Rain screened = Buying oppourtunity
If you talk with a condo owner who has had the unfortunate experience
where their building has required major remedial work, like in the case
of a leaky condo where the entire exterior of a building needs to be
replaced or repaired, they will tell you how expensive this can be and
the steep special levies and assessments they have been hit with to get
the building fixed. Even more unfortunate is the fact that when the
owners decide to sell their unit they rarely ever get the money spent
fixing the problem back from their selling price. I have seen 20 year
old units where the owners have just spent $50,000 fixing a leaker -
sell the unit for the same price as the 20 year old unit in the building
next door. Now, with all the depreciation reports coming out over the
next 15 months what would you rather buy? A building that has just spent
$50,000 per unit in repairs and is essentially brand new (new roof, new
siding, new windows repaired balconies etc etc) or a unit that in 18
months is going to have a depreciation report spelling out what's going
to need to be done to it over the next 10 to 20 years and at what cost.
Remember even if the building next door is not a leaker it's still going
to need a new roof, windows and balcony repairs sometime in the next
decade due to age. I see a buying opportunity on these extensively
updated buildings before the playing field levels out and all the
depreciation reports are in.
This entry was posted on October 10th, 2012 by Owen Bigland | Posted in General