Condos versus Houses

New real estate investors often wonder whether it's best to buy single family houses or condos. There are many advantages to one or the other, sometimes depending on your local market. One thing is pretty much a given and that is with houses you have more maintenance. With condos much of the maintenance is handled by onsite management using their handyman. This expense is paid for by you the owner but the headaches of dealing with are quite often the responsibility of the onsite manager. Usually all outside repairs are handled without you having to be involved. This includes roof repairs, outside painting, landscaping and parking lot maintenance to name a few. With condos you pay a hoa fee[ home owners association] and that takes care of some of these outside repair expenses. With single family houses you pay for most maintenance and repairs depending on how you lease is written. You also have to contact the repair people and gather bids. This makes a condo a more hands off type of investment. Therefore it depends partly on your availability as to which type of property is more desirable.