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
The amount of rent a property could command in the open market. See also market rent. ...
A method of brick construction where the bricks are laid with their sides facing outward. ...
Has not been registered on the companies books. It belongs to the person holding it. See also bearer bond; bearer instrument. ...
Regularly, subsequent means something which occurs at a later date. In other words, a subsequent event follows a prior occurrence. For example, new circumstances arise after a contract is ...
Provision guaranteeing the return of title to a mortgagor upon satisfaction of a mortgages conditions and terms. Causes the discharge of a mortgagees estate interest in a property. ...
Are you speculating what a spec house means? (sorry for the lousy pun) The textbook spec (or speculative) house definition is “one built on an experimental basis, without an order ...
percentage relationship of a specific part of property to the whole property. An example is the square footage of one office to the square footage of all offices in an office building. ...
Insects that destroy the support wood in the structure of a building. Termite inspection should be periodically performed to detect their existence. If an infestation is confirmed, the ...
Payment made instead of taxes, For example, a tax-exempt institution, such as a state government complex of buildings, may make an offsetting in lieu of tax contributory payment to the ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.