Purchasing a new residence involves many issues and condos may be on your radar. Before you buy, keep in mind there are disadvantages to condominium ownership.

Condominiums – Disadvantages

Condominiums are simply a collection of units in a structure or structures. All property on the interior of the unit is yours with few limitations. Everything outside of the unit, however, is considered to be in the common areas and subject to administration by the homeowners association for condominium communities. As with any bureaucracy, this can lead to problems.

1. Parking – One of the biggest pet peeves with condominiums is parking. While this may sound petty, it becomes a big issue over time if a particular situation occurs. One would think a condominium comes with assigned parking. In many developments, however, this simply isn’t the case. Instead, parking is on a first come, first serve basis. Over time, this situation can become extremely aggravating. With guests in the neighborhood, you may eventually find it difficult to getting parking!

Curb appeal is the most important challenge you'll face when selling your home. You must make home shoppers feel like getting out of their car to see what's behind the front door. Imagine prospective buyers driving up and examining your property for the first time. Your goal is to have them exclaim, "What a darling home!" Or, "What a splendid house."

Curb appeal has grown up, and using innovative Design Psychology techniques for marketing homes puts curb allure to work, enticing buyers to come inside your home. One way to make your home outshine the others on the market, upgrading your exterior, doesn't have to cost you a lot of money.

Restore, the outlet store for Habitat for Humanity, resells donated home building materials. They sell light fixtures, window hardware, paint, house numbers, and even white picket fencing. Restore also lets you bargain on merchandise, which means that the tagged price isn't always the final price. You can even sign up for Restore's mailing list and receive notices of half-price sales. We found a great exterior light fixture at Restore for one of our fixers for only $25. The same fixture, available at our local home building supply outlet, sells for $99.

When buying or selling a property, it always helps to have a basic understanding of real estate terms. In this on going series of articles, we take a look at definitions starting with “easements.”

1) Easement – permission given to (or acquired by) someone who does not own a parcel of real property enabling that person (or entity) to use that parcel for a specific purpose.  It may add or detract value.  It may be neutral so far as the value of the property is concerned.  Examples include easements to utility companies for the purpose of running power lines, easements to municipalities for running sewer lines, and an easement to a neighbor to use your driveway for ingress and egress to his property.

2) Encroachment – a building, fence, wall, driveway, etc. which is intended to be part of one property and is found to be on, or partially on, another property.

Of all of the countries to join the European Union back in 2004 the Czech Republic has benefited most from its membership; and the country’s economy has gone from strength to strength as a direct result.  

The increasing wealth of the nation is being distributed among its people because Czech citizens are benefiting from an abundance of better paying employment opportunities as more international companies relocate to the Czech Republic.

All of these facts mean that the real estate market in the Czech Republic is currently buoyant, in demand and potentially very lucrative for overseas investors who seek to directly target the local market with rental accommodation and resale property.