Real Estate Selling

By Patrick McNamee
Realtor, Century 21 Rainbow Realty
Laguna Woods Village, California

We have both types of homes in Laguna Woods Village, but very interestingly, they are many times the same floor plan!  So you can buy a “Casa Linda” home as either a “Condo” or a “Co-op” but what are the differences in ownership?

Good Question!  In Laguna Woods Village, a Co-op is not any easier or harder to sell than a Condo, it appriciates - or in this current market - depriciates - at the same rate as a Condo.  You get the same benefits tax wise from ownership of either a Condo or a Co-op (i.e. - you can write off your mortgage interest and property taxes).  The only difference is in Laguna Woods Village is the fact that you can only rent out a Co-op for 6 months out of the year, and you can rent a Condo year around.  So if you are an investor, you would want to buy a Condo so you could rent it out.  If this was going to be your primary residence, then purchasing a Condo or a Co-op would not be as big an issue. Please see my web site: www.leisureworldre.com to find out more information about our California Senior Community and the homes for sale here.

What exactly is a Co-op?  The full term is ”Stock Cooperative” and they are a lot more popular back east where they have the brown stone buildings, in New York as an example.

The problem came up in the early to mid 19th century, how can we sell the units in a building? The question comes up, well who owns the land underneth the building? So what they did, was come up with an idea where the Corporation buys the building and then each apartment in the building gets stock in the Corporation based on his/ her ownership share.  To make it simple, see the diagram above, if you have 4 apartments in the building, each apartment/ home would get 25% stock in the Corporation (4 x 25% = 100%)

What you actually get when you purchase a Co-op is a Stock Certificate instead of a Deed of Trust.  Rest assured, it is just as valuable as a Deed of Trust and you can even get a loan on them - or do a reverse mortgage!  Just like a Deed of Trust - getting financing is no problem!

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