Discussions

Housing in Brandon is up because of the low interest rates. We are considering selling our house and moving into a condo. I do not know whether it is better to move into a condo or hire someone to do your yard work. We have been in our home since 1972. I wonder if there is any advantage to moving into a condo. We like our neighbourhood here and don’t care for the areas where the condos we like are.

My opinion would be to avoid condos and take what a condo fee would be and pay someone to do your yard.  
 
The condo fee is on top of your taxes. Plus in certain areas you are very limited to what your allowed to do to the condo. Example : Deck needs to be a certain color and manufactured out of certain materials.

I agree about taking the amount of the condo fee and using that to hire out the yard work. Condos are harder to sell than houses are, which might make things more difficult for you down the road. I owned a condo in an older building, and they issued special assessments to the owners about every second year (lump sum payments that are due over and above the condo fees). The reserve fund didn’t have enough money to pay for the repairs and upgrades that were needed, so they issued these special assessments to the owners, and you have no choice but to pay your share. At least when you own your own home, you’re in control of the decision making for when to repair and upgrade things, so you can budget accordingly! If I was looking to downsize in the future, I would consider renting a condo, but would never buy one again.

Housing is at a low interest rate but the prices are also very high. Your new house would sell at a good market price but you would also buy a condo at a high price as well. Then pay realtor fees for the transaction, condo fees.  
 
A family member was in this same position (had lost their spouse) and decided to hire for yard care. The company they went with they paid per month for grass, snow etc so easy to budget. I personally would try that route for a year or two and see how you like it.

Recently sold a condo and would not buy one again. You're at the mercy of whoever the condo board happens to be, and whatever decisions they decide to make. Some things are voted on, others don't have to be.  
 
You'd be hard pressed to find a condo with an adequate reserve fund, so the risk of special assessments down the road is potentially significant. But everyone will tell you it's normal, don't worry about it. I'd worry about it. Most condo owners don't want to pay anything more than they absolutely have to, so the incentive to fix reserve fund underfunding is minimal.  
 
When you buy a condo you give up a lot of power for a little convenience. Personally I'd rather have full control over where my money goes.

In hind sight, we wished we kept our home. You could certainly hire out anything and everything: house cleaning, summer yard work, winter snow clearing. Find yourself a handy man, who does small jobs and they can do every thing else in between. We love our condo in the Landing (we have a small yard, patio, front porch). It is true there are rules (that way everyone is on the same page i.e. no junk laying around the yards, big RV units in the driveway or on the street, garbage cans fallen over and blowing down the street (that is what I like - the fences are all the same wood, the same chain link color, which presents a nice clean look). You can usually do what you want on the inside of your unit, you do own it. The condo fee is over and above property taxes, so you could take, say $200.00+ a month and put it into an account for home repair/upkeep needs. Again, I say this in hind sight, we had a quaint, no basement home in a great area. I like the condo we are in too. Hope this answers your query.