Condos date back to ancient Rome and have been in existence in Europe far longer than they have in this country. It is the legal system of ownership that determines what is a condo, not a particular building style. Indeed, a condo community can be a high-rise tower in the city or a sprawling garden complex in the suburbs. It can be a single-family home community at a lake-front resort, too.

A condominium complex, regardless of how it is laid out, is a shared-ownership community. Residents own their own apartments, or units; rather, they own what is within the exterior walls but not what is outside those walls.

They also own a proportional share of what is known as the common areas. Those areas include the apartments' outside walls, driveways and roads inside the complex, garages or carports, and all of the land within the complex's boundaries, including the landscaping around each unit. If there is a pool, tennis court, or clubhouse, those, too, are held jointly by all owners.

The Purchase

A condo is purchased the same way as a house. You can work with a real-estate agent or you can find units on your own that are for sale by owner. You apply for a mortgage the same way you do for a new or resale house. Price negotiation, the closing, and all of the other steps toward ownership follow the same lines as any other property transaction.

Your mortgage interest is tax deductible, and so are the real-estate taxes for your unit. You are also allowed a tax deduction for your share of realestate taxes on the common areas. A statement sent to you by the owners' association will inform you of the amount. The monthly maintenance fee is not tax deductible.

Worksheet 9.1 Who's Responsible for What in a Condo or Co-Op?

	Co-Op Corp. or Condo Owners? Assistant	Apartment Owner
Repairing damage to a wall or landscaping after a storm
Pumping out a flooded basement	Depends on whether the basement is shared space
Sweeping a patio reserved for the use of one unit
Repairing cracked or heaved concrete on one unit's patio
Removing graffiti from the blacktop of one parking space
Repairing damage from a small fire inside one unit's garage
Landscaping in front of one unit	Could be either
Landscaping near the entrance gate
Keeping the hallways clean
Landscaping in an interior surrounded completely by one unit
Repairing damage when the dishwasher breaks and floods an owner's kitchen and dining area
Repairing damage when a tree is struck by lightning and crashes through an owner's window, causing rain damage inside	Probably both, to different degrees
Raking leaves, cutting grass, shoveling snow
Redecorating the interior
Painting the exterior

Everyday Life

There is more to living in a condo than knowing the legal workings. If you are moving from an apartment building, you will probably pick up the condo lifestyle quite easily. If you have been living on a military base or a college campus, you, too will quickly grasp the condo lifestyle.

But if you are buying a condo after living in a single-family home, you may need a bit of orientation. You may feel just fine and accepting of the restrictions that come with condo living, or you might say, “No way,” and move on to the next housing possibility.

For one thing, every new condo buyer must join the association that “runs” the community. You will be required to join, say, the Brierwood Community Association, which represents the 350-unit complex and its owners and is run by a volunteer board of directors elected from residents. Your monthly maintenance fee is, say, $265 a month. That fee covers your share of the community's real-estate taxes, insurance on the common areas, the cost of landscaping, pool maintenance, perhaps monthly extermination calls on each unit, and any employee salaries — for example, for someone to run a front office.

Some of the money collected may also go into a fund to cover upcoming expenses at the complex. These expenses might include replacing roofing over two or three units or buying play equipment for land within the development that residents voted for use as a playground.

Maintenance Fees

Maintenance fees vary according to the size of the complex and the number of auxiliary features, buildings, or amenities that form the total expense for running the place. The fancier it looks, the more it costs to run, and the more you will have to pay each month to keep it going. Complex size affects maintenance costs as well. Because there are more of them sharing expenses, residents of a luxurious 400-unit complex are likely to pay less for niceties in their complex than those living in an equally posh community with half the units.

The money collecting, bill paying, and purchasing might be handled by the board of directors, or it might be under the jurisdiction of a local property-management company that the owners' association has hired. If there is such a company, its fee is also included in the monthly maintenance charge.

By-Laws and Other Legal Matters

There is a lot in writing to plow through when purchasing a condo. You can be a loner and still adapt to this lifestyle, but you must be willing to conform to the rules of the condo complex. Each condo association has its own rulings that govern virtually every aspect of life within the community outside your own four walls. All of these dos and don'ts are designed to keep up the appearance of the development and, by extension, the property values.

Sometimes, the number and size of your pets can be restricted. You might even be unable to plunk a birdbath on your front lawn. And don't even think about a satellite dish! If you run a business out of your home, you might have a problem if it means having a number of people (and their cars) coming into the complex at one time. Understandably, condo residents dislike lots of people coming in with cars and taking their parking spaces.

These bans may not bother you, but they do annoy some folks, particularly those who have owned a home and are not at all used to being told their front door can't be any color but white.