Thursday, April 10, 2008

Condos or Townhomes? What's Your Choice?

Most of the time people in our area think of condos and townhomes as interchangable terms. They actually are not and can have strict implications when finding financing for your student housing needs.

Condos in Bryan or College Station have a shared association that maintains the exterior of the buildings and common areas. With ownership of a condo you own the airspace, but not the land, around your condo. You, as part of the association, do have a share of the land. With the purchase of a condo you do not need to have insurance with most finance companies. Despite their nonstringent requirements please get insurance. You still retain ownership of the sheetrock in. If a disaster occurs the association will be responsible for rebuilding the exterior of the structure. You will be responsible for the sheetrock, cabinets, fixtures and finish out of your property.

Financing a condo can have special implications, but typically only if you are using an FHA loan. FHA will want to ensure two things about the condo association. The first is that it is at least 51% owner occupied. You will not be able to get an FHA loan on a property that is primarily owned by investors. The second is that no more than 10% of the units are encumbered by FHA loans. It is an unusual case where there are more than 10% of a condo project that has FHA insured loans, but ensuring that your project isn't one of them can be difficult at best.

Townhomes are considered conjoined (typically) single family structures and have no strict guidelines. You may or may not have a home owner association that will provide common maintenance and maintenance of the exterior. You own the land under your unit and have no FHA guidelines specific to townhomes.

Why would you want to go FHA? That's for a different discussion! For more information about different aspects of the Bryan/College Station market go to my blog site at http:/www.BCSRealEstateNews.com. Please give Coti or I a call for all your buying or selling needs here in Bryan-College Station, whether it be a condo or a luxury home!

Saturday, April 5, 2008

College Station Condos Going Fast!

Condos in College Station have been going fast this year. Sales are brisk in both the condo market and the 150K and below housing market. Waterwood, at this time, only has one condo on the market active and it is a three bedroom, three bath. The Woodlandsrecently sold it's last four bedroom, four bath condo. Fox Run still has many three bedroom, three baths, but only one two bedroom, two bathroom unit available. Canyon Creek has only experienced modest sales this year. Deacon Condos on Fraternity Row are completely sold out currently also.

If you are looking for student housing call or email! We can set you up on a search and call you or email you when anything comes available on the market for sale. We are full service Buyer's Agents and can show you anything on the market as well as negotiate the best price for you.

If you are looking to sell student housing give us a call and find out about our progressive marketing program.