Fort Lauderdale Condos - Monthly Maintenance

Posted by Eric Miller on Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 at 11:26am.

Monthly Maintenance –  Fort Lauderdale Condominiums
Eric Miller - 1-Dec, 2010

The question we hear most often when looking for a Condo in the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate market is, “Please find me a Condominium with low maintenance”, while that sounds wonderful to most people the old adage of you get what you pay for usually applies.  Looking for a great run condominium building in the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate market should be high on your priority list.  Low maintenance may not be what you should be looking for.

I’ve created a list below of some things to think about when looking for a great run Condo building.

1.) Reserve funds – while we don’t like funding them, this is a must in a well run building.  Fannie Mae Guidelines allows 10% of the operating budget.  Without reserve funds for major building repairs including roofs, the major expense would have to be via special assessment.
2.) Wind storm insurance and liability insurance is almost 30% of the total monthly payment.
3.) Make sure the monthly maintenance includes the insurance payment.  Sometimes they remove the insurance payment to appear they have a lower monthly maintenance charge and create a special assessment for the insurance payment which can be quite high.
4.) Make sure there are only 12 payments a year.  Sometimes they lower the payment, but collect 13 times in the year to appear they have a lower maintenance fee.


You may ask, “What is a fair charge for monthly maintenance?” in the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate market.  It really depends on the amount of amenities in the Condominium building.  Higher end luxury buildings can be as much as 70 cents per square foot and buildings with less amenities can be lower.   The average and good rule of thumb is 50 cents per square foot, meaning a 1000 square feet condo would be about $500 per month.  This would be in a well run building  with a good amount of amenities such as Symphony or The Tides at Bridgeside Square.   There are other buildings such as Everglades and White Egret that have lower maintenance fees if your one that doesn’t want a large number of amenities. Remember this is just a guide for you to think about.  Its always a great idea to get a good realtor that is knowledgeable on the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate market.  We at Eric Miller & Associates pride ourselves in giving you all the detailed information on these condo buildings so you can make a wise purchase in Fort Lauderdale.

Something to think about, Fort Lauderdale Real Estate sales are clearly up.  While there is less on the market than this time last year and increased traffic to our websites.  It’s clear that there is a huge interest in Fort Lauderdale Real Estate.   Zillow (a major real estate information website) recently reported that they have seen a hugh traffic increase on their website as well specifically related to their pages for Fort Lauderdale Real Estate.

If you would like more information on well run buildings or additional questions you have, please feel free to contact one of my knowledgeable agents at Eric Miller & Associates, we are here to help you with all your Fort Lauderdale Real Estate needs.

Eric Miller is an award winning Florida Realtor, salesperson and broker. His website, FortLauderdaleGroup.com provides an up-to-date guide to Fort Lauderdale Condos for sale, and the most complete buyer, seller and investor information for the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Market.

1 Response to "Fort Lauderdale Condos - Monthly Maintenance"

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