[PerksP]

We have just passed our first anniversary of owning our townhouse. It's been a steep learning curve but one that I have enjoyed.

As our house is on a gated community, our HOA fees cover all groundswork and exterior maintenance of the property so our unexpected costs are restricted to the inside of the property and pool (which I know are potentially high). This means we pay much higher than average HoA fees but feel it balances out as we have no external maintenance fees and less to do when we go out there so we still get a holiday and just spend some time updating furnishings etc. which we quite enjoy.

We have learned a huge amount during the last year and are very happy that we took the plunge. We run the rental side of things ourselves and, although it takes time, I like to do this myself for a variety of reasons. Renting through a management company incurs additional commission fees and gives you less control. Doing it yourself means that you know who is going into your property and can offer rentals that you know will cover your costs.

The most important thing we learned, very quickly, is to have a property manager that you can rely on and trust. We switched from a large company to a smaller company within the first 12 weeks of ownership and that's the best move we made all year.

You do need to know you have a fallback in case you have a lull in rentals but we are looking at ours long term with the aim of using it as snowbirds ourselves to escape January and February. DH is American so we do have the possibility of moving eventually.

Don't be completely put off buying but be very prepared for everything that has been mentioned in this thread.