03-31-2025, 02:45 PM
(03-31-2025, 01:11 PM)Kodra24 Wrote:(03-29-2025, 12:36 PM)tomh009 Wrote: All depends on your condo corporation. And one can always run for a board position, often there is not much competition for those.
No time to run or participate on a board, perhaps if you're retired you can swing it
To me, the benefits of owning SFH are evident:
- No Condo Fees!
- No Condo board (don't have to participate, listen, waste time etc, free to make your own decisions)
- No noise from next-door units
- No smells (good or bad) from within hallways
- Ability to garden
- Ability to grow your own food
To each their own of course but I don't mind shoveling and cutting the grass, it's good to be outside
Condo fees is not a benefit. Condo fees pay for maintenance of the property, you still have to pay for the maintenance of the property. Whether you pay 400 bucks a month or if you pay 30k every 15 years for a roof plus 7k every 15 years for a furnace, plus... .etc etc. It's a different mindset (you must save up yourself for these costs), but to say "it's a benefit" implies you are saving money somehow, which is simply not true.
Noise and smells has much less to do with the form of home than it does the construction of the home and the nature of your neighbours. The noisiest homes I've ever lived in have been single family homes, my neighbours growing up had a pool, every summery rowdy boisterous parties, in the back there were baseball fields, later my home in Kitchener had a noisy complex next door, and old windows which didn't block out the noise. On the other hand every apartment I've lived in has been filled with seniors who were quiet as a mouse, and built with significant noise proofing.
The others are valid points to be sure, and if you prefer a SFH, that's fine, but it's important to be realistic with why. Not every decision has to be objective, preferences are valid reasons.