4 ms·

I have no idea what a timeshare is (sorry) but aren’t condos something you fully own? Like some of my friends live in condos, some lived in a condo for a few ye

I have no idea what a timeshare is (sorry) but aren’t condos something you fully own? Like some of my friends live in condos, some lived in a condo for a few years and then sold them before moving into a house or some other city. Where I live the condos are usually similar in appearance to apartments (bed bath living room kitchen all on same floor) and there are townhomes which are a bit fancier and you might get an attached garage.

grzm 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeshare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeshare > A timeshare (sometimes called vacation ownership) is a property with a divided form of ownership or use rights. These properties are typically resort condominium units, in which multiple parties hold rights to use the property, and each owner of the same accommodation is allotted their period of time. Units may be sold as a partial ownership, lease, or "right to use", in which case the latter holds no claim to ownership of the property. The ownership of timeshare programs is varied, and has been changing over the decades.
stormbrew 4y ago
I think they're talking about the fact that you're required to pay condo fees to maintain your ownership of the condo, which does kind of make it a hybrid rental in a way. Obviously there's pretty good reasons for condo fees on some level (ignoring any mismanagement that may or may not be uncommon -- though sometimes the mismanagement is that they're too low), but it's something you have to factor in. You can never be completely free and clear with a condo that has fees.
- sokoloff 4y ago
  By that token, you're not free and clear if there are homeowner association fees or property taxes. Technically correct is the best kind of correct.
  - copperx 4y ago
    I don't think there's a way of owning a domicile in any capitalist country without paying a membership fee (property tax) to the government. If you rent, you're doing that indirectly.
    - lupire 4y ago
      But a rental has a lease termination date. Ownership does not.
    - gruez 4y ago
      >I don't think there's a way of owning a domicile in any capitalist country without paying a membership fee (property tax) to the government. well actually... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_tax#Places_without_property_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_tax#Places_without_pr...
  - stormbrew 4y ago
    I mean, "homeowner association fees" are just condo fees for places that aren't apartments. They seem even less likely to go towards anything useful than condo fees do though. But yes, that's true about property taxes. But since that's a commonality between condos and otherwise-individually-owned property it doesn't really matter. In a condo you pay both, but if you own outright you only pay one. In a rental you're kinda paying both combined, because the owner pays property taxes and then presumably also tries to extract profit. Anyways, I don't agree that condos are a scam in the same way that timeshares are, and I don't think a condo is just a glorified rental (though the one condo I have owned in my life had absurdly high fees that I regretted getting myself into) or a scam like timeshares are. I was just trying to explain what I though the GP meant.
    - adrr 4y ago
      Condo home owners association control the fees. They go to insurance, money to replace common owned properly like the roof, exterior walls, paint, parking, landscape etc. You can go get elected and convince the board to not invest in these things and lower the fees. You can also vote to increase it to pay for things like to add solar. Did you ever look HOA financial docs that details exactly what the HOA spent money on?
katzgrau 4y ago
Timeshares are very similar but the difference is that you typically only get a week or two to stay there - it's jointly owned by others. That obviously has a big impact on resell value - so much to the point that some timeshare owners can't give it away let alone sell it, because no one wants to be beholden to the maintenance fees.

grzm 4y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeshare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeshare > A timeshare (sometimes called vacation ownership) is a property with a divided form of ownership or use rights. These properties are typically resort condominium units, in which multiple parties hold rights to use the property, and each owner of the same accommodation is allotted their period of time. Units may be sold as a partial ownership, lease, or "right to use", in which case the latter holds no claim to ownership of the property. The ownership of timeshare programs is varied, and has been changing over the decades.

stormbrew 4y ago

I think they're talking about the fact that you're required to pay condo fees to maintain your ownership of the condo, which does kind of make it a hybrid rental in a way. Obviously there's pretty good reasons for condo fees on some level (ignoring any mismanagement that may or may not be uncommon -- though sometimes the mismanagement is that they're too low), but it's something you have to factor in. You can never be completely free and clear with a condo that has fees.

sokoloff 4y ago
By that token, you're not free and clear if there are homeowner association fees or property taxes. Technically correct is the best kind of correct.
- copperx 4y ago
  I don't think there's a way of owning a domicile in any capitalist country without paying a membership fee (property tax) to the government. If you rent, you're doing that indirectly.
  - lupire 4y ago
    But a rental has a lease termination date. Ownership does not.
  - gruez 4y ago
    >I don't think there's a way of owning a domicile in any capitalist country without paying a membership fee (property tax) to the government. well actually... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_tax#Places_without_property_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_tax#Places_without_pr...
- stormbrew 4y ago
  I mean, "homeowner association fees" are just condo fees for places that aren't apartments. They seem even less likely to go towards anything useful than condo fees do though. But yes, that's true about property taxes. But since that's a commonality between condos and otherwise-individually-owned property it doesn't really matter. In a condo you pay both, but if you own outright you only pay one. In a rental you're kinda paying both combined, because the owner pays property taxes and then presumably also tries to extract profit. Anyways, I don't agree that condos are a scam in the same way that timeshares are, and I don't think a condo is just a glorified rental (though the one condo I have owned in my life had absurdly high fees that I regretted getting myself into) or a scam like timeshares are. I was just trying to explain what I though the GP meant.
  - adrr 4y ago
    Condo home owners association control the fees. They go to insurance, money to replace common owned properly like the roof, exterior walls, paint, parking, landscape etc. You can go get elected and convince the board to not invest in these things and lower the fees. You can also vote to increase it to pay for things like to add solar. Did you ever look HOA financial docs that details exactly what the HOA spent money on?

katzgrau 4y ago

Timeshares are very similar but the difference is that you typically only get a week or two to stay there - it's jointly owned by others. That obviously has a big impact on resell value - so much to the point that some timeshare owners can't give it away let alone sell it, because no one wants to be beholden to the maintenance fees.