What's the cost to run a condo?

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nobbie48

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Ignoring the mortgage, what are the typical maintenence and taxes for a modest sized one bedroom non-slum condo in Mississauga?
Are utilities included? Obviously not phone.

TIA
 
Not exactly what you're looking for, but anyway. I have friends that have a 2 bedroom condo with shared pool between two buildings. It is on the 21st floor (not sure if that matters) and it is one of the nicer ones on the west side of the Bramalea City Center. They pay 710$.

I am completely floored by that. I do understand that they get a lot for that versus owning and running their own house. But that is almost on par with my mortgage payment.
 
A two bedroom 1000sqft place at Bellaria (Jane & Rutherford), no pool, is:

Maintenance $635
Electricity $45
Realty $235

IIRC, I believe an extra parking space would cost approx 20-25 grand.

Be careful when buying that the condo association has adequate reserves in place for building maintenance and improvements - otherwise you might be subject to huge increases, special assessments and/or a decline in the market value of your unit. There was a good article in the Globe earlier this week.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...of-low-condo-maintenance-fees/article2030464/

One of the nice things about owning a home is your ability to do maintenance and improvements yourself - consider the after-tax cash that you can save and the tax free returns for your blood and sweat.
 
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its about 50 cent a sq foot considering the building has stuff like pool,party room,gym etc.. and all that would include heat/hydro/water etc...

Things to look for, if its a used condo, ask and have lawyer to look over the most current Statues cerftificate. Thats the actual financial report.

Dont compare brand new buildings against older ones as the brand new buildings all have low maint. fees that go up 20-30% in the first 3 years.

Things to remeber, the maintenance fees cover all the common costs and maintenance, even though you exclusivly own your unit, you are shared owner of all common areas and thats what the maint fees cover.
 
nobbie48 said:
Ignoring the mortgage, what are the typical maintenence and taxes for a modest sized one bedroom non-slum condo in Mississauga?
Are utilities included? Obviously not phone.

TIA
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Depends on what the building and complex has.

Age of building?
Type of heat and AC?
Are heating and AC costs separately metered for each unit?
Are units on separate electricity meters, meaning you get individual hydro bills?
Is water on separate meters?
Elevators?
Underground parking?
Recreational facilities and if so what kind? Pool (indoor or outdoor)? Library? Fitness room? Sauna?
Laundry rooms?
Concierge and/or security?

There's really too many variables to say that "this" is what you'll pay in common element fees. If you can find a plain lowrise one-bedroom condo without concierge or elevators, no pool or other recreational facilities, outside surface pavement parking, and without the other extras found in many condos, your fees could be as low as $150 to $200 a month. Or if you have all the bells and whistles, $1000 a month.

Taxes will follow the value of the condo.

In any case, check the online MLS real estate listings. Try here for one starting point to search them -> http://www.homeforsalemississauga.c...ter_x=43.6250125&center_y=-79.6096485&zoom=11

Most listings will tell you flat out the taxes and common element fees for a given condo offered for sale, plus they often tell you what costs the common element fee covers. That tells you what you're likely still on the hook for personally. Like this one -> http://www.homeforsalemississauga.com/44a_read.php?ltl=1107858 ,
 
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twinn said:
its about 50 cent a sq foot considering the building has stuff like pool,party room,gym etc.. and all that would include heat/hydro/water etc...

Things to look for, if its a used condo, ask and have lawyer to look over the most current Statues cerftificate. Thats the actual financial report.

Dont compare brand new buildings against older ones as the brand new buildings all have low maint. fees that go up 20-30% in the first 3 years.

Things to remeber, the maintenance fees cover all the common costs and maintenance, even though you exclusivly own your unit, you are shared owner of all common areas and thats what the maint fees cover.
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This is the way to look at it. Absolute numbers are meaningless as most condo units (I'd say all, but I'm sure there's one out there that isn't) are based on square footage of your unit for condo fees. The bigger your unit, the most the cost of common expenses you share.

Note that no new building will have hydro included due to Ontario legislation.
 
I'm actually condo shopping right now and looked at about 10 different places in the last week.

I haven't been looking in Sauga....mostly Etobicoke and a few places in King West area. Most of the places I've looked at are around 300K for a one bedroom + den. Which comes out to about 1100 /month mortgage with a 50K down payment and a 30 Year amortization period. I've looked at one place that was a two bedroom for around 310K and I think in Mississauga you might be able to get something in the Mid 200's.

On top of this you have property taxes. Property taxes are actually HIGHER in Mississauga than Toronto. Most of the places I looked at seem to be in the $1600-2200/year range so you're probably looking at another $200/month in Sauga.

Check MLS.com. They usually list property tax. Divide this by 12 to get monthly cost.

You also have a maintenace fee on top of this. This ranges from around 270 to 500+ a month and may include various things. Most place include everything BUT hydro which expect to pay another $40-50/month, extra.

Of course, add cable+internet if you need that.

At the end of the day, I'm expecting to pay around $1700/month for the kinds of places I'm looking at......but I have fairly expensive tastes lol.....ain't cheap though man.

This is all assuming you're trying to buy that is....
 
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Depending for what you are looking for I purchased my Condo in Scarborough, fairly decent building, 205 K, indoor pool, gym, sauna.
Here are my costs,

$330 biweekly Mortgage
$490 Maintenance fee (Utilities, including Cable TV)
$19 insurance

so depending on the month, sometimes I pay 3 times and sometimes 2, but bottom line is that it should be under $1200 which seems to be a very reasonable price if you wish to rent something similar.

PROS: No maintenance or utilities to worry about, you will never get a bigger heating bill because of a bad winter.

CONS: Garage space is priceless, due to my condo rules, I had to work on it outside or on the street. That is the only reason I want to leave the Condo and buy a house but with Gas pricing, I am not sure if I will be able to afford to.
 
My apologies as I should have clarified my question.

My mother in law broke her leg and there are serious concerns about her ever going back to her old two story house with its narrow halls and steep stairs. She lives out of town but I figure she could get enough cash from the place to pay cash for a GTA condo thus keeping her out of a nursing home.

She is also one of those old country types that feels she has to leave something for the kids and a decent nursing home would eat away a lot of the estate. I personally don't care as once any estate gets split up over the kids, our chunk wouldn't be big enough to affect our lifestyle.

A bigger issue to me is if the old girl ends up in a home that does things that upset my wife I get to live with an upset wife.

I'm very familiar with industrial condos as I owned one and sat on the board. While residential condos are covered under the same acts there are numerous differences in how things are handled.

I also do work on condos and have heard property managers say that although they make their money from them they wouldn't live in one.

I'm exploring options. What I have seen of condos is that the higher priced ones don't necessarily have higher fees. The worst tend to be investor properties where the owners don't live there and won't pay for improvements and the residents don't have a say on the board.
 
nobbie48 said:
My apologies as I should have clarified my question.

My mother in law broke her leg and there are serious concerns about her ever going back to her old two story house with its narrow halls and steep stairs. She lives out of town but I figure she could get enough cash from the place to pay cash for a GTA condo thus keeping her out of a nursing home.
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You could also look into one-level garden townhomes with a street-level entrance. Maintenance fees are typically lower than with apartment condos, and it's more like living in a house with front and back yards (albeit small) but without the stairs.
 
twinn said:
its about 50 cent a sq foot considering the building has stuff like pool,party room,gym etc.. and all that would include heat/hydro/water etc...

Things to look for, if its a used condo, ask and have lawyer to look over the most current Statues cerftificate. Thats the actual financial report.

Dont compare brand new buildings against older ones as the brand new buildings all have low maint. fees that go up 20-30% in the first 3 years.

Things to remeber, the maintenance fees cover all the common costs and maintenance, even though you exclusivly own your unit, you are shared owner of all common areas and thats what the maint fees cover.
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Very well put. Maint fees also cover the growth of the reserve fund to meet future maint issues. 50 to 60 cents a square foot is about as low as a well run building can charge. Does not matter how good the purchase price is if the building does not have a proper reserve fund run away.

If you are buying make sure to use an experienced real estate agent (and an experienced real estate lawyer for the status cert review) for the type of purchase and the area you are looking in. Don't use your friend or family memeber if they do not meet the above criteria! When I bought my condo years ago my agent was extremely well versed in the downtown market (was also a friend) and told me straight up which buildings were poorly built and which ones were poorly run, basically said I will not sell you a unit in these buildings. BTW that was 9 years ago and all the buildings he said no to are today falling apart/run down messes. The agent makes a tonne of money make sure they earn/deserve it.
 
Roasted said:
Thanks ..... I didn't know that houses > condos for bike ownership. This is completely new and exciting to me.
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Naw man, winter, living room, interior decorating...

Sheesh I thought you was a poser, you don no nuthin 'bout posin!
 
I have a condo near High Park along the waterfront that's about 600sqft. It's a beautiful building with a gym, small pool, party room, 2 guest furnished suites that only cost $50/night, a virtual golf room and modestly landscaped grounds.

The unit I own has a balcony, parking spot and locker. The building is about 5 years old and has a solid financial status with a well versed board of directors.

The maintenance fees run about $310 a month and contrary to what has been posted prior, they include all utilities except phone/internet/cable AND they have only gone up the 3% each year, except for when the HST came into effect, which added an extra 8%. So since 2008, the maintenance fees have gone from $270/month to $310/month. At the same time, the unit has appreciated $50k despite the fact that market plateaued for a while during 2009. My neighbour bought his unit for $149k and now his is worth $300k after 5 years of ownership.

Another item to consider is that maintenance fees may be dependent on whether or not you have a locker, parking spot and what floor you are on. Typically floors 10-19, 20-29 and 30-39 will have a premium the higher up you go.

The property taxes run about $1900/yr. in this building for a unit with similar characteristics to mine.

So above the mortgage, the carrying cost for property taxes and maintenance fees are about $500/month.

PS> I was my fathers primary caregiver last year and spent all of last year looking at different retirement homes and long term care homes. PM me if you have any questions, as it can be a maze of information to digest at times.
 
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shanekingsley said:
I have a condo near High Park along the waterfront that's about 600sqft. It's a beautiful building with a gym, small pool, party room, 2 guest furnished suites that only cost $50/night, a virtual golf room and modestly landscaped grounds.

The unit I own has a balcony, parking spot and locker. The building is about 5 years old and has a solid financial status with a well versed board of directors.

The maintenance fees run about $310 a month and contrary to what has been posted prior, they include all utilities except phone/internet/cable AND they have only gone up the 3% each year, except for when the HST came into effect, which added an extra 8%. So since 2008, the maintenance fees have gone from $270/month to $310/month. At the same time, the unit has appreciated $50k despite the fact that market plateaued for a while during 2009. My neighbour bought his unit for $149k and now his is worth $300k after 5 years of ownership.

Another item to consider is that maintenance fees may be dependent on whether or not you have a locker, parking spot and what floor you are on. Typically floors 10-19, 20-29 and 30-39 will have a premium the higher up you go.

The property taxes run about $1900/yr. in this building for a unit with similar characteristics to mine.

So above the mortgage, the carrying cost for property taxes and maintenance fees are about $500/month.

PS> I was my fathers primary caregiver last year and spent all of last year looking at different retirement homes and long term care homes. PM me if you have any questions, as it can be a maze of information to digest at times.
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Your condo is the excpetion and not the rule, ask any RE agent, maint fees usually go up huge in the first 1-2-3 years because the developer is only liable for the overage on the first year.

Also, a lot of tenders for contractors are on the low end and expire in 2 years, so when they renew, they renew at market rates.

The other part is the utilities, just about all older buildings include everything, newer ones do not include hydro, as they run the vents but the blower motor usuage is your responsibility.
 
shanekingsley said:
I have a condo near High Park along the waterfront that's about 600sqft. It's a beautiful building with a gym, small pool, party room, 2 guest furnished suites that only cost $50/night, a virtual golf room and modestly landscaped grounds.

The unit I own has a balcony, parking spot and locker. The building is about 5 years old and has a solid financial status with a well versed board of directors.

The maintenance fees run about $310 a month and contrary to what has been posted prior, they include all utilities except phone/internet/cable AND they have only gone up the 3% each year, except for when the HST came into effect, which added an extra 8%. So since 2008, the maintenance fees have gone from $270/month to $310/month. At the same time, the unit has appreciated $50k despite the fact that market plateaued for a while during 2009. My neighbour bought his unit for $149k and now his is worth $300k after 5 years of ownership.

Another item to consider is that maintenance fees may be dependent on whether or not you have a locker, parking spot and what floor you are on. Typically floors 10-19, 20-29 and 30-39 will have a premium the higher up you go.

The property taxes run about $1900/yr. in this building for a unit with similar characteristics to mine.

So above the mortgage, the carrying cost for property taxes and maintenance fees are about $500/month.

PS> I was my fathers primary caregiver last year and spent all of last year looking at different retirement homes and long term care homes. PM me if you have any questions, as it can be a maze of information to digest at times.
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Thanks for the reply. That's the stuff I need. Right now we have three possible plans of action and it's a case of getting my MIL to pick a direction. That's the tough part as she is very set in her ways and is hoping there is a fourth choice.
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