Secrets of Buying a Great Condo
In the past year I have heard of many newer condos in
Edmonton with some major building deficiencies. A Realtor that I work with
often, Derek Hulewicz, has written a great article about the issue...
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Wow! Can you find a condo building in
Edmonton that hasn’t had special levies? And I don’t mean the ones just
recently built that shouldn’t. Too soon? Too soon? (I had to quote Jeff Rose).
What happened to quality of craftsmanship? Can we still build well and build to
last? You would think that with present engineering and technologies we should
be building better that those who constructed all the Pyramids, ancient cities,
castles and churches that are still standing till now. You may say; we live in
the age where quantity has replaced quality, I guess the latter costs too much,
or does it?
It’s almost impossible to protect yourself from future special
assessments or levies as a condo buyer or an owner. For some it has been a
nightmare, for others who have been luckier a pleasant experience. In Downtown
and surrounding neighbourhoods like Oliver, Rossdale, Riverdale, Westmount and
Queen Marry Park, a disturbing number of the condominiums built after 2000 have
had or are having deficiencies that are past developer’s warranties and have to
be fixed with extra funding from the current owners. Here just some of them:
Grandin Court, Terrace Court, Parkside Court, Omega, Imperial, the View, Rossdale
Court, Glenora Gates, and St. Lawrence Court. Some of them were built by TESCO,
we’ve all heard that name. I haven’t heard anything bad about Alta Vista or
River Vista built by Christenson Development, so far so good. What about the
Icons? Great location and design, not too fond of either of their lobbies
constructed by Langham Properties from Edmonton.
The amount of special assessments can vary from $1000 to $30,000 and
even higher. In some cases, the board will rather increase the condo fees than call
for special levy. I suppose I wouldn’t be upset about couple of grand over say
5 years but $10,000 or $20,000 would definitely spike the blood pressure in my
veins. It seems like the magical timeline of some of these major and expensive
deficiencies appearing would be between 5 to 10 years down the road, when
warranties are out, convenient for developer. I say, let’s implore the builders
to give 10 year warranties on major items like structural, exterior, windows,
roof, elevators, heating and cooling systems, main electrical and plumbing.
Would that be nice?! It’s going to cost you!
So what is the secret to buying well? Older than 10 year? Like wine,
condos get better with age? LOL! I would say yes to some and no to others,
anything newer than 2002, give or take couple of years, and you are taking a
chance. Anything older than 1990 and you are looking at possible levies to put
new windows, roofs, upgrading the elevators, boilers, etc. (Keep in mind some
of the older high-rises, lofts and walk-ups had the majority or some work
already done). The funny thing is that there aren’t many condos in Downtown
area that were built between 1980 and 2000, most are from 1960’s, 1970’s, and
2000 plus.
Conclusion: All this info does sound confusing and trying to generalize
and find a definite answer to this puzzle maybe impossible. However, all things
being equal, the secret is to take every building under the microscope and
examine separately. Then, after doing your homework take a plunge and hope for
the best, you are not alone. There are definitely great condo buildings out
there and there are those that I would stay away from and would not recommend
to my clients, but we are not here in business of bashing but just trying to
provoke a discussion and find more information on this subject. By the way, I
would be happy to hear what you have to say, just comment to this post or give
me a call.
Regards,
Derek H.
Comments
Post a Comment