Why Buy a Condo? 5 Reasons a Condo Might be a Better Fit for You Than A House
In a place like New York City, condos and apartments are the bread and butter of the real estate market. But here in Iowa, where stand-alone homes rule the market, condos are often overlooked. It leads many buyers to ask the question: Why buy a condo when you could buy a house?
While the condo lifestyle isn’t for everyone, condo ownership has its own set of unique benefits—especially when you live at Elevate. Here’s a few reasons to consider investing in a condo rather than a house.
1. Convenience is Key
Imagine a home where you never have to lift a finger outside. No mowing your lawn in the beating summer sun. No spending your weekend raking leaves or weeding your landscaping. No shoveling snow in your driveway on cold winter mornings so you can get your vehicle out to go to work. No worrying about re-shingling your roof or siding damage after a storm or settling foundations or cracking driveways.
With a condo, exterior home maintenance is never your concern. Whether you don’t enjoy it, don’t want that level of responsibility, or simply travel too much to keep up with it, it’s all taken care of for you by professionals through your HOA. That’s what we mean when we say condo living is convenient living!
Our sales team often finds that people with an active, on-the-go lifestyle tend to gravitate toward purchasing condos. It gives them a home base to return to without being shackled to the responsibilities that can come with a single-family home property.
2. Build Equity
It is true that you could lease a condo and enjoy that same maintenance-free lifestyle. However, when you purchase a condo, you get that same easy living while continuing—or starting—to build equity.
Just like a stand-alone home, a condo is an investment. Unlike a stand-alone home, it’s an investment that has a fraction of the upkeep. It’s the best of both worlds: all the financial benefits of homeownership without the responsibilities of maintaining your yard or home exterior.
Condos can also be a source of passive rental income, depending on your HOA’s rules. In some buildings, you can rent out the condo you’ve purchased, whether as a long-term residence or as a vacation home (Airbnb or VRBO style). If you plan on purchasing a condo to rent it out this way, be sure to read the fine print in the HOA before investing to make sure this is allowed in your building.
3. A Sense of Community
Your condo experience can be as secluded or social as you want it to be. With condos, the sense of community is baked in—it’s just a matter of how much you want to participate. Whether you’re inviting condo friends in for a dinner party, passing your neighbors in the hallway, watching the game together in the entertainment room, chatting in the lounge or around the fire pit, or hanging out in the HOA-maintained dog park, it’s easier to make connections.
Of course, you could argue that a single-family home in a friendly neighborhood has the same sense of community. At the end of the day, however, a neighborhood or suburb has less communal areas than a condo community and therefore less opportunities to cross paths and interact with your neighbors.
As we like to say, at Elevate you’re not just just connected to your neighbors—you’re also connected to the community at large. You’re just a few minutes’ walk away from the top coffee shops, grocery stores, restaurants, breweries, and boutiques that Iowa City and Coralville have to offer. You’re also close to the action at Kinnick Stadium, Carver Hawkeye Arena, and Xtream Arena. No trekking from the suburbs to downtown for a nice dinner, game, or a concert and struggling to find parking. Condo living allows you to be at the center of it all, within walking and biking distance!
4. Affordable Amenities
When you purchase a condo, you get much more than just a home. Some condo communities—like Elevate— come with a whole host of resort-like amenities included in your HOA.
On the flip side, other condo communities offer little to no amenities. In these cases, the HOA is primarily focused on maintenance, which is something to consider in your condo search. It all boils down to your lifestyle—how important are these amenities to you, and what bang are you getting for your HOA buck?
At Elevate, your condo purchase includes access to a golf simulator, a fully-equipped fitness center, tricked-out game room, and a beverage station—and that’s just what we have inside. You’d be hard-pressed to find a stand-alone home on the market that has all of these amenities built in!
Of course, you could purchase a single-family home and convert a bedroom into a home gym, or turn your basement living area into a game room. Many people do! But at Elevate, you don’t have to sacrifice your living space—or your hard-earned money—to add these amenities. Gym equipment, pool tables, dart boards, home bars, and other fun add-ons often come with a high price tag. With a condo like Elevate, it’s all a part of the package deal.
5. You Don’t Have to Sacrifice a Yard
One of the common reasons buyers pass up a condo: there is no yard. Why buy a home where no outdoor space is included?
At Elevate, it is included. When you purchase a condo here, you have access to our 20-acre backyard. While it is true that you share this backyard with our other residents, it’s much larger than any other residential backyard you would find in this price point if you were to buy a stand-alone home. Simply put: more yard, less money, and zero maintenance.
After all, how many homes come with a 20-acre backyard, a pond, a dock, a paved trail, and a fire pit? Not many. Single family properties with that level of space and amenities are rare!
See For Yourself
We know that seeing is believing. If you’re in the market for a new home and are considering buying a condo, check out our current listings. Want to take a look in person? Reach out to our sales team to schedule a showing!
