Twice the fun today. Often times, people will send in listings that seem like steals, but the sneaky units have very high maintenance/common charge payments. And other times, we'll get condo listings that seem way overpriced, but have little in the way of monthly fees. In that vein comes this note, from a Curbed reader who is confused by whether or not she'd be getting hosed on maintenance:
I am wondering whether there is any rule of thumb regarding a price-to-maintenance ratio. For example, I came across a pretty nice 1025 square foot apartment on 23rd street and 5th avenue. I would have expected it to go for $750,000+. However, this apartment was listed for $575,000. The catch? Maintenance was $1763.00/month. That's high. But I'm not sure how high.Numbers make us peepee in our pantaloons, so what do y'all say? How do you analyze whether the maintenance seems right, or just downright k-k-krazy!One way to calculate reasonable maintenance would be to figure out the total nut I'd be shelling out each month. In other words, I'd add my mortgage payment (with 20% down - apx.$3000) to the maintenance and get $4763/month. An apartment that costs $750 with $1000 maintenance would cost apx. $4600/month (with $20% down). Is that the right way to analyze maintenance? Any advice?
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