Checking out the HOA

When you buy a college student condo or a town home, you should check out the Home Owners' Association(HOA) that runs and maintains the community. You'll want to know about the financial health of the association, what the Rules, Declarations, and Bylaws say, and if there are any critical issues facing the HOA that might affect you as a new owner.

Once you make a written offer on a condo or town home in Colorado, you are usually provided this information by the seller, through the agent representing you. In the state approved Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate, the buyer is given a certain amount of time to review these documents and cancel the sale if they contain unacceptable restrictions. You can, however get a head start on this process and gather some of this information before deciding which condo or town home you're interested in.

Many property management firms maintain web sites that give this type of information on the communities that they manage. This is how that looks on one of our local property management firm's site.

Northfield Condominium Association Homeowners Section

As you can see, this management company makes it easy to preview the important documents before you decide if a particular condo or town home community is right for you. You might find that your 70 lb. black lab won't meet the association's 25 lb. pet restriction, no matter what kind of a diet you put him on!

Another, less official resource, is the Neighborhood Link web site that some communities post to let their neighbors and potential homeowners in their area in on what's happening. These sites are usually posted by the neighborhood's computer/internet guru who is sometimes authorized by the HOA board of directors and sometimes not. If there is a Neighborhood Link site for the condo/town home community you are interested in, it can give you a more personal look into what is happening in that neighborhood. I have linked to one such page here:

http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/ftcollins/hillpond/

These resources can give you more details about the community than just picking a random neighbor or two to talk with, but thats not a bad option either.