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Single-family homes and condominiums offer vastly different lifestyles, so it’s helpful if you know what’s in store when you buy a home with shared walls.

Condos are more plentiful closer to urban centers, where populations are dense. If you prefer being around people, you’ll love the access that urban living offers.

You’ll be close to work centers and public transportation, and live in a walkable area that offers coffee shops and restaurants, shopping and much more. But density has its downside – the streets are busy and you may hear your neighbors playing music.

Lenders have certain requirements for condos that don’t apply to single-family homes. For example, FHA-approved lenders insist that 80% of the condo owners are owner-occupants. You’ll have to obtain the financial records of the homeowners’ association (HOA) to determine how many owners are delinquent in dues, how many units are rented out, and whether the HOA has enough in “reserves” or savings to perform necessary maintenance such as replacing a roof for the entire building.  

Most condos offer shared amenities like dog parks, swimming pools, workout rooms and so on, giving you access to more luxuries than you’d otherwise have. But the key word is “share.” To keep things nice, there will be rules to follow, which are in place to protect residents and their investment.

You own the airspace in your unit while everything else is owned collectively, so expect to pay monthly dues proportionate to your building’s condition and its amenities.

There are some easy ways to remember how to handle your money so that you can become a homeowner, prosper as a homeowner, and ultimately, sell your home at a profit.

The 50/20/30 rule. Your spending can be divided into three categories - Needs, Wants, and Savings. Allocate 50% of your after-tax income for needs such as food, rent, etc. Wants are things you can live without that make life easier or more enjoyable but should be no more than 30% of your budget. Twenty percent should go into savings and investments like IRAs or 401Ks.

The Rule of 72. This formula offers insight into how long any investment will take to double its return. If your home appreciates at 3% annually, it should double in value in 24 years. If you purchased at $400K and paid off your mortgage, you’ll have $800K in equity, enough to retire comfortably just from owning a home.

The Pareto Principle. Roughly 80% of outcomes are due to 20% of causes. To improve your budget, reduce the 20% of costs that are eating up 80% of your outgo, such as eating out.

The Law of Probability. Probability is guessing the number of ways en event can occur by dividing the total number of all possible event occurrences into the event. Event A is buying a home with the options of occupying, selling or leasing your home to others as options. What’s the probability you’ll remain in your home? The answer is 30%.