I thought I would chime in here…long time reader, first time poster. I purchased and owned and after 5 years sold one of these single family homes that was “condominiumized” in OB. Luckily, we did not have any of the problems that have been mentioned. This arrangement is not all that uncommon in Ocean Beach or Pacific Beach for that matter…..although, it sounds absolutely bizarre from an out of town perspective. Our lot was split back in the 80’s….they were able to then build a large home in the back (the alley) and sold the small home (our 600 sq foot monster!) on the front of the street. The CCR’s were very generic….basic upkeep, no HOA fees or dues…just general guidelines. In all honesty, the 5 years we lived there we never really saw the owner. The back home was rented out by the original owner….the renters were ok…not great, but ok. A fence divided the two yards. There was an easement where we could access the alley on one side and an easement on the other side where they could access the front of the street. All of it was fenced and gated, so it’s not like someone was cutting through your yard per se. In all honesty, condidering how close homes in OB tend to be, the whole condominium issue was a non-issue for us. One thing you might want to check out is how much you can build up on your part of the lot….if memory serves, the back home had maxed out what it could build, but the front home (ours) still had room for additional sq footage per the city based on the total sq foot of the lot. I may be off there….but it’s been awhile and I recall something like that when speaking to a city building permit issuer at one point. At any rate….my experiece did not mirror some of the poster’s comments and concerns, but that was a different time (2005) and I could see how some of these individual issues could come up. I guess my recommendation is to research carefully, see who the co-owners are, their likelihood of staying or leaving/renting out, etc….but I would not necessarily exclude the property. If you aim for simplicity and the market is certainly different now…it may be better to avoid this type of arrangement. (At the same time….you can get a lot more house for your money in other areas aside from OB…but that’s an individual decision….it’s hard at times to not like OB and I can see why you might want to live there). Best of luck!
