Condominiums are great for the people who live in them, as they offer lower-maintenance living, including landscaping and other services, in the monthly association dues.
Financing a condominium is similar to financing a single-family residence, with a few exceptions.
These differences are important to lenders, specifically the fact that condos have homeowners associations, which run the operations of the subdivisions or developments and determine the direction in which they are headed.
These associations are so important to lenders that the lenders reference what is called an approved condo list in determining if they want to lend money within a development. Real estate agents are able to determine if the development is on the approved list before you start looking at condos.
There are companies that regularly send out authorized people on behalf of lenders to do both a physical inspection of the property and a thorough assessment of the finances of the association as well as the rules and regulations of the development. What they are looking for are trends and signs that the association is well managed and financially sound, both now and into the future. This is for the benefit of both the lenders and the people who borrow money from them, but mostly for the lenders.
If you are in the market for a condo, let me guide you through the process of finding and financing an approved condo. I am always here to help, and I am just a phone call or email away.