Apartment monthly fees...How much are they generally?

[fuc847]

i plan to get an apartment by mortgage.. but i heard this horrid story from friends.

so my mortgage pmt will be about $2000, for a $400k place with 10% down.

but i heard that apt fees are gonna be about another $1k for security, maintenance, garden etc.

is this true..? thats half the cost of my mortgage pmts!

[pitz]

Yeah $1k sounds about right... May or may not include property taxes. Plus you may or may not have utilities ontop of that.

A good rule of thumb for any building is that, on an ongoing basis, it will require roughly 1% of its value to be invested each year into repairs or accrued for major repairs/renovations.

If you can rent for a lot cheaper...I suspect you will be better off doing that, and investing the difference in a stock portfolio.

[fuc847]

i see.. thanks.

i also heard that townhouses, even the ones that are build beside the new apartments does NOT have these kinda fees, or at least not that high.

like, when apartments are built, they usually have 2-3 levels of townhouse look-a-likes beside the tall apartment.

[pitz]

Its important that you compare apples to apples.

Find out from the seller of the condo, with proper documentation, what the fees cover.

Sometimes some condo developments do not charge sufficient fees to cover maintenance, and end up in the position of raising fees later on in order to pay for everything.

Other times, condo developments charge too much in fees, money that perhaps would be better invested by individual unit owners and then paid at such a time when renovations needed to be done.

When you buy into a condo property, it is imperative that you examine the financial statements of the 'condo association', or 'condo corporation' carefully, to determine what their specific policy has been, how much in reserves they have, etc.

[superping]

The fee varies. For new condo, it will be about $200 - 300. An older condo fee of $700 is normal.

[mirek]

My 50 year old condo fee is 240/month for maintenance fee. 1000$? yikes, never seen that.

[The_Professor]

The fee varies. For new condo, it will be about $200 - 300. An older condo fee of $700 is normal.

That is far too general a statement as maint. fees are calculated based upon square footage. The cost per square foot will depend on the condo, the facilities, number of units, whether or not hydro is included or metered seperately, etc.

If you're interested in a particular condo, whether it be new or 50 years old, you should easily be able to find out (either from the seller or their agent) what the fees are and what they include.