Housing types?

Hey guys what's the difference between a town house, and a condominium?

I think of a townhouse a a vertical unit that usually shares at least of wall with another townhouse. A condo is more like an apartment you own. That might not be the technical definition, but it's what I've observed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condomi...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Townhouse

According to the townhouse wiki, in Canada a condominium is a type of townhouse.

A condo is a part of a building you own. A townhouse is a type of condo that is multi-story. That is why you have townhouse-style condos and apartment-style condos (single floor).

I would say that a townhouse is a dwelling in which you have nobody above or below you, whereas that's not true for a condo. But what do I know? They're both weird foreign words to me.

Edit: Double-post.

Usually, a townhouse is sold with the land it sits on. Condo's have no land.

The way I learned it, townhouses share only vertical walls with neighbors. Condos can stack as far as they can build them.

Generally, you'll get a little yard with a townhouse. It's usually really tiny, and many have groundskeeping services as part of an HOA agreement, but it is not required, meaning you may have to care for a tiny bit of vegetation.

You'll usually have enough of a backyard for maybe a table, a few chairs and a grill or something. It's not much, but condos usually have nothing.

BadMojo wrote:

Usually, a townhouse is sold with the land it sits on. Condo's have no land.

Unfortunately this isn't true. I lived in a condominium that had a back and front yard. It shared two walls with the condominiums on both sides. I think that where you are changes the definition though.

Well seems like we've got a pretty universal consencius, Once i actually get my place i'll have to organize a GWJ S&T for Los Angeles.

BadMojo wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condomi...

All is answered.

Yeah, seven posts back.

All is answered.

Edit: fixed to not offend the gnome

Im in the process of buying a Townhouse condo I hated the idea of buying a condo, because I envisioned an apartment, with 12 neighbors and sh*tty building construction like every other apartment. In fact the first few we looked at were exactly that. But then we started looking only at townhouse style and I was sold. No upstairs or downstairs neighbors makes a big difference. Side to side noise just isnt as easy as a cat walking on your ceiling, sounding like a buffalo.

The best case is an end unit, so only one neighbor and more windows. We didnt get that, but Im happy with what we did get. At least I am right now, before we move in. I hope I feel the same way in a year or four.

The two are completely separate concepts. Townhouse is a type of a dwelling, while a condominium is a type of ownership. You can have freehold townhouses and condominium townhouses.

I think the confusion comes from, as above wiki article puts it: "Colloquially, the term is often used to refer to the unit itself in place of the word "apartment". A condominium may be simply defined as an "apartment" that the resident "owns" as opposed to rents."

--double post for victory--

Townhouse is Full House.

Condominium is Perfect Strangers.

So it's a San Francisco vs. Chicago thing?

I lived in a townhouse for several years as a young man, and the insulation between the units was amazing. We absolutely could NOT hear the neighbors, no matter what they did. We used to have loud videogame parties, and when we checked with the neighbors, they never heard anything either.

Not all townhouses are so well insulated, sadly.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Not all townhouses are so well insulated, sadly.

They heard you coming, huh?

wordsmythe wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

Not all townhouses are so well insulated, sadly.

They heard you coming, huh?

Must... resist... dirty FTFY comment...

Anyway,

BadMojo wrote:

Usually, a townhouse is sold with the land it sits on. Condo's have no land.

is the way I understand it.

I own a townhouse, and am responsible for the land as well. At the moment that fact kinda sucks, as my sewage line just got clogged up, and all that standing water in my yard followed it's way through the sewer line, flooding my lower level. Looking at about $40k in damages so far, and we haven't even started up our itemized list yet.

First time it flooded we thought it was the water heater, dropped $300 on that, and didn't bother filing a claim on our homeowner's because the water only stood on the floor for about 45 minutes (I had it dry in here pretty quick). Then it flooded again a couple days ago while we were at work, so the water had a lot more time to just seep into everything. So we paid a $500 deductible to our insurance company, and another $350 to a plumber to find the issue. Hopefully that's all that we will have to cover out of pocket.

I've enjoyed the home being a tax write-off, but the upkeep and Nazi-ish HOA at times is a bit much. I'm actually looking forward to getting out of here at this point.

Well update for me, found an awesome condominium town house in a large condo complex 404 units in total. Only bummer now is that the townhouse is a short sale. So i've put my offer in and now i have to twiddle my thumbs until the bank decides to accept or reject my offer. stupid waiting game.

Feel you on the waiting game. We put in offer in on a short sale townhouse in early July. Still haven't had the BPO, and are just waiting on the bank. Hopefully things start moving along soon.

It's a officially a townhouse - but there's only one other unit. It's sort of like half a house.

The waiting is pretty horrible, on the upside rates keep dropping - down like .7% since we put in the offer. Wondering if there are any other GWJers waiting on a short sale (from either side) - maybe we need a support group.

I was in on buying a short sale in June. I made the mistake of making the original offer absolutely as high as we could go (because it was still well under the listed price) The seller accepted it, but the bank took 9 weeks to make a $1,000 counter offer, which we declined, then a round-about $2,000 counter offer which we again declined, told them they had our final offer, and then it was over.

I'm about 2 weeks from closing on a bigger, better townhouse for less money that was not a short sale. So in the end (if I get it... STILL not willing to count that chicken) I win, they lose.

I learned 2 things. I learned to leave at least 10k of negotiating room because they'll always counter with -something-. The other thing was to give the bank as little power as possible. They're slow and greedy. In a short sale, they have an awful lot of power.

Cayne wrote:

Well update for me, found an awesome condominium town house in a large condo complex 404 units in total. Only bummer now is that the townhouse is a short sale. So i've put my offer in and now i have to twiddle my thumbs until the bank decides to accept or reject my offer. stupid waiting game.

Had a similar situation here in San Diego. Good luck!

I lived through being the seller on a short sale. All I can say is hope the seller has a good real estate attorney who knows what they are doing. Stephanie was awesome and without her the banks would have drug their heels forever.

It has to suck being the buyer, since you are literally just waiting on the bank to pull their fingers out of their behinds. My bank asked for the same information over and over to the point that Stephanie called their legal department and asked what the heck they were doing. We had a solid offer on the table and they were docking around. It can be done, just not quickly.

Good luck!

Sadly i'm not confident in this sellers agent, but i'll have my agent bug him every once in a while ramping up if this goes on forever.