Condos as investment vehicles
Residential condos were conceived as single-family residential housing,
mainly for people who could not afford to by a detached house, starter
homes for singles and the newly married and housing for seniors who
could
no longer handle stairs.
The governance was based on people living in the same building(s) running their affairs through a democratic board of directors.
As time went on, both the developers and condo buyers saw condo units, not
only as residential housing but also as business and investing
opportunities.
Since then, investors who were once just bit players in the condo industry have,
in all their forms, have
become the major force in new and re-sale condominium sales.
The investors that people focus on are the persons who buys one or more
condo units to flip before they're built and the buyers who plans to
become landlords and rent the units.
The developers and real estate sales pitches often promise huge returns
for little effort. (See the ads above.)
Yet, there are more goods on the investments supermarket that condo
buyers are choosing, many that get little attention. They include:
• boarding houses
• rooming houses
• furnished short-term rentals
• furnished hotel rooms
• commercial offices
• personal service businesses
• take-out restaurants and bakeries
• slumlords
Most of these business opportunities, some perfectly legal and some
that are not,
take less knowledge, work and initial capital than buying a licenced hot dog
cart.
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