West Babylon NY - What Is The Difference Between A Condo & A Townhouse?
I love this question! I'm working with a buyer who is wanting to buy a condo and they asked me this question last week.
Condo - You are responsible for the inside of the home. You can paint whatever color you want. You can do whatever you want on the inside. You own the unit. You also own a certain percentage of the surrounding property. You belong to a Homeowner's Association and your HOA fees pay for the maintenance of the common property including pool maintenance (if there is one).
Townhouse - You are responsible for the inside of the home. Again, you can do whatever upgrades you want to do on the inside. You also own the land beneath your unit. Townhomes generally have their own roofs. Some developments even have garages and driveways and you are responsible for those. You may even have a backyard. You also belong to a Homeowner's Association. Your HOA fees may cover maintenance for those backyards as well. Some do, some do not.
You do not need Board approval to own a condo or townhouse. But, some Boards want to see that you have homeowner's insurance. I know, it sounds crazy. Who wouldn't get homeowner's insurance? Now, that would be crazy!
With both, you can replace the windows too. But, you would need to find out if the windows have to be similar to what everyone else has. If everyone else has the grids on top of the windows (6 lights), then you would have to do the same. Same thing goes for the exterior like vinyl siding. You can't change the color to what you want. You have to try to get as close to the previous color you had. This I understand. Imagine if everyone decided to get different colors. It makes the development not look pleasing to the eye.
I'm on the Board where I live in West Babylon and we have a contingency fund for the roof. We will need new roofs in the next 2 years. This is another question to ask when buying a condo or townhouse. Is there enough money in that fund to cover repairs like this? If not, how much will you be assessed? So, finding how old the roofs are in condos and townhouses is important.
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