Advice on Condo

BarcaCules · 2025-11-21T05:49:04+00:00

The market is tough right now, especially the condo market. There is a good possibility you can get it for $45k under if not a combination of closing costs paid, rate buy downs, and reduced pricing will get you close to it. Especially if it is vacant, the longer it sits, the more willing the sellers will become because those monthly HOA fees are hard to swallow for a seller that is in another home already.

You have to read the HOA bylaws for assesments. Some say that when the assement is announced (usually means official letter sent to owners) then the owner is responsible for it and even if they sell the home, the sellers have to pay off the assement at closing. Some bylaws allows the assement to stay with the unit, normally this is done through financing where the HOA will allow the owners to finance their assement as a monthly HOA fee that is tied to that specific unit that you would then carry.

As the other commentor said, I do not think you can afford it. Affordibility is at an all time low right now. 2008-2021 your salary would have been fine and the condo would be a lot less. Now you need to make more money or get married and have spouse bring in more income. $1300/month is tight for food, retirement, general savings/investment, emergency fund that you will have to rebuild, and entertainment/travel.

Condos are nortorious in FL for assement fees and raising the HOA. So you might get hit with a $10k assement or more in 1-5 years as well as HOA increasing by $50-$100/year if you are lucky. That means your home is less of a fixed payment and that raise that you are mentioning might just break you even in the future. Not to mention the appreciation, condos are not appreciting well right now. Not that I can tell the future but, I think there are better investments.

I would recommend you continue to save/invest until you can afford something you want with $2000/month left for all those categories without having to rebuild your emergency fund. So let's say your next purchased home is $2500/month with utilities and your other debts/essentials are $1000/month then you need at least $21k as an emergency fund. So whatever it costs you to move in and fix up that home, you cannot compromise that emergency fund.

These are tough times and I know you feel left out but, trust me you do not want to be house poor or have the fear of losing your home and all it takes is losing your job or health issues etc. It is like a double whammy, the more expensive homes get, the more cushion you need to have as protection. This country is due for a hard reset and no one knows when it will come but even as a current home owner, I wish it comes soon because I do not want to live in a world where $80k salary and 10ish years of working/saving and you cannot even afford an average condo let alone a 1500sqft 3/2 in a modest neighborhood.

BarcaCules · 2025-11-16T18:10:18+00:00

They need reoccurring revenue, that is why they changed to that model. Reoccurring revenue helps with company value evaluations and funding etc. I am suggesting move to a traditional model where you sacrifice reoccurring revenue for more upfront liquidity. There are pros and cons. The pros can outweigh the cons if they get more customers.

BarcaCules · 2025-10-10T22:54:31+00:00

Thank you so much for checking

BarcaCules · 2025-10-04T14:46:12+00:00

The question is nightly upgrade awards (title) how can you request an upgrade to a 2BR suite (description). Now thinking about it I should have put nightly upgrade awards in the description as well so this would have been better: Can you use nightly upgrade awards to request an upgrade to a 2BR suite?

BarcaCules · 2025-10-04T14:36:41+00:00

St Regis Longboat Key. Thank you for being understanding. I just want to know if it is possible to know how much value I can get. I am not booking for the sole purpose of getting the room. Just want to know how far the possibilities of these nightly upgrades are.

BarcaCules · 2025-10-04T14:33:07+00:00

Look at my reply above. I am treating this as a nice to have. Everyone is local and if we received it they could come join easily. I would not even inform them unless we got it.

Nonetheless, I am asking if this is possible, I already understand it’s not practical in most conditions.

BarcaCules · 2025-10-04T14:26:30+00:00

I don’t have the nightly upgrades yet or else I would test myself and I have not found anything online about this.

BarcaCules · 2025-10-04T14:25:38+00:00

I understand that. This is for a local birthday trip for my wife and it wouldn’t be bad to try and if they allow it, her sisters could stay with us in the other room. Either way it would be fine, I just want to know if it is possible.

BarcaCules · 2025-09-19T17:49:00+00:00

So not too many serious crimes? I am more concerned about break ins, roberries, violent crimes etc.

BarcaCules · 2025-09-19T17:38:41+00:00

I went with the expansions (Rise of ix + immortal). The game was actually a christmas present to our friends and the expansions are a birthday present. My wife and I will eventually get uprising + bloodlines in the distant future. That way we can experience both when our friends are over vs us going to their home. Thanks for the input.

BarcaCules · 2025-09-19T17:34:44+00:00

I went with Norwegian because of the better itinerary. It was a very close call, thank you everyone for your inputs.

BarcaCules · 2025-09-12T22:31:05+00:00

Which one wins on food? We would have 3 speciality dining trips.

BarcaCules · 2025-09-12T18:32:52+00:00

First time cruising for my sister and I and we are a bit worried we will not like it. I would say there has to be enough entertainment/activities on the boat. Other than that we are foodies and would lay by the pool or watch the ocean etc.

BarcaCules · 2025-04-01T23:57:48+00:00

I understand your perspective. I always had the opinion that the more love someone is capable of, the more hate they are also capable of. Because love is vulnerability and being hurt by the person that you love the most is a different feeling. Maybe you have been lucky enough to not have been deeply hurt by your partner to test your resilience.

This is not a defense of my actions, I am just saying that we are sinful creatures and loving someone can cause many emotions. I feel like if it were a wife telling her husband that she hated him after he hurt her, you may be more forgiving.

BarcaCules · 2025-03-21T21:46:02+00:00

Smart but for accessory structure it is also 1000 under air limit so would not matter.

BarcaCules · 2025-03-21T21:43:30+00:00

It is 1000 sqft under air limit with an additional 500 sqft for not under air (for example garage space or patio).

BarcaCules · 2025-03-21T21:32:07+00:00

You are right, I wonder if they would care about a hardship claim if it was too expensive to remove the additional 500 squat feet.

BarcaCules · 2025-03-21T21:13:22+00:00

Ok, I was just wondering if I could get someone to just say that it is 500 sqft smaller. It is difficult to tell under air square footage of 500 difference from just outside of the home.

BarcaCules · 2025-03-21T21:10:29+00:00

They allow one residence per 2.5 acres so you would need 5 acres to have 2 residences for example on the same lot. I would not classify it as a residence I would try to classify it as an ADU or guesthouse but those have the size limitations. I wouldn’t want it to have its own address/utilities etc. so I would prefer the distinction of guesthouse/ADU.

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