I’ve seen special assessments of up to $7K per unit imposed by condo assns and I don’t recall that any owners were legally able to get out of them.
Shoveler, your HOA dues at $400 month seem high to me as well. Over a year ago, when I was investigating purchasing a condo for my youngest kid (+ 2 roommates) to live in while attending university in LA County, I did find that two of the complexes I was considering had monthly dues of over $400 month but they had a LOT of amenities for the residents and their landscaping was pretty elaborate. I came to the conclusion that this amount was too much cuz the kids were too busy to care about “amenities” or landscaping. Hopefully, you also have a lot of amenities for your $400 month dues and are not paying MR on top of that.
When you factor in the HOA dues, possible MR, certain special assessments at a future date, and the fact that you don’t own any actual land when you buy a condo (or own a substd 1800-3800 sf “lot” with a PUD), they just don’t seem like much of a good deal. This is because a buyer can often get a SFR in the same area with an attached 2-car garage and with the same or greater sf as a condo for just $50K-$150K more than the condo and own the (often generous) lot it sits on! A SFR owner (w/no HOA) can also make improvements as they see fit and at a price they negotiate themselves.
This thread illustrates one of the biggest reasons why I don’t like condos. I like to “control” my own property myself :=0
