Difference townhouse, co-op and condo

Can someone give me some insight into these terms....

What is the difference between a townhouse, a co-op and a condo?

What is a homeowners association? board?

What are common charges?

Re: Difference townhouse, co-op and condo

a townhouse and a condo are essentially the same thing. for some reason, they're called townhouses here, but not in most parts of the country. a condo or townhouse belongs to you.

a co-op is much different. you are buying a share of the community when you buy a co-op. you also have to be approved by the co-op board. you can't just buy from the seller, you buy from everyone in the development.

hope I got that right.

ETA: common charges cover the maintenance of the property. sometimes they include basic cable too. the difference between the common fees on a co-op is that they also include the property taxes.

HOA - a monthly fee you pay to live in a community. they regulate things like uniformity. for example, if you wanted to change the color of your house, you would have to get approval first. the upside to this is that if your neighbor decided he wants to keep roosters in the yard, the HOA would have them removed ASAP as opposed to you having to call animal control a million times before anything happens. (can you tell I know someone this happened to? )

Message edited 4/20/2006 6:42:47 PM.

Re: Difference townhouse, co-op and condo

Re: Difference townhouse, co-op and condo

Re: Difference townhouse, co-op and condo

I have a townhouse in Manorville and I know the difference between ours and a condo is that we own the land, and have a garage. I am not sure if condo's have a garage, most of the ones we looked at on the Island do not have a garage. We have a HOA fee of $210 a month which is pretty low for a townhouse. But we also pay our taxes separate, I know with a co-op it is rolled in. We are also in a gated community which is nice.

HTH

Re: Difference townhouse, co-op and condo

Thanks for the input! How do I search for townhouses on MLSLI?

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Re: Difference townhouse, co-op and condo

Message edited 4/21/2006 4:39:25 PM.

Re: Difference townhouse, co-op and condo

Re: Difference townhouse, co-op and condo

Re: Difference townhouse, co-op and condo

This is a good link, and seems pretty accurate - I think it may differ a little though depending on the condo complex. I know with our condo - we have a fenced-in patio out front and are responsible for everything inside of it. Everything outside of the gate/fence, is taken care of by the board (lawn maintenance, etc.).
So basically your front area/patio whatever - is completely yours, and not community shared property.

I guess what they're trying to say though is that the land is not included on the actual purchase.

Re: Difference townhouse, co-op and condo

In a co-op you have to be approved by the co-op board as a purchaser, and as a seller, your buyers have to be approved too. It can be a drawn out, lengthy process. My MIL is having problems now with her co-op board rejecting buyers and her DH had terrible problems getting the co-op board from his place in Garden City - they rejected 2 or 3 buyers before finally accepting someone, and it always took weeks for them to set a meeting date - held up the sale of his place for about a year.