Be wary of buying into homeowner association
It has always been wise to take extra care when buying a house or apartment in a community governed by its owners.
But nowadays, with so many people behind on their mortgage payments, even a fire-sale price from a desperate seller could quickly lose its luster if too many 0f your new neighbors haven’t been paying their share of the cost to operate the community.
If that turns out to be the case, says Richard Swerdlow of Condo.com, a Coconut Grove, Fla., marketplace for condominiums, you could be hit with a big and unexpected assessment, significantly higher dues or possibly both.
“Every day we get e-mails – it’s got to be in thousands – about condo boards that are struggling to pay their bills,” says Swerdlow. “So it’s either make everybody pay more or curtail or even discontinue services.”