11-05-2018, 12:49 PM
(11-05-2018, 12:19 PM)Spokes Wrote:(11-05-2018, 12:10 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I suspect most people also vastly underestimate the money they put into a house.
After accounting for utilities and insurance I used to pay at my house, my 750 dollar condo fees come down to about 450, and accounting for ONLY the money I put into the house and ignoring the hours and hours and hours of my own labor I put in, 450/month is a reasonable estimate of my monthly cost. Now I did have to put on a new roof, but I managed to avoid replacing a 30+ year old furnace. It's not a small bill to swallow, but the fact is, it isn't any bigger than a house would be, just more visible.
Do you not have to pay those in the condo too?
The answer is complex, for insurance, not all of it, and for utilities, it depends on the condo building.
For insurance, I pay for content insurance and upgrade insurance, it's costing me about 8 bucks a month--basically the same as renters insurance, the building pays for most other insurance costs.
As for utilities, it depends on the condo, some have separate metering for all utilities (but you still don't pay for say, hydro for exterior lighting or water for landscaping). Mine has metering for hydro only. Further, mine has central heat and cooling, so in my unit there are pipes carrying hot or cold water into a blower unit, I pay for hydro for the blower fan only.
In my house, I paid about 150-250 for water+storm drain+water heater rental+gas, this is all in my utility bill. Plus, air conditioning ran about 50-100 bucks a month in the summer. Plus insurance ran between 50-120 dollars a month. Hydro is also far less, even in the winter, my house ran 60-80 monthly, where as the condo is around 35-40 monthly. Not that it applies to the condo fee, but it definitely lowers the total cost of ownership.