[jyl]

My friend bought a condo in Marin County. He discovered that the board was dominated by old women who were control freaks, didn't want to spend money, and drove off the good property managers. He had to get elected to the board to get the association to spend money to rebuild the condo's dock before it fell down. The old ladies didn't care about the dock since they don't boat or kayak. Now he is having to recruit a slate of candidates to completely take over the board. He's gotten sucked into all that HOA stuff just to make sure the building is properly maintained. Not what he wanted.

My friend who bought the condo locally is being pulled into the HOA in his building too. That board is not so dysfunctional, but the building needs some meaningful work (HVAC, elevators, etc).

I guess in some markets there is no alternative to a condo in particular locations and price ranges. I assume there are no waterfront houses in Surfside for less than bazillions of $. Where there is an alternative, I simply cannot understand why anyone would ever buy a condo unit in a larger and older building that is going to be like a 1990s BMW 7-series to maintain.