Atlanta Condos For Sale

Who Is Responsible for the HVAC Ductwork in My Condo?

by

As a condominium owner, you’d like to think you live in a “set it and forget it” environment. Unfortunately, such is not the case. While you may not have a roof to replace (directly) or any lawn to mow, you do have maintenance items inside your condominium that ARE your responsibility and DO require attention. So when you ask Who Is Responsible for the HVAC Ductwork in My Condo, the answer would be…

Condominium HVAC Maintenance

Yeah, I’m afraid so! Just as you are responsible for the plumbing and hot water heater, YOU are responsible for the maintenance of your HVAC both inside your condominium as well as where ever your condensing unit is located. (This could be on the roof or in the garage of the building)

Keeping your HVAC in tip-top shape can help you both in your wallet and with your health! Let’s look at both of these.

Your Wallet

Did you know that 25-40 percent of the energy used for your HVAC  is most likely being wasted? WOW! When your system is dirty…meaning that the ductwork or the system itself has not been cleaned or maintained, that it just has to work harder, and last less! And if you have not priced an HVAC replacement, $4000-5000 would be a good place to start. What does a dirty system look like? The photos below show both the coil from one system ( on the left) and the filter we found in a condo on the right. YIKES!!! Can you imagine breathing air that came through THAT?

How Do I Maintain a Condominium

 

Your Health?

The HVAC system could be considered the lungs of your home. Your system takes in air, and then sends it back out through the condo. So, if you’ve got a dirty system, or dirty filter….most likely you have dirty air. And that is what you are breathing! YUCK!!

What Can I Do?

 

  • Have your HVAC serviced at LEAST once a year. (Single family homes are usually done Spring and Fall, but the system is subject to more dirt from leaves and such, considering the condensing unit is sitting on the ground next to the house.) In a condominium building, the unit is most likely on the roof of the building. So while it will most likely be clean, there are other parts of the system that are affected by being in the beating hot sun every day! Hoses that should have an insulation wrap on them can be deteriorated from the sun. (See the photo on the right) 
  • Change your filter at a minimum every other month. And if it gets dirty, then change it EVERY month! $20 something for a filter is much less than a $500-700 service to clean the system.
  • If you are purchasing a condominium, be sure to look at the Seller’s Property Disclosure Statement to see what the age of the system is. While older systems can last much longer, they certainly are not very efficient. And if it’s a REALLY old system, it could potentially fail at anytime. Take this into consideration in your purchase price, or consider getting a home warranty, either paid for by the Seller or buy one yourself. It can be worth its weight in gold if your system should fail and you need to replace it.

Who Should Do This Service?

Certainly, a licensed HVAC technician!!! Working for a licensed company. In most condo buildings, the Concierge will have a list of vendors that have worked in your building in the past and do a good job. They will also have their license and insurance already on file with the HOA. This is required in case there is any damage or anything happens during a repair, or installation. 

It does not take much to maintain your HVAC in your condo.  But when you ask Who Is Responsible for the HVAC Ductwork in My Condo….just remember it’s YOUR responsibility! 

The Pros and Cons of Condo Living

by

Thinking about buying your first home? Or maybe the kids are out of the McMansion you have in the suburbs, and you’d like to be closer to museums or the theater? Either way, you are probably considering purchasing a condominium (often just called a condo)

Condo Living Pros and ConsThe Pros and Cons of Condo Living

In many large cities, people talk about buying an apartment. For our sake, in the Atlanta area, an “apartment” is a rental place, and a condo is something you buy. And there are pros and cons to that, but that’s a topic for another post! 

Smaller in size than a traditional single-family home, a condo has many benefits, but there are other things to consider as well. 

PROS

Minimal Maintenance

Now you should not presume that living in, or owning a condo means you have ZERO maintenance. You still have a hot water heater, an HVAC system, and plumbing. But you don’t have to worry about mowing a lawn, cleaning the garage or the pool either! 

This low-maintenance life style offer you more…well…lifestyle! Time to enjoy parks, restaurants, the pool, or even travel since you aren’t worried about those outside things. 

Lock and Go

Pros of Living in a CondoWanna head to New York City or maybe the beach for the weekend? Just walk out your door, lock it and GO! No worries about setting the sprinkler system or watering the plants (Just ask Serenity Pond about this!) You also have the security, if you live in a controlled access building, that your home it safe. (This has variables depending on they type of community you live in…) 

A condo is also perfect if you want to maintain more than one residence. Say you have a place in the mountains, or at the beach…it’s easier to just leave and head to one or the other when it’s condo living.

Transit Access

Now this is not the case with every condominium option in Atlanta, but certainly living in Midtown Atlanta, you have the convenience of access to THREE MARTA stations! It makes getting to and from the airport a breeze for those aforementioned weekend trips, or even business trips. And depending on where you work, you may have the option to use transit to get to work. Also, if you happen to be reading this and live in a city other than Atlanta, the transit access may be even more available. 

Lower Price and Lower Taxes

Now this factor really does depend on many things. Yes, if you purchase, say a $400,000 condominium, and are selling a $600,000 home, your property taxes may be lower. Your tax advisor can help you determine if you have benefits here. If your Atlanta condo is your second home, you will be paying higher taxes since you are not able to claim Homestead Exemption  on your property. So maybe the other home is the best one to be a second home, and call Atlanta home. 

Community

Living in a condo building, the sense of community can be both a Pro and a Con. I’ve lived in several Midtown Condo buildings and hardly knew anyone on my specific floor. (Could be a Pro or a Con?) Yet I made great friends at the social events and at the pool on the weekends, by hanging out with my neighbors. In a single-family home neighborhood, the same thing can happen. You can know your neighbors, or not. 

Accessibility

Be it now or in the future,  your condo may be much more accessible to you that a home with multi-levels. You might have to add  grab bars and such in a bathroom, but the “one-floor living” will certainly be easier, along with an elevator to get you to your parking deck, amenities and lobby. (Again, keep in mind there are low rise buildings that may NOT have an elevator!)

CONS

HOA Fees

You may not have to maintain the roof, or clean the pool or staff the 24-hour Concierge, but someone does, and someone has to pay for it. This is called your Homeowners Association, or HOA. Your monthly HOA fee you pay covers these expenses, and more. Monies from this monthly payment are also placed in a Reserve Fund to build up funds to pay for future expenses. This can be things like a new roof, pool renovations, lobby and hallways upgrades, and more. 

Some HOA’s bill your utilities through your monthly HOA bill. This is often the case with water and sewer, and you establish your electric service with Georgia Power. 

When purchasing a condo, your lender will request a Condo Questionnaire to learn more about the financial stability of the HOA, and you want to know this as well. Not having an adequate Reserve Fund could lead to a special assessment down the road to repair one of the above mentioned items. And these assessments can be minimal..or they can be very expensive, depending on the nature of the issue to be addressed. 

HOA Rules and Regulations

The Pros and Cons of Condo LivingLet’s face it….when you have a few hundred (or more) people living in one building, there is going to have to be rules. And some of them may seem trivial to you, but most rules are there because somebody did something wrong….

Imagine these things:

  • Lighted cigarette butts land on your balcony and burn your chair cushions…or in landscape below and start a fire.
  • Your puppy relieves him/herself at the elevator door because they couldn’t wait
  • Throwing a 50 lb dumbell down the trash chute because you don’t want it anymore
  • Breaking a glass bottle next to the swimming pool, causing it to be closed, and drained. 

Yes…these ARE real-life things that I’ve seen happen in a condo building. So we must have rules. 

Additionally, you can’t just decide you are going to take out a wall between your bedroom and living room without permission. There could be wiring or plumbing in that wall that services multiple condos above and below you. So remodeling requires permission from the HOA. 

Now you could live in a single-family neighborhood that already has an HOA with various restrictions, so this is not new to you. But if you are coming from an established neighborhood that may not have them, you need to be prepared to follow the rules…or pay a fine. And some of those fines are quite stiff. 

But I also consider HOA rules to be a PRO as well. They help protect your investment and your right to enjoy your condo without being bothered by someone else’s lack of judgement. 

Privacy and No Yard

Ok, if you ARE the kind that loves to grill every meal, or plant flowers, or sit on your patio with no one watching, then condo living might be a challenge for you! Now, all buildings have grill stations, they just might be 20 floors below you. And you can make that work in any number of ways. 

Some buildings allow plants on balconies, and others do not. I’ve seen a couple amazing balcony gardens, but if you don’t have a green thumb, and it all dies, then the neighbors have to look at all that (Hence those rules again!)  

Privacy on your balcony is relative…I mean after all, in a high rise, there is bound to be numerous buildings around you, and you never know who is watching you! And in some buildings, the balconies are cantileverd …meaning they “hang” off the side of the building with no privacy walls, just railings. So don’t be planning to run around in your skivvies unless you don’t mind someone seeing you. (And that is a WHOLE OTHER SUBJECT…..)

So, we actually seem to have more Pros than Cons to living in a condominium.  That said, each building can have a totally different “feel” to it. I’m here to help you see all your options and find just the right condominium community/building that is right for you!

You will also need to have insurance when you live in a condominium and here is a great article,

Condo Insurance: How Much Coverage Do You Need?

 

Midtown Atlanta Real Estate

Will Atlanta See A Regional Transit System

by

That’s the billion-plus dollar question for sure….

Will Atlanta See A Regional Transit System

Atlanta needs a Regional Transit SystemIf you are fortunate enough to live in Midtown, you may get more use out of the current MARTA system than others due. If you think about it…if you live in John’s Creek for example, by the time you would drive your car to the Doraville (Or Chamblee) MARTA station, park, and then continue your commute to work via transit, you probably would get there in the same amount of time if you just stayed in your car. 

And…what if you live in Duluth, and work in the Cumberland area? Well, you’re just plain out of luck. 

I came across this article in the Saporta Report. It talks about the challenges I’ve known for a long, long time. There are to many people (in this case jurisdictions) involved to get anything done on a regional basis. The need for a TRUE regional transit authority and system is really a key to the future of Atlanta. It’s future being you don’t spend 3 hours in your car each way to work if you have to live in the suburbs. 

As Brian says in the article, ” Currently a transit line from the Cumberland Business District to Duluth would require crossing four different counties and three different transit systems. First, state funds should be prioritized for regionally-important projects that serve multiple jurisdictions. Even with these bills, the majority of transit funding will continue to come from local sales taxes, and individual counties are unlikely to prioritize projects that span multiple jurisdictions. A transit line from Cobb County to Gwinnett County is incredibly important to the region, but none of the four counties involved can build the project on their own. The ATL should ensure that sufficient funding is available for regionally-significant projects.”

And I’m not forgetting the way-out areas either. Imagine high speed rail from places like Columbus or Macon where people would have a option (and a quick one) to get to Metro Atlanta for work, without having to pay the cost of living in this city. Ah….one can dream right?

Will Atlanta see a Regional Transit System?

The article from Brian Gist, Senior Attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center can be found HERE. 

North American Properties Mark Toro

by

North American Properties Mark ToroAtlanta certainly has numerous “movers and shakers” when it comes to real estate development. My good friend Scott Selig, who recently passed, is one of them. Steve Baile, also with Selig Enterprises is another. But one individual that I have always been impressed with is Mark Toro from North American Properties. 

If you’ve not seen Avalon in Alpharetta….hope in the car and go. A development that barely got started, and then the market crashed. North American Properties came in and it’s amazing what is there now. 

Come a little bit closer to “home” and North American Properties successfully repositioned Atlantic Station, and has since sold the retail development to another group. Now, Mark and his team are working to transform Colony Square into the next great Midtown place to be! 

Atlanta Magazine, in 2015, named Mark Toro as one of the “55 Most Influential Atlantans.” 

Additionally, North American Properties has been tapped to develop a mixed-used project around the Infinite Energy Center in Gwinnett County, some 30 miles from Midtown Atlanta. This is a unique public/private project, being built on land Gwinnett County owns. (The parking lots around the Arena will become garages and mixed-use buildings!

Mark is a Midtown Atlanta resident, and serves on the Midtown Alliance’s Executive Committee. 

Bisnow, a business publication recently published an interview with Mark Toro, which you can find HERE.

Thanks Mark, for all that you have done, and are doing for Midtown Atlanta and beyond!

15th Street Extension Midtown Atlanta Seeks Engineers

by

As Midtown Atlanta grows, and grows….and grows, it’s a simple fact that not everyone that works in Midtown will LIVE in Midtown. (Sad, but true!) And getting around on the streets is a big factor. Enter the 15th Street Extension.

This gap in the Midtown Street grid from West Peachtree Street to Williams Street might not seem like a big deal..but with all the development happening now along West Peachtree Street, this is a street that is needed!

15th Street Extension

This map does not show the new AMLI Midtown apartment building that is about to open on the parking lot with all the cars in it. (See the star) Overall, this extension will be MOST helpful to many residents and Midtown workers alike to get to Williams Street, an one-way Northbound that helps commuters gain access to I-75 North. 

15th Street Extension

The project will include new traffic signals, sidewalks, streetscaping and bike lanes. You can see the Arts Center MARTA station in the upper right. Also, long, long term plans call for another bridge across the Downtown Connector, with 15th Street adding additional connectivity to West Midtown. 

Nothing happens quickly with road construction however. According to Kevin Green, Midtown Alliance President and CEO, the environmental studies for the project could take two years, followed by 12-18 months of construction. That sounds about like 2021, right? Sigh. 

While we try to keep up with all that is Midtown Atlanta…and there is plenty happening these days….you might want to check out the Midtown Alliance website for LOTS of things that are Midtown Atlanta!

 

Is Condo Living Maintenance Free?

by

As I work with Buyers everyday, one question often comes up when looking at condominiums….Is Condo Living Maintenance Free?  Well yes….sort of. 

What Do You Have to Maintain in a Condominium?

Living in a condominium gives you freedom from most outside work associated with a single family home. In other words, no lawn mowing, trimming the shrubs, pressure washing the driveway and such. You also don’t have to worry about the roof since it is on the of the building, and most likely NOT on top of your particular condo (unless you DO live on the top floor) but it still is a responsibility of the home owner’s association. (HOA)

But most of the systems that service your condominium are your responsibility. What are these key systems?

Heating and Air Conditioning System 

Is Condo Living Maintenance FreeNewer buildings will have self-contained systems located in your utility closet INSIDE your condo. But most buildings you will have a separate heat-pump or condensing unit. And there is a good chance it is on the roof of the building. You are responsible for the maintenance and operation of this system. Yes, even with your unit on the roof, you have to maintain that. I often find (mainly during a home inspection when working with a Buyer) that the unit on the roof has seen very little attention. While they should not get very dirty with little exposure to dirt, the insulation that wraps the lines is most often found in the condition you see in the photo on the left. And it’s almost always an issue I ask to have addressed by the Seller. (If they have not paid attention to THIS, they have most likely NOT had the HVAC system serviced anytime recently. 

Condo maintenance tipsAnd I’ve had the extreme the other way on the INSIDE of a condo. I took over a unit that had been rented and helped an out-of-town seller get the place ready to sell. It was dirty beyond dirty could BE dirty. The photo on the right is the fan from inside the air handler in the condo. It’s amazing the unit could even operate! 

Hot Water Heater

Again, when working with Buyer’s, we keep an eye on the age of systems. ( I might note the new Seller’s Disclosure Statement DOES NOT have a blank for the Seller to enter the age of the hot water heater!) Hot water heaters can last a long time….but…10 years is their normal life span….and that is when they are “maintained.” Did you know that you should drain your hot water heater and refill it? Once a year? Who has a garden hose in a condo, right? So this service is never done, and can lead to a shorter life span! And replacing a hot water heater is no cheap trick! So, if you live in a building that is 10 years old….or older, you might want to be on the lookout for a request to pay for a home warranty for the Buyer. 

Plumbing

Condo Living Maintenance FreeThis should be pretty easy, right? Hmmm. I’ve had a rental condo where a tenant did not realize the kitchen sink was leaking until it FINALLY went through the ceiling into the condo below. Not to mention the damage to the kitchen cabinet under the sink, AND the hardwood floors. Moral of that story…look under your kitchen (AND BATHROOM(s) sink every month. Takes you but 5 minutes to make sure all is well, versus hundreds or even thousands of dollars in damage. And make sure if you are ever having any renovations done, that the contractor is insured, the plans have been approved by the Architectural Review Board and you have insurance as well. A water “event” in a condo building is a serious matter!

Appliances 

Washer, Dryer, Stove, Dishwasher, Refrigerator, Microwave….these are ALL inside your condominium, and are YOUR responsibility. A leaky connection on a washer can be hard to find in some of the tight laundry closets in most condos, so just keep an eye open. Same goes for a dishwasher that may leak. And a word to the wise….never leave your condo and leave a washer or dishwasher running unattended!!! 

Is Condo Living Maintenance Free? So you don’t have a basement, or a garage or all that stuff to worry about. And most of this stuff is pretty simple and easy. Just have an annual maintenance contract on your HVAC, and consider a home warranty that will help defray the costs of repairs/replacement of the other items! 

Thom Abbott

Associate Broker, REALTOR(R)
905 Juniper Street, NE Suite 110
Atlanta, Georgia 30309
770.713.1505 Direct
404.876.4901 Office

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

HomeSmart