fund in order. OUCH!!! Shot myself in the foot. Ah Ha.....not really.....because 3 years later, the ac for the two buildings went tits up (and the roof suffered hurricane damage requiring repair). No special assessment, however, because there was sufficient monies in the reserve fund to replace both. Not repair. Replace. The "surcharge" which had been added to the monthly fee was gradually reduced as we got to 100% funding of the reserve fund.
What is funny about condo living, from my experience, was the obscene arguments you'd get from duffus owners: "I never turn on my a/c. I should pay less each month." My reply: "I never use that elevator that goes up all of three stories (where that person lived), so you pay less because you live on the mountain side of the building with tons of shade where I live on the sea side and get plenty of sun and I'll pay less because I don't use the elevator. Come to think about it, I don't use the swimming pool, so I'm not paying for that. Wait. I only require one covered parking garage spot, so I'm not paying for the 2nd one that is deeded with my unit." Etc. The person shut up.
The Bro is being disingenuous--he knows very well what a "sinking fund" is, what "common charges" are and that Hawai'i gets typhoons, not hurricanes *. And though he didn't make the point well (actually not at all), an SFR owner where the owner owns the land, more often than not even in these parlous times, can re-fi the dwelling to meet any major charges. A point is more readily made and understood if the language is tightened up--"Words have meaning and language shapes thinking", saith that great metalinguist George Santayana. An Loc seems to have taken an eggbeater to his thought process. Damned shame, that. Lastly, it's usually spelled "doofus", not "duffus", as SpellCheck avers.
* Yes, I know Hawai'i gets hurricanes--The Pacific Hurricane Center is there. Just wanted to see if you were paying attention.
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ask any gang banger on the ny subway..hell tell you about ebonomics...."you make it ..we take it motherfucker" 
...cumdrunk parasites detest reality..as long as someone pays for their moronic foray into an academic fudgepacking fest of utopian pacifism .. 
