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Speaker 1: Brain with today's question, what is the difference between a house,
Speaker 1: a mobile home, a condominium, a co op and a
Speaker 1: town house. The world of residential real estate is huge,
Speaker 1: and if you're in the market to buy a home,
Speaker 1: it can get a bit confusing because there's so many
Speaker 1: different ways to buy a home. Let's take a look
Speaker 1: at the five main forms that a non rental home
Speaker 1: may take and try to sort out the differences. First,
Speaker 1: you have a house. When most of us talk about
Speaker 1: a house, we're referring to a free standing single family residents.
Speaker 1: There's also such a thing as a duplex that the
Speaker 1: free standing structure divided into two connected single family units.
Speaker 1: The main defining characteristic of a house, besides its free
Speaker 1: standing nature, is the breadth of ownership responsibility taken on
Speaker 1: by the buyer. The owner of a house owns the
Speaker 1: building itself as well as the land, and it is
Speaker 1: therefore responsible for all upkeep associated with those areas, including
Speaker 1: lawn and landscape maintenance, painting repairs, redoing, the roof and appliances,
Speaker 1: the real estate taxes, and everything else. Sometimes houses may
Speaker 1: be grouped together in a definite community or subdivision that
Speaker 1: has shared spaces, such as a pool or a playground.
Speaker 1: In these communities, homeowners pay a fee to a homeowners association,
Speaker 1: which maintains the shared spaces and may provide such services
Speaker 1: as lawn care, landscaping, and security. The homeowners association sets
Speaker 1: rules and regulations for the community, some even pertaining to
Speaker 1: the aesthetic appearance of the houses, so you might not
Speaker 1: be able to paint your house a certain color because
Speaker 1: the homeowners association doesn't let you. A town house is
Speaker 1: like a house and that the owner owns both the
Speaker 1: structure and the land on which it sits, but it's
Speaker 1: not free standing, so the land on which it sits
Speaker 1: is usually limited to the front and back yards. Town
Speaker 1: Houses are connected to one another in a row and
Speaker 1: are usually two or three stories tall. They share many
Speaker 1: of the characteristics of a condominium. A condominium is like
Speaker 1: a townhouse in that the units are attached to each other,
Speaker 1: but if you own a condo, you do not own
Speaker 1: any land. A condo owner owns only the unit itself,
Speaker 1: which is taxed as an individual entity, and sometimes a
Speaker 1: percentage of the common areas of the community. Condo communities
Speaker 1: may provide such shared facilities as a pool, a gym,
Speaker 1: tennis courts, a clubhouse, all maintained by the condo association,
Speaker 1: which also takes care of all the day to day
Speaker 1: management tasks. This is one of the advantages of condo living.
Speaker 1: It's all the joy of using the amenities, but none
Speaker 1: of the hassles of maintaining them. Condo owners pay a
Speaker 1: monthly fee to the condo association, which also sets the
Speaker 1: rules for the community. Then there's the cooperative or the
Speaker 1: co op. The main difference between condos and co ops
Speaker 1: lies in the specifics of ownership. If you own a
Speaker 1: co op, you don't own the unit itself. Instead, you
Speaker 1: own a share in the cooperative corporation. This share gives
Speaker 1: you the sole right to your living space, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't give you ownership of it. For this reason, your
Speaker 1: real estate taxes maybe covered by your co op membership
Speaker 1: because the building is taxed as a whole. Co Op
Speaker 1: members pay a monthly fee of the corporation, which, like
Speaker 1: the condo association, maintains the building and all shared spaces
Speaker 1: and handles daily management tasks. A co op is generally
Speaker 1: stricter about screening perspective buyers and has more say in
Speaker 1: the handling of your own unit. Also, a co op
Speaker 1: maybe more difficult to finance than a condo, because co
Speaker 1: op corporations may deal only with certain banks. And finally,
Speaker 1: there's the mobile home. The clear distinguishing characteristic of a
Speaker 1: mobile home is that it's mobile. It can have wheels,
Speaker 1: and it goes down the road when it's being installed.
Speaker 1: Mobile homes are sometimes called manufactured homes. Buying a mobile
Speaker 1: home is similar to buying a car. Sales tax applies
Speaker 1: and you receive a title of ownership. Mobile homes, unlike
Speaker 1: other forms of housing, depreciated value as cars do. You
Speaker 1: can put a mobile home on your own piece of
Speaker 1: land where it acts a lot like a house, or
Speaker 1: you can put it in a mobile home park. Land.
Speaker 1: Own ownership is handled differently in different parks. In some
Speaker 1: you must buy the lot for your home, and others
Speaker 1: you lease it instead of buying it, and in others
Speaker 1: you don't buy the land at all, but instead purchase
Speaker 1: a share in a corporation, much like a co op.
Speaker 1: Property taxes are handled in various ways depending on these distinctions,
Speaker 1: like condo communities, co op buildings, and town homes. Mobile
Speaker 1: home parks have rules that must be followed by the residents.
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics. Because
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