My wife and I nearly made a big mistake. We almost jumped from the frying pan into the fire
Last edited Thu Aug 30, 2012, 08:15 AM - Edit history (1)
We both have mothers with alzheimers so we are making long drives to go and take care of them nearly daily.
We concluded that with winter coming it was only going to become worse and more dangerous to make these drives.
We had decided to sell our house and move nearer to them both. We wanted to purchase a condo just a few miles from our mothers houses.
We talked to Realtors and looked at some and were just about ready to do it. The Realtors made everything sound great. They told us all of the good things about condos. They never mentioned any drawbacks. It almost sounded too good to be true. Turned out it was too good to be true.
My wife has a sister who manages condos with her husband so just for the hell of it I decided to call her yesterday for her advice.
She gave me the name of a realtor and told me to call him and ask him what he thought of our idea.
Sure glad I made that call.
After introducing myself to this gentleman and explaining my situation and where we were thinking about buying the phone went quiet for a while. I thought the phone went dead. But it didn't.
After continuing our conversation the first words out of his mouth was this.
He said Don, I have a better idea for you. I said I was all ears and asked him what he suggests?
He said you would be better off pitching a tent out in the forest preserve and live there.
I was actually offended until he explained why that would be a better option.
He said that the Condo Owners Association is made up of people who are not even close to being in the same financial situation as my wife and I are in.
He said many of them are living in million and a half to two million dollar condos and money doesn't mean anything to them.
He said when they get together for their meetings they may decide that all of the condo parking lots need to be repaved at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. He said after we move in we may get an additional assessment that we are required to pay in the tens of thousands of dollars to pay for that parking lot repaving and we would have to pay it. Not optional. He said that assessment could very well be 30 to $40,000 dollars. He explained that would kill me with my small pension but it wouldn't even put a dent into the wealthy decision makers bank accounts who wanted that repaving job and are calling the shots. At that point I realized I was out of my league. Way out of my league.
That man talked to me over 3 hours, like a father would talk to a son. We discussed everything from condos to mothers with alzheimers. He had one too.
It was the most enlightening 3+ hours I have had in my entire life. Felt like I made a lifelong friend. Think I did?
Damn, I sure am glad I made that phone call yesterday.
How many people would have taken 3 hours out of their life telling me what this man did the way he did for no financial gain?
Don
= new reply since forum marked as read
My family lived there one year and the condo commandos never stopped. Of course after the third rude confrontation we went out of our way to aggravate them. 
Honest and sincere feedback. I'm impressed. 
There is a limit on the amount the BOD can authorize to spend without a vote ($10,000). Usually spending like this is covered by the budget. Only rarely does it overshoot the budget. The vote is by mail and we get a better response (since switching to vote by mail) than the presidential election, about 2/3rds. For any rule or regulation to be changed it must be voted on. So at least 2/3 of the owners are in on making all spending and rule decisions. Like I said, it has to be a well-run association.
Edit: We have about 300 owners and usually about 100 show up for meetings. I personally don't go to them because I get too pissed at that 5% who always show up calling names and spreading falsehoods and rumors. Plans are discussed at the meetings, and if the board approves, it goes out for a vote.
In the 5 years I've been in the office, I can say that everything has been totally above board. We have a new BOD this year and I will not let them do anything that is out of order or unfair until they learn the ropes. My hubby says I should run for president and I could and I'd probably win, but hubby shuts up when I tell him it would be the end of my salary.
My MIL learned this the hard way. One of her condo neighbors (eight units per building) had a mentally challenged son living with her. Things were fine until the mother began having health problems (she was in her eighties), and her son's "issues" began interfering with EVERYONE. Specifically, he "hoarded" and his particular mental illness meant he "hoarded" rotting food and covered the walls with fecal matter. Complaints because of the smell were made by the building residents to everyone from the Board (who dutifully noted it in their meeting minutes, to the point where one of the comments made was: "we aren't going to talk about HIM again!" , to the Adult Social Service Agencies, to the local police department - you name it.
This went on FOR TWO YEARS. The Board decided the entire building was filled with "complainers", and did NOTHING. Finally the smell was so bad that the second-to-last time the police were called, there was concern she had passed, and he didn't tell. (She didn't; they just didn't want to come to the door.) When the police entered, and saw the condition, they ordered him to "clean up", but a week later, with the smell getting worse, THEY activated Adult Protective Services (the mother was bedridden, and there was human fecal matter everywhere), and both were taken into protection.
The Unit was condemned, the whole building had unsafe levels of e-coli and other airborne contaminants, and it was months before the residents could move back in; the Board, meanwhile, tutted non-stop about charging the elderly woman $25 a day for the violation (!), and delayed getting the building cleaned up, then tried to do a crap job. They didn't want to test everyone's units, just the hall - turned out every unit in the place had hazardous levels, and it took multiple visits from the Hazmat team to get the place fit for humans. "Why spend money on cleaning the air ducts?" This was a serious question from several members of the Board who were concerned they wouldn't be able to recoup the expense from the "Violating Unit."
They made the local news: http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/oakland_county/crews-being-the-processes-of-cleaning-up-a-hoarders-condo - don't you want to buy into that association? Talk about plummeting property values!!!
The elderly women on the board just could not grasp the concept of "airborne contaminants" despite the write up which clearly spelled out the dangers to everyone else's health. They did, however, love to send "$25 per violation" letters to people who irked them personally, and spent more time on those letters than they did on the REAL problems that their negligence allowed to happen.
You can't pay me to live in a condo. Talk about having the value of your property decline due to a bad neighbor! Lol!
There are 169 towns and cities that are the only level of government below the state level. The state did away with county government in the 1960 Constitution, so counties exist in name only. Nearly all towns run their own school systems and provide all services. Some provide more services than others. I live in a village within one of these towns. With the exception of the town borders and a town hall, most towns are not organized as an urbanized area that one would expect from the term town. Villages refer to smaller clusters of people within a town, again some more dense than others. None have their own government.
I can see the perspective difference. My system of government organization, even when rural, is naturally going to be more responsive.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unincorporated_area#United_States
Due to differences in state laws regarding the incorporation of communities, there is a great variation in the distribution and nature of unincorporated areas. Unincorporated regions are essentially non-existent in the six New England states and New Jersey. Nearly all of the land in New England (and all of the land in New Jersey) is part of an incorporated area of some type. In these areas, types (and official names) of local government entities can vary. In New England, local municipalities are known as towns, and are administered by a form of direct democracy, such as the open town meeting or representative town meeting. Larger towns in New England may be incorporated as cities, with some form of mayor-council government. In New Jersey multiple types exist as well, such as city, township, town, borough or village, but these differences are in the structure of the legislative branches, not in the powers or functions of the entities themselves.
Your post was greatly appreciated.
Tikki
literally eaten up with scads of people who prefer der Mittens' and Paul Ryan's approach to societal issues: f*ck 'em.
