More and more people are deciding to bypass purchasing a home in favor of buying a condo instead. Although condo living is becoming increasingly popular, many people still fail to realize the advantages of living in a condo and still do not fully understand what they can expect from condo living.

Mutual Ownership

One fact that you need to understand when you own a condo is that you will be sharing the building with other condo owners. Although you will own the actual unit in which you live, you do not own the building in which the unit is located. Rather, you and all of the other people that live in the condo are joint owners of the building.

Since you are joint owners of the building, you are also jointly responsible for taking care of the building. As such, you will need to pay fees that will go toward maintaining the building and its yards. In addition, you will need to help pay for insurance coverage for the building while also maintaining separate coverage for your unit.

Enjoying Amenities

One of the great benefits of condo living is the fact that you get to enjoy a number of different amenities. Common amenities that are included with condos include swimming pools, workout rooms, tennis courts, and more. Buying a condo makes it possible to enjoy these amenities because you share the expense of having them in place and maintaining them rather than paying for them on your own.

Being Part of a Community

Since living in a condo requires living in a building with other condo owners, you will need to be prepared to become part of a close knit community. Condo owners typically spend a great deal of time with one another and enjoy each other’s company. If you are looking to live somewhere that will provide you with solitude, condo living may not be right for you. If you like to socialize and you are looking for a way to meet new people, condo living is a great option to consider.

Taking Advantage of a Great Location

Condos are typically located in a great location that makes it easy to reach public transportation or to get back and forth from work. Many are also located near to great shopping and dining opportunities as well. In fact, condos are commonly found in cities where traditional homes are rarely found. Therefore, if you are interested in city living but want to enjoy the pride of ownership, purchasing a condo is a better choice than renting an apartment.

Making Decisions Together

Since you share the building in which your unit is located, you should also be prepared to make decisions with the other residents. In other words, you will not be able to make decisions completely on your own as you would with a house. Since your decisions will affect the other residents of the building, many of your decisions will be made jointly. In fact, you will be frequently called upon to vote on certain decisions. Be prepared to be outvoted by the other residents of the condo, though you can certainly take steps to let your opinion be heard before any decisions are made.

Condo living has a number of advantages, but you need to be fully aware of what to expect before you invest in this type of real estate. By being fully informed, however, you will be more likely to be thrilled with your decision and to love living your life in your condo.

Source: realtown.com

Life in a condo is simple living at its finest yet has so much benefits. Everything that you need is there or either within the vicinity. In order to achieve an interior designed room, you can provide furniture such as a roof over your head, a place where you can call it a night, a place for cooking and eating as well. You may also have a room for those touches that make a space home. At the same time, you can hang pictures at the walls, a window ledge to place a vase of flowers, a closet or corner for mementos and books.

If you are a partyphile and do constantly hold social gatherings in your house, this is the perfect art piece for you. You have to have it because this piece comes with form and function.

Well actually, this piece of art is still tucked in a gallery and is made by artist Hans Broecker. And this piece is very special and you would want to have this because this piece of art contains a drink that can make your party go wild.

Image: http://dpimg.com/2008/02/drinkable-art-001.jpg

You may want to look at the hitslot website for more information about this. For a quick visit, go

here: http://hitslot.com/?p=205#more-205 or here: http://dvice.com/archives/2008/02/drinkable_art_i.php

Always plan before heading for a grocery shopping. Remember that you live in a small space and  have limited storage room. If you are on the hunt for sale, keep in mind that there are some things that you don’t need in the condo and will be a mess eventually. Clutter makes a small room even smaller. To attain a pleasant but well-ventilated ambiance, store things in devious spaces, for instance under the bed or sofa, in the cabinet or over the fridge.  Try to divide the space also into mini rooms as well so you can have other spaces for storage.  

Condominiums and townhouses have special insurance needs. They don’t need as much insurance as a house, but owners have more to insure than a renter. The insurance needs for a condo owner include personal property and liability coverages. Special policies for condominium owners, known as form HO-6, will provide the liability and personal property protection a condominium owner needs.

As a condominium owner, one needs to insure not only their personal possessions in the condo, but also any built in units such as cabinets, fixtures, appliances and shelves. In addition to covering the personal property, a condo owner also needs liability coverage. The liability portion of the policy would cover injures or damage to people or property that the condo owner would be liable for.

Below is a checklist of the top four questions to consider when choosing a condominium insurance policy:

1. What are your ownership and insurance responsibilities in the condo association’s Master Deed (the insurance requirements the association expects from you)?

2. Does the policy you are considering include broad water damage coverage for problems such as sewer and drain back-ups?

3. Does your condo association provide comprehensive or blanket coverage to protect you against other condo owners who may not have adequate coverage?

4. Do you have expensive personal items such as jewelry or furs that you may need additional personal property coverage for?

From Bobbie Sage, Your Guide to Personal Insurance, personalinsure.about.com

You’d be amazed at the stuff people keep, more often than not things they’ve forgotten they had in the first place. Schedule a peek around once in a while, when you take a close look at each and every crevice of your space. From the overhead cabinets to the cabinets hidden by your new sofa, open them up and you may find stuff you’ve been missing for a long time. Take out the old and give them another life, selling is a garage sale or donated to charity for the less fortunate. There’s always more than one way to reuse old stuff so be creative and take a chance. Who knows, the recycling bug may be in there waiting to be released.

Bare bulbs getting the best of you, get fixtures that come in many shapes and sizes, they turn harsh artificial light into soothing hues. Try better energy efficient bulbs that do come in more shades and colors, now starting to come into the mainstream.

According to hitslot.com, “It might not look like it, but inside this box, there’s an armoire, a desk, a height-adjustable stool, two more stools, a six-shelf bookcase, and a bed with a mattress.�

Who says an entire ensemble of furniture cannot fit in a box? Any takers? Good, none.

Actually there is this German designed thingamajig that cramped every basic piece of furniture that you know into an 80 cm x 120 cm box. And it’s called a casulo.

Is it still unbelievable? You might as well check out the pictures instead.

http://hitslot.com/?p=204

http://www.mein-casulo.de/img/fotos/casulo_animation_www.gif

Or you might want to take a quick look at their video.

Or watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYCTcPkIIBI

As of this writing, the designer still has not found the right company that will carry it for mass production. I hope that this will be out in the market soon.

Visit their website at: http://www.mein-casulo.de/

Space is everything when it comes to living in a condominium unit, and you would want to buy for furniture that is not too spacey and would have another function or two for that piece.

Also, in a cozy unit, you might as well would want to become comfortable with the place, and to have that comfort is to go on the ground, low – by low platform furniture.

These pieces are actually for storage as side table has a drawer, console which has two drawers, and the dresser with four drawers. But you can always double the side table and your console as a table when you are sitting on the floor while your partner is laying beside you. Now, ain’t that sweet?

“When you rent an apartment, you will most likely be asked to pay a security deposit. In many cases, the security deposit is equivalent to one month’s worth of rent, though it might be more. Your landlord is within his or her rights to request that you pay a security deposit, but there are several things you should know about the security deposit before you sign a lease agreement and move into your apartment.

What is the Security Deposit For?

When you rent an apartment, you will likely be asked to pay a security deposit in order to protect the landlord. If you fail to make your monthly payment or if you break your lease, the landlord may be able to keep your security deposit in order to recoup the loses he or she experiences. Similarly, if you cause damage to the apartment before moving out, your landlord can keep the money or a portion of the money in order to make repairs to the apartment.

If the landlord does keep all or a portion of your security deposit when you move out, he or she must provide you with a detailed account of why the money was retained. For example, if you caused damage to the apartment, the landlord must detail that expense and demonstrate why the money was retained.

What is a Security Deposit NOT For?

Some unscrupulous landlords will attempt to keep a security deposit when a person moves out of the apartment, and some get away with it because their former tenants simply do not know their rights.

One thing that a security deposit is not for is wear and tear. If the dishwasher in the apartment needs to be replaced because it has worn out or the walls need to be repainted because the paint is getting dull or discolored, you are not expected to pay for these expenses.

In most states, landlords are required to return a security deposit within 30 days after the tenant moves out of the apartment. It is a good idea to check with your state if you are uncertain about the timeframe your landlord has.

Preparing for Disputes

If your 30 days has come and gone since you moved out of the apartment and your landlord still has not returned your security deposit, it may be time to file a claim in small claims court. In order to prepare for this possibility, you should always document the condition of the apartment before you move in as well as at the time you move out. Taking photographs is also a good idea as this will give the judge a visual idea of the condition of the apartment both before you moved in and after you moved out.

Although no one anticipates having difficult with getting their security deposit back when moving out of an apartment, it is always a good idea to plan for the worse situation. That way, you will be protected regardless of the situation.”

By: Eric Bramlett
Source: articlesbase.com