May. 14, 2008 - What Exactly Is A Community Association?

I have long maintained that if you don't know what you are selling you should not be selling it.  The same thing goes for buyers, if you don't know what you are buying you should not be buying it.  There is a saving grace for buyers however, and that is a knowledgeable REALTOR®. 

If you, as a buyer, are considering moving into a Condominium, a Co-operative or a community with a Home Owners Association, you are considering moving into a Community Association and you need to ask your REALTOR® exactly what that means.  If he or she alludes to the fact that it is anything other than a group of owners who are bound together for the purpose of providing a communal basis of preserving, maintaining, and enhancing their homes and property you need to move on to another REALTOR®.  It doesn't have to be those exact words, but whatever they say should embrace the same spirit.  It is a group of owners whose property brings them together with a common cause.

You should also be told that there are three important points to consider.  When you buy into a Community Association membership in the Association is not optional.  You will be bound by certain documents that govern the Community Association.  The assessments that are levied in order to operate and maintain the Community Association are mandatory.  In other words, you are going to have to abide by the governing documents of the Community Association so you had better review them and make sure they are something you can live with before you make an offer to purchase.  Once the purchase of the property has closed you are an assessment paying member of the Association and that should be a beautiful and harmonious thing.

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May. 14, 2008 - RE: What Exactly Is A Community Association?