Condos can be a great long-term investment, IF you purchase the right condo in the right area, for the right price. These factors are all significant when tracking your long term success.
Here’s how we see condos as an investment vehicle:
Pros:
- Condos are less expensive to acquire (all else being equal) than their townhome or single family home counterparts.
- There are usually a lot of condos for sale and this gives you as an investor, more leverage when making a lower offer. This gives the investor many opportunities for purchasing low-priced condos.
- You don’t have to worry about any exterior maintenance, sprinkler systems, roof replacements, exterior painting, and on and on. The concerns of the condo are inside the four walls only.
- When you do need maintenance, such as periodic repainting or new flooring, it will be less expensive to handle these items with a condo than with a large house.
- There are many prospective tenants looking for condos. They rent for less than a house or townhouse, and many prospective tenants can only afford a condo. This could equal less vacancy time for your property.
Cons:
- Just as there are many tenants looking to rent condos, there are MANY condos on the market. This means your condo has to be competitive to not sit vacant.
- You are competing with apartment complexes. Many of these apartment complexes offer move in specials or other incentives that are typically a very risky proposition for a landlord of only 1 or 2 condos. Your risk is not spread out enough to offer $99 move in specials, or other deals that apartments might.
- Because of the supply usually being significant, you will need to make your condo attractive -this can mean spending more money on upgrades, staying on top of the condition, allowing pets and pricing the unit competitively.
- HOA dues can fluctuate, so this expense should be looked at carefully.
- With condos, a leak from your unit can affect one or more neighboring units. When this happens, it can be a drawn out process to determine which unit is responsible, whether it’s an owner or HOA water line, and then having vendors schedule with unit owners and tenants can all be a hassle. The same is true if your unit is the victim of a leak from above.
- The number of bedrooms plays a large role, oftentimes, in how quickly a condo rents. A 1 bedroom in downtown Denver may rent quickly, but a 1 bedroom in Greenwood Village may not. Knowing the demographics and likely renters for your condo are indispensable to the decision.
All in all, our assessment of whether or not condos make a smart long term investment is “it depends.”
With our expert property management and sales Team, we can help you identify condos in the right part of town in the right condition and the right size to ensure you get the return you are looking for.
