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
Lessors of real estate play a crucial role in the leasing process. They enable property owners to boost their assets and profits while providing tenants access to dwelling spaces and ...
Older property is bought usually by a governmental agency to be modernized and improved. In many cases, the deteriorating property is torn down and a new structure built. An example is ...
Cement or mortar with a high moisture content developing it into a slurry solution allowing the ability to be poured or pumped into crevices, fissures, and masonry cracks and joints. ...
Circumstance where no people or contents occupy or are kept in a building for at least 60 consecutive days. The same stipulations apply to property coverages as found in unoccupancy. ...
Modeled after the English Georgian style, this architecture is a perfectly scaled grand symmetrical structure which is extremely formal and conventional in style. ...
The number of days that the lender guarantees the loan's rate and terms. Without a written lock-in agreement, the lender is free to change the rate and terms at the time of loan closing. A ...
Property deed in which the grantor limits the title warranty to the grantee. A grantor does not warrant a title defect to the property occurring from a happening before the time of his ...
Estimated price at which a partner in a partnership can buy out another partner. There are several methods for developing a buy-out estimate including market comparisons, appraisals, or ...
Latin: now for then. Descriptive of actions which are performed after a deadline has elapsed, but retroactively have the same effect as if they were carried out in a timely manner. For ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.