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Show HOME BUYER ffikcsfcggK CLINIC JfexSSj By William J McAuhffe, Jr. G4 Executive Vice President .gf' American Land Title Association Pkr CONDOMINIUM UNIT? of condominium units, free standing homes, town houses and other residences. Benefits often cited for living in a condominium include in-clude more living space for the money; amenities such as swimming pools at lower cost per family; lower maintenance costs than for detached single family dwellings; lower taxes per living unit with taxes and interest being income lax deductible; de-ductible; and excellent resale appeal of units. Careful checking check-ing on advantages and disadvantages dis-advantages is a good idea before be-fore choosing a condominium unit. For free guidelines on things to consider in buying buy-ing any type of home, write American Land Tit le Association. Associa-tion. Box r66. Washington. D C. Ownership of a condominium condomin-ium unit is a new consideration considera-tion for the home buyer now looking in the real estate market. mar-ket. Here are a few basic facts about this type of residence. A condominium buyer normally nor-mally obtains title to a unit of living space in a building and an undivided undivid-ed share in the ownership of related com-mon com-mon areas (such as walls owners as their share of maintenance main-tenance cost for the common areas-and pay their individual real estate taxes separately. Owners may borrow money on their units and such obligations obli-gations normally are secured by mortgages or deeds of trust. It is not unusual for all the unit owners in a condominium condo-minium to purchase a blanket fire insurance policy as a group and obtain a saving in premium premi-um cost. Typically, the interest of a unit owner is subject to real property laws in the same manner as the interest of parties owning other types of homes. The rights of ownership owner-ship in a unit are similar to those in other kinds of real estate. A title search and owner's title insurance before completion of purchase are equally important to owners McAuliffe and roof used by all owners, ground, and so forth). The value of this undivided un-divided interest typically relates re-lates to the value of the owner's unit compared to the combined value of all the units in the condominium. Ordinarily, unit owners make monthly payments to a condominium association of |