HisHersMoney

Everyone knows that the real estate market is in the toilet and if you have the resources, now is a good time to buy. Well, we’re not in the market to buy a house or condo in the area we live, Washington DC/Northern VIrginia, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take advantage of the down market.

We have been silently keeping our eye on real estate in Steamboat Colorado were we like to ski. Over the past few years we have spent anywhere from $2000-$3000 a year on lodging there when we visit during the winter skiing months. We have been looking at what they call fractional ownership. It’s were some number of you own a particular condo and share it throughout the year.

The calendar is split up between you and your co-owners in advance and you know which weeks you have. We were originally looking at a place that sold out in either 1/8th or 1/4th shares. We were looking at the 1/4th share which included one week each month and a second week one month of the year which rotated each week. You had the choice of either using your weeks or putting them in a rental pool.

The price on those units right now is between $80k-$90k. In order to finance the cost you needed to put down around half of the cost. The kicker on these particular units was the HOA fees where were a hefty $300+ per month! While this condo wasn’t completely out of our grasp we didn’t have the down payment required so we were busy saving away.

In the meantime, about two weeks ago a unit came on the market in the building next door. It’s pretty much the same situation but the building isn’t quite as nice or as new and also doesn’t come with the hefty price tag either. The unit started out at the $30k price but had dropped to $22k with HOA fees of $100 a month and taxes of $500 per year. This was definitely closer to our price range.

This particular unit is a 30% ownership and includes 6 consecutive winter ski weeks as well as a few weeks in the Spring and Fall.   We made a low offer on the pace of $15k and settled with the seller for $18k. We plan on paying cash for the purchase and we close on the condo in about 10 days!

In upcoming posts we will go into detail about the cash payment as well as the impact to our day to day finances.