Isn't the monthly condo fee way too high here?

Saw this condo coming up for sale http://www.ajbillig.com/auctions/upcoming-auctions/residential/Gaithersburg--Villa-Rid-408-Girard-Street-Unit-4-2018-11-30 that seems like a cheap flip. I’m guessing it might go for $50-60K and could be worth $80-90K, but looks like it has a monthly condo fee of $576. That seems huge in relation to the value. Almost as much as a mortgage payment. Won’t it be hard to sell?

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A condo fee is not proportional to the value, like a tax. Whether it’s too much or not depends entirely on what it’s paying for.

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$576 a month for H&B

Landscaping, snow removal, probably trash. What else would justify $576 a month on a property worth less than $100,000?

Asked and answered. See above.

The community features a pool, community center, tennis courts, basketball court, playgrounds and other recreational activities. Community events are held throughout the year. Permit parking is available on-site.

The unit requires full renovation. Currently occupied by a family member. Buyers are responsible for obtaining physical possession of the property.

If the estate is auctioning it blind for whatever it can get, rather than resolving the family member residing there and selling it properly, you know it’s bad. Wouldn’t surprise me if they barely hit their “suggested” opening bid.

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Not to mention there are 29 buildings but only 417 units in the complex; each building needs to be maintained out of the fees from less than 15 units. Odds are a chunk of that monthly fee is funding a reserve fund, or paying down debts from past maintenance bills.

I could expect a condo fee this high to mean full-time security guards, or special assessments (caused by previous fee being too low) to pay off common area repairs/renovations.

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Is there a standard multiple people use to determine the reduction in house price to pay for hoa/condo fees?

I live in a pretty mid level condo in Westchester Co. NY. Its a real desirable place… beauty…safety…shuttle to metro north trains to NYC. Its 60 miles north of Manhattan. My 2 bedroom overlooking lakes and mountains is worth about 450k. Condo fees are about 950 monthly plus garbage and maint fees of 300. Everything is relative. BUT…prop taxes in NYState are very low for condos. I pay 1041.00 in taxes whereas a home with the same value in my town will pay 13k. The politicians here did this years ago… And now there is an outcry… But no politician in Albany will touch this. Instead of building mansions and mini mansions here… builders are building luxury condos instead… because of the tax situation.

Scripta… BTW we have 24/7 security with 4 cars…2000 acres plus 24/7 2 ems cars.

and includes landscaping… ice snow removal…painting outside and new roofs when needed. Any outside stuff is covered by condo fees. Water hookup for hose and elec connections outside are included if something goes wrong.

Sure the fee covers all of X, until one day the HOA issues a special assessment to cover Y, or because X is more expensive than anticipated.

That condo looks like a condemned section 8 housing project.

I love the hoarder pictures.