who lives in lock and leave

[pb4uski]

I actually really enjoy condo living... the underreserving thing is just a pet peeve/nuissance... at the of the day it is a pay-me-now or pay-me-later thing. We have a top floor end unit so no one above us and only one common wall... we don't hear a thing from the side or below. I like not having to do any lawn mowing, tree trimming, etc.

 

[Meadbh]

I actually really enjoy condo living... the underreserving thing is just a pet peeve/nuissance... at the of the day it is a pay-me-now or pay-me-later thing. We have a top floor end unit so no one above us and only one common wall... we don't hear a thing from the side or below. I like not having to do any lawn mowing, tree trimming, etc.

+1
Top floor, not end unit, extremely peaceful.
And we have built a sizeable reserve fund.

 

[Sunset]

Our association dances with this.... they have underfunded roof replacement reserves over the years to keep fees affordable and now we are close enough to needing new roofs that the day of reconing is on the horizon. At the same time they crow about how our fees are so much lower than other associations.

....

The short-timers are always going to pick underfunding.

I have seen at one condo I owned, where 3 out of 5 board members sold their places, and moved out just before we all got hit with a multi-year special assessment.

 

[pb4uski]

This is very foolish for two reasons.
1. The residents will have to come up with the money to pay for the (expected) special assessments. If they have not been saving for this, some of them may end up having to sell their homes.
2. Who in their right mind would buy into a condo with an underfunded reserve? Property values will drop because these condos come with a large future liability. This is why a buyer should always insist on seeing the finances and the depreciation reports.

I should add that your reserve fund does not need to be immediately 100% funded to cover all potential costs, particularly a new building. But that should be the ultimate goal, as costs will increase over time.

I totally agree that it is foolish and the board is moving towards 100% reserving for major replacements, albeit at a snails pace. One of the more influential board members actually prefers underreserving so she can keep her money invested... but I'm not sure she is cognizant of the number of members that live from pension check to pension check and how a special assessment, even with advance warning, will put those folks in a bind.

 

[Meadbh]

I totally agree that it is foolish and the board is moving towards 100% reserving for major replacements, albeit at a snails pace. One of the more influential board members actually prefers underreserving so she can keep her money invested... but I'm not sure she is cognizant of the number of members that live from pension check to pension check and how a special assessment, even with advance warning, will put those folks in a bind.

I have friends who live in a place with lots of resort amenities. They had a special assessment if $130,000 to replace the building envelope. They were anticipating it, and have means, but still......

 

[HillCountry]

Interesting discussion so far but quite irrelevant to me.

As mentioned in previous posts, I am looking at single family community.

 

[joeea]

Interesting discussion so far but quite irrelevant to me.

As mentioned in previous posts, I am looking at single family community.

Presumably your community will have a Home Owner's Association with rules and finances. Certainly the rules and finances are quite relevant, even when they are single-family units.

 

[aja8888]

Presumably your community will have a Home Owner's Association with rules and finances. Certainly the rules and finances are quite relevant, even when they are single-family units.

Exactly, as we have in our 55+ community of single family homes with 437 units. Outside of the HOA painting our wood trim and front door every 7 years, all house repair expenses are on the homeowner.

The HOA does our front yard landscape maintenance, trash pickup, sprinkler repair, common area maintenance, etc. It's not as bad as living in a condo development where the HOA has major building structure maintenance responsibilities.

 

[cyber888]

Condos are Lock and Leave. Townhouse and Single homes needs to be in a private well secured gated community with most maintenance and security done by the HOA. It’s great for the traveling lifestyle. The downside is a lousy homeowners association that will take 2-6 months to repair your exterior in case it needs repairing. Heard of those slow services.. yeck. And if you have loud neighbors in a condo or row of townhouses - check if you have thick concrete slabs in between and soundproof glasses. And lastly, in single detach homes, you might be in a secured community, but your neighbors teenagers might be thieves. Heard of those from my homeowners President who deals with juveniles.

 

[brett]

We lived in a rented lock and leave condo for four years. We would typically leave for 2-3 months, twice a year. Plus some shorter 1-2 week trips.

Now we live in a plus 55 community. HOA. Just came back from 2 months of travel.

Lock and leave in our current home was identical to lock and leave in our condo. Water off, neighbour checks in once in a while. We actually feel better about it now. We are no longer in a multi tenant building with owners and renters. Plus, we have great neighbours who trade off checking on each others homes when travel is in the offing.

We do not leave any valuables in our home/condo/whatever. We moved as much important mail as possible to email. After retirement we rented a larger bank safety deposit box. Anything of value/importance goes in there prior to leaving town. Another plus is that we are able to take most of the insurance off our vehicles since they are in our garage. Not so easy to do in a multi tenant parking area-underground or surface.

 

[kcowan]

Another plus is that we are able to take most of the insurance off our vehicles since they are in our garage. Not so easy to do in a multi tenant parking area-underground or surface.

Agree with surface but ours is covered and secured. Comprehensive only.

 

[Scrapr]

Wow..... someone walking across the carpet in their wet shoes, with their dirty shovel... Not my idea of lock and leave.

at least you will know if they checked the fridge for leftovers. And possibly the liquor cabinet

 

[brett]

We had covered and secured but our auto insurer started to throw up lots of ifs, ands, and buts.

This was the last straw for them, we switched insurers. We realized lower premiums, far better service.

Read an article from the UK about a survey on insurance rates. Seems new customers were paying up to 30 per cent less than exisiting customers for the same product. Old customers subsidizing the cost to attract new because few people swicth. The recommendation...if your premiums are increasing more than usual after year 2 it is time to shop. Which is what we did.

 

[SheitlQueen]

Right now I live on acreage, but eventually I will have to sell when I can't keep it up any more. I also own two rental condos. When I do leave the acreage, I will sell one and use the money to buy a place in the SW and keep the other one as a lock and leave. I plan to buy in an area that has no income tax and stay there enough of the year to claim it as my primary residence. Then I'll come back to the other condo for the rest of the year. I figured the amount I'll save on the income tax will make a big dent in the expense of the new condo.
I'll be able to travel from either place, also done as a lock and leave.

 

[poorcarver]

I am curious what folks do about mail during an extended absence. For example, I got a notice of jury duty a week ago, the date of service was just over three weeks in the future. What I want to know is how do you handle stuff like that, when you won't even see the notice for a month or two after the service date.

 

[Sunset]

I am curious what folks do about mail during an extended absence. For example, I got a notice of jury duty a week ago, the date of service was just over three weeks in the future. What I want to know is how do you handle stuff like that, when you won't even see the notice for a month or two after the service date.

I have no plan.
I won't even know until I come back which could easily be after the date of service, as I could be out of the Country.

The Web is full of people where this happens, and many places have some form of re-schedule, of course an after the fact situation might be a little more annoying to the court.

 

[Ronstar]

I am curious what folks do about mail during an extended absence. For example, I got a notice of jury duty a week ago, the date of service was just over three weeks in the future. What I want to know is how do you handle stuff like that, when you won't even see the notice for a month or two after the service date.

We put our mail on hold for the max of 1 month and a friend picks up our mail after 1 month. Then I put it on hold for another month, and she picks it up again after that month. Then I do it again. The USPS told our friend that they want us to have our mail forwarded next year.

The current method doesn’t allow for us to see jury duty notices, etc, but our friend kind of looks after stuff like that.

Next year I’ll have it forwarded once a week by USPS for $20 per week for the first 2 months and have it held the last month.

 

[Sunset]

We just forward our mail to a relatives house.

Our post office told us, next time (for 3 weeks) to have them hold the mail, so my new thing will be hold mail for up to 1 month, else forward it.

Since we forward to a different County, I am now wondering if that screws up the Jury summons thing, as it is based on County. I'm hoping it does

 

[4legsgood]

My sister has a single family home in Sun city AZ, 55+ community, and it is effectively lock and leave due to desert climate.

No worry about pipes freezing, things rotting or molding, trees falling, lawn mowing. She did have a toilet crack when it went dry.

She leaves the place for a couple months at a time without any worries, just tells the neighbors to report any problems they see.

 

[pb4uski]

I am curious what folks do about mail during an extended absence. For example, I got a notice of jury duty a week ago, the date of service was just over three weeks in the future. What I want to know is how do you handle stuff like that, when you won't even see the notice for a month or two after the service date.

We have our mail forwarded.... home to winter condo during the winter and vice versa. We have very little mail that is addressed to the winter condo, but there are a few (HOA association correspondence, etc.). The forwarding process takes about a week at most in our experience.

 

[brett]

Anything that does not give us a heads up via email simply waits until our return. After five years of twice a year trips we have never experienced an issue.

 

[Meadbh]

When I am going away for more than two weeks I use Hold Mail. It’s ironic that I pay taxes to have mail delivered, but also have to pay to not have it delivered! The maximum time I have been away so far has been five weeks. When I come home and get my mail, there is never anything that couldn’t wait. I figure that almost anybody who needs to send me a time sensitive message will do so electronically. I did recently receive a jury summons in the mail, but my service was cancelled, by email, after I had registered and confirmed my attendance online. If they need me again, hopefully they will use the email address that they now have on file. In my area, there are thousands of snowbirds, so if they are relying on snail mail, they will be unable to contact many people in a timely manner.

 

[brett]

After retiring, we were out of the country for seven months. We were homeless. Changed our address to c/o our son. This was our first impetus to move everything possible to email only.

No issue whatsoever other than going through a box of mail that became 7/8 of a box of reclycle paper.

 

[Scuba]

I am curious what folks do about mail during an extended absence. For example, I got a notice of jury duty a week ago, the date of service was just over three weeks in the future. What I want to know is how do you handle stuff like that, when you won't even see the notice for a month or two after the service date.

We used a mail service. Forwarded everything to them and they scan the envelopes to us as part of the service. If we wanted them to open anything and scan the contents they would do that for a nominal fee. Worked very well for us. I think it was called virtualpostmail.com.

 

[check6]

This is a trap that condos with a predominantly elderly population tend to fall into, because they think they will no longer be around when the roof (or something else) needs replacement.

Very well said as this has happened at our condo. Monthly HOA fees have gone up and we have had three assessments in order to play catch up with maintenance and remodeling/landscaping issues.