Christmas Decorating Tips for a Condo

In a condo, putting up Christmas decorations can be quite a challenge because of the small space you have to work with. On the other hand, there are a variety of ways that you can fit all your creative ideas into your condo’s floor area. Just follow the suggestions below and you’ll have a home worthy of Santa’s visit in no time:

 

1. Attempting to fit an 8-foot tall Christmas tree into a small condo would be futile in most cases; your best bet would be a tree small enough to be set up on a coffee or side table. Hang small ornaments on the branches, and then place the gifts right under the table if they won’t fit beneath the tree itself.
2. You don’t have to get rid of or put away the Christmas ornaments you can’t fit in the tree; here’s a great way to still display them: put them all in a clear bowl or serving tray that you barely use and display the whole thing in your living or dining room.
3. Don’t keep all your holiday decorating ideas in just the common parts of your condo; if you live in a studio-type, your bedroom could use some loving, too. You can introduce a Christmas touch to this area by merely hanging a holiday wreath at the space above the headboard or at the foot of the bed. Here’s another great idea: remove your present pillow cases and bed sheets, and replace them with ones that come in green, red and white, or whatever holiday color combo you have going throughout the unit.
4. If you’ve run out of floor space to decorate, you can also extend the holiday spirit to your ceiling and walls. Get some hooks with tape on the back, stick them to the ceiling over the dinner table, and hang ornaments from them using long pieces of string or ribbon. Or, why not take some string lights and arrange them on the edge of a room’s ceiling, or decorate a blank wall by creating the shape of a Christmas tree with them?
5. One space-saving idea is to make multi-purpose decorations. In order to brighten up a room creatively, get some candles, bind them together with green or red string or ribbon and set them down on a window sill (keep the window closed so the wind won’t topple them or they won’t fall out). You can create a decorative food container by taking a clear cookie jar, stuffing it with Christmas cookies, tying a ribbon around it and putting it on the kitchen counter or the refrigerator.

 

When Christmas rolls around, don’t wish that your condominium has more space for you to decorate (or live in, basically); make do with what you have and use your imagination to adapt. Avoid adding bulky items to your décor; instead, avoid cramping up the space by accentuating what’s there to begin with. This way, it won’t be too hard to accommodate friends and family if you ever want to hold a small holiday party in your unit.

What You Need to Consider Before Buying a Condo

When you buy a condo, you have to put a lot of thought into it. Real estate investment mistakes are very costly, so in order to make sure that you are doing it right, you have to know what needs considering right now, as well as what you need to be thinking about for the future. Think carefully about these factors if you are planning to buy a condo unit.

Ponder why you are buying a condo. Do you plan on buying a condo for sale as an investment opportunity or as a place to live in? When picking a condo, an investor and an end user may have different preferences, so this is something worth considering. Comfort and stability are two factors that a resident considers to be important, since they want to ensure that they condo they buy will be good for the long haul. In contrast, an investor would prefer to buy a condo that will deliver a good return on investment one day because he sees his purchase as a business move.

Consider how healthy your finances are. As any investor will tell you, buying condos or any type of real estate will cost you more than just the price of the property. Property taxes and association fees are only a few of the other fees that you need to handle during your ownership of the condo unit. Consider your financial health today as well as how it will be in the future: do you have a steady source of income, and will paying for amortization every month be a problem for you? Once you’ve settled your payment for a certain month, will you have money left over to cover your basic necessities and emergency situations?

Think about the location of the condo. It doesn’t matter if you are using the condo yourself or buying it as an investment; you have to take its location into account. In selecting a condo complex, you should determine the building’s distance from establishment that may be important to you, such as transportation and business centers. Also, remember to find out how safe the neighborhood of the condo is; if you don’t want to live in a place where crime is rampant, chances are you won’t find tenants who will live there, either.

Learn the rules and regulations of the complex. Before you choose a condo to invest in, make sure that you are well-versed on the things that you can and can’t do with your unit; you wouldn’t want to find out too late that they have strict rules against renovating your unit or keeping a pet. It’s also important to find out if the manager of the property is capable of handling the complex, since it’s their job to ensure that the condominium’s facilities and common areas are maintained. They also make sure that conflicts happen as little as possible by properly implementing the rules and regulations.

Buying a condo unit is not as simple as one may thing; it is a big and expensive decision that needs a lot of preparation. You can hire a real estate agent to guide you through the process, but since you’re the one who will be moving into the condo, it’s important that you do your homework, not just sit back and do nothing.