What Is A Condo?
If you are looking for a new place to live you have a lot of options in front of you depending on where you live. One of those options is a condominium. But what exactly does that mean?
There are lots of words you hear frequently but may not know what they mean. In the world of real estate one of those words is ‘condo.’ We have all heard of condos, seen condos and know people who live in condos. But what makes a condo different from another kind of housing?
What Is A Condo?
A condominium or ‘condo’ is a single housing unit within a larger complex. You can have a building with 50 condos or a building with just two. There is no size requirement to something being considered a condo nor a type of building.
What makes a condo different is each individual unit is owned by its occupant. It’s kind of like a cross between an apartment and a home. You could have a building of 200 units each completely owned by individual people.
Condo owners generally have to belong to some kind of homeowners association that decides on the maintenance of common areas, parking and settling disputes between neighbors. In this way a condo building functions like it’s own neighborhood.
What Makes It Different Than An Apartment Or A Home?
One of the most common questions is ‘what is the difference between a condo and an apartment?’ The biggest difference is that condos are each individually owned while apartments are rented.
An apartment building is owned by one entity and each unit is rented out. The building owner maintains common spaces and parking without input from residents. Condos on the other hand are owned by the occupant entirely and the building itself is maintained by the neighborhood of residents.
Physically apartments and condos are the same – they can be large or small inside of a sprawling complex or a small home.
The main difference between a condo and a home is that a condo is not a standalone unit and does not come with land. When you buy a home you also buy the land it is on. When you buy a condo you only own that unit. Also when you buy a home you are not necessarily subject to a homeowners association, depending on your neighborhood.
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