Quote:

Has anyone else experienced this?
I am in a 6 unit condo and we have one deadbeat.
(Long story)
Not that the others are selling soon, but just curious.

With all due respect, this post is completely inaccurate! Condos have been selling and closing in Downtown JC very frequently.

The smoothest financing for condo transactions in our area are currently through Met Life, Wells Fargo and Prospect Mortgage. DO NOT USE BANK OF AMERICA FOR A CONDO LOAN, THEY ARE A NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!!

If I recall correctly, my 86 unit building had a least one unit that was behind on their monthly fees before the 2008 financial crisis. It was up last year to 2 to 3 units, but again it is 2 to 3 out of 86.

Your realtor should have a better sense if there are buildings with issues. Given your experience, it should be mentioned in your contract so you don't waste your time.

I used Amerisave and everything is working fine at this point. I won't give a full endorsement until closing.

B of A appeared not to need the business as they didn't follow up after I went into contract. They were pretty good with the pre-approval. Their loss!

That's promising! Maybe I've just been looking into a lot of deadbeat condo buildings who don't pay their fees.

Certainly a unit in a building with more than 10 wouldn't have these problems, but I was looking primarily at 2-4 unit places where each unit comprises of 25% or more of the buildings financial health.

I'm planning to close next month in a 5 unit building, no issues with the bank. I did notice that process involves more documentation than back in 2002 which is probably the best (but a pain).

In my current building (86 unit), a two-bedroom sold two months ago. I know that it wasn't a cash deal since I looked at the same bank that the buyer used. The mortgage specialist happened to mention it to me.

After about 3 months of combing the condo market it has become clear that unless you are a cash buyer it's going to be practically impossible to get financing for downtown condos no matter how qualified one might be because of these newish HOA restrictions.

So far all the banks (around 8-9 for me at this point) have said no loans are possible if the building is over 15% in default on their maintenance fees. Which means any building with 7 or fewer units in it must be completely full and paying their fees.

If just one person is underwater/not paying in (which is a lot more common than I realized!) the building is already over that 15% number and thus no loan if you are looking to buy in, which also handcuffs any of the other owners if they want to sell.

Anyone else running into this problem as of late?
Sounds like there's going to be a ton of Downtown condos flooding the market that will all be unmovable.