Our building is around 40 years old, and we bought in anyway. Like idiots, lol. Yes, our fees are high, but are all-inclusive. We even have a full VIP cable package, which we could personally do without, but it's nice to have.
As renters, we'd been in small, medium, and larger units, and spent time in old, middle-aged, and brand new buildings. We liked the settled-in charms of older buildings -- residents seem more mature and settled, while the new build was filled with students, Air BnB'ers, absentee owners, and were just in a state of chaos most of the time.
Frankly, we went older because we needed the space. Older buildings often have larger 2 and 3 bed units, and we got one that feels more like a nice-sized bungalow. It had also been gutted and completely modernized for sale (no popcorn ceiling!). Our fellow residents are mostly very mature (lots of seniors), which means that, for the most part, things are very quiet and respectful.
BUT...
Our gym sucks. It's a joke, and as our building has a lot of seniors who don't give two hoots about modern equipment, free weights, or squat racks, it will likely remain that way for a long time. Our community room looks like one of those church basement meeting rooms from the 80's.
Many of the residents don't have or don't want to use computers. Therefore, notices are posted in the building or sent door-to-door rather than by email, and we don't have an internal site we can check for information. It's 2019 everywhere else, but still 1978 in here.
Apparently, previous board and management was incompetent and (likely) corrupt. But now there is a new board, new management (ACMO-certified), and things are starting to turn around (we hope).
We will eventually need to replace windows, but owners are more interested in refurbishment and lick-and-stick repairs than just biting the bullet and bringing them up to modern standards. They don't understand that at some point, all those maintenance costs will be sunk and the replacement will NEED to happen (and will no doubt cost a hell of a lot more). But they have already had years of enjoyment out of their original non-argon E, non-UV protected slider windows, and don't seem to care about kicking the can down the road. They always just want the cheapest option, which is frustrating.
The joys of condo living...lol.
