One of the objections I often hear from people regarding condominiums is that they don’t like the idea of paying maintenance fees. So I’ve been meaning to do a post for some time now that breaks down and explains exactly where that money goes.

Here is a simplified example. It ignores some of the miscellaneous income that buildings usually receive (from guest suites, the party room, public parking and so on). And of course, these numbers will vary based on the age of the building, specific amenities, and any deficiencies it may have. Nonetheless, it should give you an idea.

So assuming you pay $400 per month as a common element fee, a percentage of that will—or at least should—get immediately stripped away as a reserve fund contribution. Again this will depend on the age the building and the periodic reserve fund study that’s typically required to be done.

After that you have the operating expenses. The biggest items you’ll notice are contracts and utilities. Contracts are things like janitorial services, snow removal, property management fees, security/concierge services and so on. They’re contracted items. Utilities are self explanatory. 

Once all the operating expenses have been paid, any remaining money then goes to retained earnings and sits in the condo corporation to handle any other expenses that may arise.

Looking at the total operating expenses ($263), you should notice that it’s only about 66% of the total common element fee ($400). A big chunk of your common element fee is actually going towards saving for the future. Assuming the building is being properly managed, I’m okay with this.

If you have any feedback on my numbers, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below or on twitter.

Two weeks ago I wrote a post called “Skateboarding and the city." If you liked that post, I recommend you take a look at this 5 minute video called SKATE Toronto. It’s part of a series where local skateboarders provide a guided tour of their city.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEb4QvJzFVU&w=560&h=315]

You’ll find similar videos for New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia,

I spent a lot of time in the suburbs over the holidays and it got me thinking.

For all the talk about intensification here in Toronto, adapting our car dependent suburbs to become, well, less car dependent is going to be an enormous challenge. Once you’ve built out an area around the car, it’s almost impossible to go back. 

One of the biggest challenges is going to be figuring out how to turn the suburbs from inward to outward. If you think about it, the suburbs are an incredibly inward type of development pattern.

Retail plazas typically have their entrances—not off main streets—but off internal parking lots. And residential areas often have backyards facing the main streets because nobody wants a house fronting on a major thoroughfare. These are the design principles we’ve used to create our suburbs.

But the result is that we’ve created environments that are inhospitable to pedestrians. What enjoyment would you get out of walking along a street where everything has its back turned to you? This is the anthesis of animated street life. And in this case, Margaret Thatcher would probably be right: I would feel like a failure taking the bus.

To compensate for this kind of environment, we’ve made it virtually mandatory to have a car. It’s the only reasonable way to get around. Writer 

One of the objections I often hear from people regarding condominiums is that they don’t like the idea of paying maintenance fees. So I’ve been meaning to do a post for some time now that breaks down and explains exactly where that money goes.

Here is a simplified example. It ignores some of the miscellaneous income that buildings usually receive (from guest suites, the party room, public parking and so on). And of course, these numbers will vary based on the age of the building, specific amenities, and any deficiencies it may have. Nonetheless, it should give you an idea.

So assuming you pay $400 per month as a common element fee, a percentage of that will—or at least should—get immediately stripped away as a reserve fund contribution. Again this will depend on the age the building and the periodic reserve fund study that’s typically required to be done.

After that you have the operating expenses. The biggest items you’ll notice are contracts and utilities. Contracts are things like janitorial services, snow removal, property management fees, security/concierge services and so on. They’re contracted items. Utilities are self explanatory. 

Once all the operating expenses have been paid, any remaining money then goes to retained earnings and sits in the condo corporation to handle any other expenses that may arise.

Looking at the total operating expenses ($263), you should notice that it’s only about 66% of the total common element fee ($400). A big chunk of your common element fee is actually going towards saving for the future. Assuming the building is being properly managed, I’m okay with this.

If you have any feedback on my numbers, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below or on twitter.

Two weeks ago I wrote a post called “Skateboarding and the city." If you liked that post, I recommend you take a look at this 5 minute video called SKATE Toronto. It’s part of a series where local skateboarders provide a guided tour of their city.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEb4QvJzFVU&w=560&h=315]

You’ll find similar videos for New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia,

I spent a lot of time in the suburbs over the holidays and it got me thinking.

For all the talk about intensification here in Toronto, adapting our car dependent suburbs to become, well, less car dependent is going to be an enormous challenge. Once you’ve built out an area around the car, it’s almost impossible to go back. 

One of the biggest challenges is going to be figuring out how to turn the suburbs from inward to outward. If you think about it, the suburbs are an incredibly inward type of development pattern.

Retail plazas typically have their entrances—not off main streets—but off internal parking lots. And residential areas often have backyards facing the main streets because nobody wants a house fronting on a major thoroughfare. These are the design principles we’ve used to create our suburbs.

But the result is that we’ve created environments that are inhospitable to pedestrians. What enjoyment would you get out of walking along a street where everything has its back turned to you? This is the anthesis of animated street life. And in this case, Margaret Thatcher would probably be right: I would feel like a failure taking the bus.

To compensate for this kind of environment, we’ve made it virtually mandatory to have a car. It’s the only reasonable way to get around. Writer