A to Z's of Condo Buying

A Calgary Herald Special Advertising Section

If trying to figure out all the different aspects of owning a condo has your head spinning, it might be time to go back to school – condo school that is.

Several local realtors and organizations offer courses to help take the mystery out of buying or owning a condominium.

Re/Max associate Paulette Marsollier has created the Condo Classroom aimed at first-time buyers and sellers, or people who just want to be better informed consumers.  Marsollier says the additional rules and regulations make buying a condominium home more difficult than purchasing a traditional home.

“It’s more difficult because in effect you’re buying into a corporation.  Buying a single family home does not involve as much volume of information,” she says.

Her approximately 2 ½ hour Condo Classroom seminar goes through the various contracts and documents, basically “everything you would need in the buying process.”  Marsollier says the goal is to help people sort through the piles of information and help people understand what they are buying.

Figuring out the paperwork is only part of the process.  Learning the realities of condominium ownership is also an important consideration, says Bernie Winter.  Her Bernie Winter Seminars offer a wide range of customized programs, from accredited courses for real estate professionals to courses for condo boards or individual owners. 

Winter says condominiums are little communities and her goal with many programs is to go beyond the legal contracts and look at the human factor of condo living.

“We need to look at getting beyond the power of the board and the needs of the owners and see how we get along as people.”

Providing public education on various aspects of condominium ownership is one of the roles of the Canadian Condominium Institute (CCI).  The Southern Alberta Chapter of the CCI offers programs to inform unit owners about condominium life, others to equip directors with the skills necessary to conduct the affairs of a corporation, and more in depth courses to qualify managers to better administer the operations of condominiums.

Chapter president Marlene Swinton says becoming more educated about the differences of condo living is a worthwhile endeavour.  “It’s important because people are buying into a community.  The people that live in that building are their neighbours,” says Swinton.

She says condo courses are particularly useful because of the demographics of many condo buyers.  Many condo owners are first-time buyers, while others are seniors downsizing from traditional home ownership.  Swinton says many of those people often have little knowledge of condominium regulations or even home ownership in general.