Friday, September 21, 2012

Condo board policies can help or hurt property values - chicagotribune.com

Condo board policies can help or hurt property values - chicagotribune.com:
"It takes more than a neat, attractive condominium or town house to make a sale at a fair price. Buyers have heard the horror stories of steep special assessments and deteriorating buildings. They expect the association to make a good impression as well as the unit. If it doesn't, they don't buy."
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Pamela McKuen of the Chicago Tribune offers some much-needed advice.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Rethink your no-renters policy. In this economy, a lot of complexes that don't allow renters have been devastated as far as prices go because they are shutting out investors," said Gerami. 'Many associations would rather have owners versus renters, but banning renters really affects prices.'"

...and what trade group very actively promoted a "no-renter" policy wherever possible? CAI did. Or at least the members of CAI did. "No renting" creates financial hardship for owners. CAI's attorney and management company members derive much of their revenue by creating financial hardships on owners. They seek to create the debt and then to entangle it with vendor junk fees that benefit only the vendors.

If you note CAI's #2 policy - unlimited assessments - it all ties to creating financial hardship.

CAI's anti-renter policy and the use of the "priority of payment scam" to re-characterize assessments in order to generate various vendor fees have had a devastating effect on the clients and homeowners. The priority of payment scam artificially puts homeowners "in arrears" for the benefit of the management company and HOA attorney who add junk fees in the form of demand letters, late fees, attorney fees, etc. for a problem caused by these very same vendors. These artificially created arrearages can now render entire condominium projects unmarketable. It is truly good news that the FHA is starting to put a limit on the number of new victims CAI members can claim each year by refusing to finance purchases in these projects. Meanwhile you can count on CAI to lobby for changes to federal guidelines governing lenders in an effort to keep the victims flowing.

Mittens said...

There things that you can do to encourage housing. One is, don’t try and stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom, allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them...