Townhouse

[Targa Me]

Hello Everyone,

Well, it's happened... all the kids have moved out and its just me and the wife at home.

We thinking about moving into a smaller house or possibly a Townhouse.

A townhouse sounds nice to me, it'll have a two-car garage and no yard to maintain, or very little yard if any.

My wife is concerned about sharing a common wall with the neighbors. She concerned about noise coming through. She's not too crazy about hearing their arguements, yappy dogs, etc.

Do any of you live in a townhouse? What are your thoughts about them.

Larry

[Hugh R]

Make sure you understand the HOA dues.

[Paul_Heery]

Larry,

My wife and I were in a similar situation after the kids grew up and moved out. We sold our single-family house on three secluded acres and moved into a townhome. That was nine years ago. It was an adjustment, but it worked out well for us.

Now, one of the first things that I would recommend that if you do decide to move down this path is to thoroughly review ALL of the documents that are associated with property that you are considering moving into. Those include the declaration, bylaws and rules. Read them, understand then & ask questions about them. Most people don't and are "surprised" that they are being held to legal agreements that they signed at closing. Know what you are getting into.

Living in close quarters can be quite different from what most people are used to. Making noise can be a problem. But, most HOA documents that I have seen have specific language that limit noise. In fact, in CT the law specifies that I am entitled to the "quiet enjoyment" of my home. So, there are multiple avenues for remedy if that were ever to become an issue. Thankfully, it has not been a problem since we have been here.

[foxpaws]

Hi Larry,

I did the same thing - got rid of the giant house and massive yard after the kids moved out, and moved into a townhome.

First thing - talk to the neighbors before you buy - and ask all the questions - like, the noise one (I can't hear my neighbors at all - but we have offset party wall construction) and the problems, or concerns they have had with the HOA - neighbors love to talk.

And, like Paul points out - read everything!!!!

And then, kick off your shoes, sit back on the patio, enjoy a frosty beverage, and watch someone else mow the yard and paint the siding....

[wildthing]

Noise isn't a problem for me. Maybe I'm the noisy neighbor.

I once got a note from the HOA management about some pink curtains. I was planning to buy blinds anyway, it was just temporarily visible from the street.

[SteveDraz]

Don't forget to think about where you're going to put all your "stuff".

[stomachmonkey]

Don't think I'll ever do it again.

Bad experience with neighbors.

Noise and being *******s was one thing.

Make sure you understand who is responsible for maintenance on shared infrastructure and that there are effective policies in place to force some standard of upkeep and liability assignment.

[recycled sixtie]

All of the above have good points. You have taken for granted the peacefulness of not having to share walls with neighbours and you are a reasonable distance from them too.
Check HOA rules, fees for a townhouse. We have a condo that is rented out and I see a townhome being somewhere between a house and a condo.

For ourselves we live in a 1400 sq ft house and my wife is really attached to it. As long as we can do the yard work, snow shovel etc then we will stay. Perhaps you should look at a smaller house?

Guy

[95avblm3]

My wife and I lived in a waterfront 3-story townhome with a two-car garage, an elevator and a deeded boat slip for 5.5 years. We sold it to downsize our living quarters and upsize our property, but that's another story. It was a cool place with more features than we could have afforded in a detached home of similar size and location.

Our experience was overall very good but there were certain things that helped it be...

First, our neighbor (by pure coincidence) turned out to be an old friend and Porsche guy, so we had good neighbors. We could occasionally here cabinets closing in the kitchen or a bedroom door but overall it was pretty quiet... the drone outside of the AC condensers was more of a nuisance than any noise inside.

Second, it was not a very big complex and had an active social committee, so we got to know a lot of our other neighbors.

As others have said, get a copy and read the documents before committing to make sure that the rules are compatible with your lifestyle!

Furthermore, have a look at the budget and the financials of the association! Ours was incredibly well run and I served on the board for a while. We continuously reduced dues while building our reserves because we had taken the time to pursue delinquent property owners. If a BOD is not savvy or otherwise mis-managed, you could be at the risk for "special assessments" which could suck. If the association is well run, this shouldn't be a problem.

Next, perform a little due-diligence on the structure. It goes without saying that a good inspection is important but I would also look into the developer/builder. The construction quality of our unit left some things to be desired... like it would have been nice if they brought a level on the job when they were setting our floor joists. Our developer went belly-up after rebuilding one of the buildings in our community due to Chinese drywall... so there's no going after them for any other issues.

Finally, ours was titled and insured as if it was a detached single-family home. This always concerned me with the common wall... If a hurricane took out our building, how do I know the 6 other neighbors with units in my building had sufficient insurance to rebuild their portion of the exterior. I would look for a place that is insured more like a condo, where the association is responsible for insuring the structures and you just take care of your interior and contents.

Just my $0.02

[Deschodt]

Noise can be OK, depending on constructions or neighbors...
I'd never do it again because of HOA pain in the butt. I'll never ever live wherever there's an HOA again.

[Don Ro]

I owned the lower floor unit in a condo complex for a few years.
The wife of the couple upstairs was an ex model and loved to wear high heels as she made breakfast for her hubby in their hardwood floor kitchen at 5 AM.
Click, click, tap, tap, for what seemed like an hour or so.
Then when he left to go to work, he'd stop his car right in front of my bedroom window and holler up to their first born as she held the baby on their patio deck.
"GOOD-BYE, KEVIN. GOOD-BYE KEVIN."...at 6 AM every work day.
I wanted to kill them both.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Don Ro

I owned the lower floor unit in a condo complex for a few years.
The wife of the couple upstairs was an ex model and loved to wear high heels as she made breakfast for her hubby in their hardwood floor kitchen at 5 AM.
Click, click, tap, tap, for what seemed like an hour or so.
Then when he left to go to work, he'd stop his car right in front of my bedroom window and holler up to their first born as she held the baby on their patio deck.
"GOOD-BYE, KEVIN. GOOD-BYE KEVIN."...at 6 AM every work day.
I wanted to kill them both.

On one side a guy who would spend what felt like hours on a very noisy elliptical, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh for a frikin eternity then came the calisthenics with all the grunting and groaning.

Other side, old woman with a 40+ year old son with special needs who had a bad back and would be bed ridden for days. He'd scream from his room whenever he needed something, MOM, MOM, MMMMOOOOOOOMMMMMM.

When he was not bed ridden he would play his bongos. I can handle Tito Puente and Gloria Estefan but not at 2 in the morning in the middle of the week which is the time his muse would strike.

I made the mistake of going over to talk to them about it. I became his "best friend" and he started stalking me. If he knew I was home he'd come over knocking on the door to hang out 5 times a day. I used to have to sneak in when coming home from work.

[Don Ro]

Same couple.
There was a hose spigot right outside my front door...near their staircase.
I came home with my date one early evening and there they were with a running hose, a bucket of something, scrubbing their bathroom sliding doors.
Water and suds all over the walkway and my door step.
Of course, within 30 feet was their carport with its own spigot.
The thing with condos, etc., is that you're banking on your neighbors being neighborly - aka, sane.
.
Good thread. I can finally discharge my anger about them.

[aschen]

I lived in a condo for around a decade before married.

Loved it, no lawn work, pool but no maintenance, no exterior maintenance, middle of town living

There were some downsides: Lots of old people , HOA always broke and special assessments, Every now and then my upstairs neighbor and his girlfriend would got at it with enough enthusiasm that I could hear

[Targa Me]

All good input.
Thanks everyone.

[2porscheguy]

Originally Posted by 95avblm3

Next, perform a little due-diligence on the structure. It goes without saying that a good inspection is important but I would also look into the developer/builder. The construction quality of our unit left some things to be desired... like it would have been nice if they brought a level on the job when they were setting our floor joists. Our developer went belly-up after rebuilding one of the buildings in our community due to Chinese drywall... so there's no going after them for any other issues.

Just my $0.02

Gawd does this thread bring back some very painful memories!....sorry OP to rain on your parade but I've got to tell PPOT about my experience living in my first and only townhouse back in the late 80s! It was my first home that I bought when I first moved to Calgary. In fact, believe it or not, our townhome complex appeared in the National Geographic Magazine in March 1984. The article was titled: "Calgary: Canada's Not So Wild West"








They were really cool units back in the day! Multi level bachelor pad with 5 split levels and an open staircase....it was and still is a very unique condo complex. You could lie in bed and look up at the stars! BUT....aside from the TOTAL AZZHOLE THAT LIVED BESIDE US (that's a whole other story!)...our unit, we found out after the fact, had one particular issue when it was built. Our foundation and basement floor, for whatever reason was about 4-6 inches lower than the rest of the units beside us (we were a middle unit).

Anyway one night in December just before Christmas, my then gf (now wife) and I woke up hearing the sound of water running. I ran downstairs just in time to see dirty grey water rushing up through the drain. Luckily I was pretty poor then so we had no furniture in our basement, just our bikes. The water came up to about 6 inches, soaking the cheap carpeting and then about a half hour later it would drain away. The next day I called our condo board and complained. The next afternoon the same thing happened. The plumbers were baffled! They couldn't figure out what the issue was but we noticed that the grey water had suds so we figured that it was coming from someones laundry machine so all units in our strip were told to cease with the laundry. Our effen neighbour refused to abide so every night we'd get his effen laundry grey water in our basement! This went on for about ten days! They finally found the problem...some blockage somewhere that they eventually were able to clear. But with us being a little lower than everybody else, the problem could resurface at anytime. Fearing a potential marital breakdown, I sold it ten months later!....sorry about the long post!..had to get it off my chest!

[jhynesrockmtn]

My Mom lives in an attached home in a townhome community. Her shared neighbors have been hit and miss. You can definitely hear the neighbors at times, especially in their yard. She is almost 80 and the neighbors have two little boys. It is a nice family but she's had some that were not great. It's a role of the dice.

Along with the good advice in this thread, understand the rental unit potential in any development. How many, how are they controlled, etc. The higher the rental % the lower the pricing but you risk neighbors who don't care about the rules and who transition in and out frequently.

[Jrboulder]

Some nice things about townhouses is that generally you have no one above you and it's generally some of the newest housing in the area. I'd definitely try to get an end unit so you only have neighbors on one wall.

[mattdavis11]

They are building them as fast as they can here. Most of the license plates I see parked near them, are out of state. I don't understand the attraction, and live in a duplex, a corner lot, which has a large yard.

[Don Ro]

Where is "here"?