Buying a Condo in Louisville? — Five Things to Consider

Is buying a condo right for you? Many condo buyers are looking for a new place to call home that is in a convenient location: near shopping, local attractions, parks, and more. Here are five tips you may want to consider before you buy your next condo.

Is buying a condo in Louisville right for you? Searching for a new condo in the city can be exciting. Just think of all the featured amenities added with a convenient location: close to shopping, local attractions, parks, and more.

However, sometimes it’s hard to look past all of the things that a condominium has to offer and learn more about the status and strength of the condo development. You may need to ask yourself, what things should I consider before moving forward on this condo?

1. Restrictions and Bylaws

Will the restrictions and bylaws set forth for the condominium affect your current lifestyle and living arrangements? When looking for listings for sale in Louisville, you will want to receive and carefully review the updated copy of the Restrictions and Bylaws to help you make a good, and well-informed decision on your new condo of choice.

2. Set Annual Increase in Maintenance Fee

A set annual increase for the monthly maintenance fee is one thing you may want to consider before buying a condo. This could have an effect on your decision because of the increase in monthly expenses in the years to come. An HOA that operates this way is being proactive and adjusting their income accordingly to reflect the rising prices that are likely to come for expenses. For an example, if there is a 10 percent annual increase in your monthly maintenance fee, this could be a deciding factor when you are looking for condos for sale in Louisville KY.

3. Past & Present: Special Assessments

When trying to learn more about the pros and cons for a certain condo, one negative is the probability of a special assessment. There is nothing more disheartening as a new condo owner than to learn that there is an upcoming special assessment. As an interested buyer, it is also nice to know if there is a history of re-occurring special assessments due to bad or unpaid debts because of a poor budget plan.

4. Professionally Managed or Self-Managed?

The volatility of a condo development is usually in correlation to how well it is managed. If a development is not carefully managed it can put the property’s value at risk.

For example:

• Owner occupied vs. tenant occupied unit ratio is not properly balanced and in return makes it harder for the development to be approved by certain lenders.
• President or property manager neglecting to renew FHA approval. Causing it to expire and also limiting more qualified buyers.

These two examples can negatively effect a seller’s ability to sell their condo in a reasonable amount of time — causing a longer duration of days on market, and the need to possibly have a price reduction. This can also have a negative effect on the market value of the other condos in the development.

5. High Turnover Rate

Finding out the average turnover rate for the neighborhood may be another thing to consider before buying a condo in a certain community. A turn-over rate can be determined by the number of condos sold in the development divided by the total number of units.

The average turnover rate for larger communities in the Louisville area is roughly around 8 to 12 percent. If you find a condo development with a turn-over rate exceeding this, you may wonder why so many residents are selling and moving away. Is it because of dissatisfaction?

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Nathan Garrett

Nathan Garrett is a full-time real estate agent in the Louisville KY area. Partnered with his father, Ed Garrett, at the Coldwell Banker McMahan Co office in Oldham County KY. Nathan attributes his success in real estate to his presence online and his capabilities to leverage technology to better market his client's homes. When he is not serving his clients, he can be found creating engaging content with captivating graphics on the Garretts Realty Group website.