Condominium
Definition of "Condominium"
So, you’re out and about your homebuying dream and then you stumble upon this question: what is a condominium? Like, you think you know what is a condo home, but it's so hard to explain...
It's ok; it happens to the best of us.
It's not easy defining what is a condominium; condos are one weird body. Keeping up with its weirdness, we could say that condominium is a form of home ownership in which the owner exclusively owns the airspace within the walls but doesn’t own the actual walls, ceilings or floors of the home and anything beyond those.
But enough with the weird. Let’s make this easy and fun. What is a condo home? Let’s put it in a way that anyone can understand. The best way to describe what is a condominium is by defining it as a place within a place. And, while the interest is different from one to the other, you have ownership over both.
Example: an apartment within a condominium building, or a single-family house within a gated community. You accrue ownership of both, but the smaller unit – the apartment or the house - is 100% yours, while the rest – the common areas like gym, pool, lobby, laundry room, elevators…- are collectively owned by all other residents within the condominium and managed by associations such as a Homeowners Association.
Because the ownership is influenced by the neighbors – as you and they share common areas and, sometimes, services – it will vary from condo home to condo home if you can rent your condo to someone else, or if it’s a “owner’s only” type of property.
So, as you can see, it's hard to define what is a condo home. In the end, a condominium is not so much a place, but a form of ownership.
Popular Real Estate Terms
Degree of construction of residential property measured in number of units or dollar value. ...
Amount charged for each unit of rental property. An example of a unit might be square footage of space or an apartment. ...
Any lease with a specific starting time and a specific ending time. ...
Written agreement between two or more parties to extend the terms of a document. ...
In general terms, a licensee means a person or legal entity who has received authorization or permission to perform a particular activity through another party (the licensor in our case.) ...
Also know as Fannie Mae, the FNMA accept bids from approved lenders as to the amount, price and terms wish to sell Fannie Mae. Upon deciding how much money it will spend during a given time ...
A lender can be a private individual, a private or public group, or an institution that loans funds to a person or business that the lendee would later repay with interest in most cases. In ...
A fiduciary intermingling a clients funds or one who is entrusted with funds and groups them with those of his own. This practice is considered a breach of a fiduciary relationship and a ...
Same as term resale proceeds: Net amount received when property is sold. It equals the selling price less outstanding mortgage balance less all costs incurred in connection with the sale. ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.