Quote:
Originally Posted by Rain Man
Yeah, no kidding. If you live there for 20 years, you're going to be paying a quarter million dollars or more just to go to the pool and get your lawn mowed. I wouldn't get anywhere near the value that I would be paying.
It seems like these are pretty common in South Florida because I ran across them several times. I thought this wasn't one of them, but after digging a little I'm pretty sure it is.
So I've found four really unusual location-specific hidden fees that are enormous. They don't exist for all properties in those places, but when a place seems like a good deal, you have to look for these things.
1. Hawaii has the leasehold system that essentially destroys your home equity over time.
2. Southern California has land leases where you own the house but not the land and pay a huge monthly rent on the land.
3. South Florida has required country club memberships that include upfront fees and annual fees.
4. Some resort communities like Colorado ski towns list prices, but it's for fractional ownership of 8 or 12 weeks per year. Those are clearly identified in the descriptions, though, even if they're not easily identifiable during the search.
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Yeah, the leasehold is a no-go... the price makes more sense now though.
Wasn't aware of the land leases.
