Buyer beware. Ensure there is a limitation on fees. And just because you're a veteran it is not an excuse for stupidity. I would hope the military taught you to be smarter.
Caveat emptor.
These investment companies are also buying up mobile home communities and doing the exact same thing. They buy from existing owners and have transition agreements to have them run the place as they are often out of state groups, but then make up reasons to get rid of the former owners now caretakers, and bring in someone they want to then start imposing the groups real agenda, to greatly increase rent and start charging for pets (in the peoples own mobile homes) and not provide anything more for the huge increases.
Yes I know people who are dealing with this.
After all, the goal of any company is to squeeze every penny you can out of everyone you can. Laws are for little people. The ones that you squeeze.
A senior living community?
Lots of fraud in those places. Don’t do it!
Recently bought a condo gated 55+ community my HOA fees were $350 when I purchased 4 years ago they are now $750 they have gone up $100 every damn year!! The overall insurance for the property for the pools, golf course, workers comp ins. has gone completely out of control in CA. Last year our swimming pools were closed ALL summer because the insurance company would not renew the insurance without ALL of the rod iron fencing and gates being a foot higher and special combination locks on ALL of the gates, there are six pools on the property and they required ALL or none!! This property is in Palm Desert with temps of 115*-120* in the summer!! I am telling you living in CA. has become an absolute burden if I wasn’t in my 70’s I would get the hell out of this state!! People are INSANE to live in this state and raise a family here!! State has been DESTROYED utterly DESTROYED!!!
> “I just want people to know not to believe a damn word anybody says,” she told NBC News. <
She’s right, of course.
> Buyer beware. Ensure there is a limitation on fees. <
And you are right, too. When entering into any agreement, first go over it with a lawyer you can trust. Pay his hourly fee without hesitation. It’s money well spent.
My grandfather once said that people will steal the eyeballs right out of your head if you let them. He was right as well.
My thought, when rents and fees are jacked up, that you either have been paying below market or they want yiu gone.
I don’t understand. Selling it implies she owns it, but they say they raised rents?
Ping for later
Another reason why old people are not giving up their paid-off homes, even if they are “too big” for them.
I have a friend who has an apartment in a senior citizen community in S.C. She's in her mid 80's and pays $3500 a month. She complains about the food all the time, doesn't eat it, but is still charged for it. She sold a brand new home she had built in northern South Carolina and moved into the community about 4-5 years ago. Her rent goes up every year.
I never owned a home. I raised two sons by myself in apartments. By the time I could have afforded a home, they were getting ready to leave the nest. I'll be 78 in August, and I'm glad now at my old age that I don't own one with my kids ending up having to get rid of it when I die, because neither of them would want to own a home themselves.
I have a two bedroom apartment with living room, dining/kitchen area, central air, one bathroom, two large walk in closets, a double closet in the second bedroom, a small pantry in the hall, dishwasher, garbage disposal, stove, fridge, water and trash pickup free. Pay my own internet, gas and electric. I've been here 24 years or more. My rent is $570.00 a month. The highest they have ever raised my rent was $25 dollars, which was last year. Prior to that, my rent went up $10 or $15 a month every two years or so. I'll never move from here. They'll have to carry me out.
Condos are the most expensive form of housing.
Depending on where she lives, the insurance premiums have more than doubled.
I know a townhome community that went from 190K to over $300K in just one year for their master insurance policy.
Condo assessments cover landscaping, utilities, insurance, management, amenities, legal, exterior maintenance, roofs, etc. If someone lives in a high rise, now you have staff, elevators, fire suppression systems, boilers, chillers, and more.
There is no limit for condos, typically. If something breaks, they need the funds to fix it.
In the case of this woman, she was in a senior living facility. That is different from a condo. Condos are controlled by a homeowner board. Senior communities are run by for-profit companies.
[[She told NBC News that her monthly maintenance surged from $1,395 to $6,500 —]]
What the? We dont spend that per year on home mantainance! What the heck ars they doing to,chsrge that much? Replacing the shingles on the rooves every month? Painting gold leaf on the homes? Crikey!
Her place was sold. I don’t see how she can ensure limited fees if the place is sold from under her.
Name names ; when the guy increased the cost of the epi pen by this order of magnitude (365%) several years ago, he was shamed into rolling it back. I believe, for one, he was hauled before congress.
“I just want people to know not to believe a damn word anybody says,” she told NBC News.
“Your money is not safe.”
Sad, but true!!
Doesn't apply if the properties sell to a new owner. This happens more than I realized when some friends moved to Coeur D'Alene, ID, and built their dream home. Dunno how it works, but it's like a golf course development. They have to pay fees like an HOA and the new owners raised the fees to where my friends are anticipating their next move. This move was supposed to be their last.
HOAs are rip offs period. If you to live in one of those communities then you get what you get.
We bought our home in 1985, and paid off a 30 year mortgage in 20 years. We did not use the equity in our home as a ATM. We are in our 70s and our only home expense is property tax and insurance, which is roughly $200 a month, an amount we can easily afford.
This was not by accident or good luck, it was part of the plan we set up over 40 years ago.