At Home in Another's Home: The Perks and Pitfalls of Renting a Condo Over an Apartment

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FINDING RENTAL DIGS to please both halves of a couple almost always poses a challenge. Add an 85-pound Rottweiler to the equation, and the hunt can get a little, well, hairy. District residents Paul Bhorjee and his girlfriend, Jennifer Berger, solved their conundrum by renting a two-bedroom loft-style condo in Northwest Washington — with Gretel the pooch in tow. "It's rare to find a building of any size that's pet-friendly," Bhorjee says.

The pair are part of what Grant Montgomery, vice president of real estate research firm Delta Associates, colloquially calls a "shadow market." That's because rental condos are an un-trackable portion of the market held "in the hands of a thousand different owners." If that sounds a little Wild West for your sensibilities, rest assured: Most condo renters' living experiences align fairly seamlessly with that of an apartment building.

A management company serves as liaison for Bhorjee and Berger and handles all the details, from rent payment to maintenance requests. As a result, they've never had contact with the condo's owner but reap the benefits of the building's amenities, courtesy of the owner-paid condo fees, which include an exercise room, in-unit laundry machines, common lounge areas and a rooftop deck with a hot tub.

"When you're renting you don't have to pay the condo fees," explains Mark Wellborn, editor and co-founder of real estate Web site UrbanTurf. "In this market, there's a lot of opportunity to get a place that has great amenities — pool, roof deck, fitness center."

The perks of condo living often extend to individual units, too. "Generally speaking, a condo's finishes are of a higher grade," says Tony Drost, treasurer of the National Association of Residential Property Managers. "Because they are sold as real estate, the construction requirements from one unit to another is higher."

When deciding between a renting a condo versus renting an apartment, be sure to consider what might be negotiable. "Apartment communities generally can offer better move-in incentives than a private condo," says Ben Rieling, operations manager for Nomadic Real Estate.

The opposite is true when it comes time to renew a lease and recalculate rent. Condo tenants hold the cards then, often able to leverage the value of not having to search for a replacement tenant, while apartment rent might spike 10 percent or more.

Even more than with a traditional rental, a condo landlord might mean the difference between domestic bliss and hell by lease. "In a condo, the owner may be managing the property themselves or they may hire an outside property manager — in which case there may or may not be someone in the building to go to with questions," says Robert Sabanosh, real estate agent with Coldwell Banker. So, if your landlord is lounging in the French countryside, you might find yourself out of luck when maintenance messes surface.

Sabanosh suggests treating the application process as a two-way street. "While the owner or property manager is interviewing you, you should also be interviewing them," he says. Don't be afraid to ask for the owner's references, too.

You also might double-check that the owner holds a Basic Business License for the condo, which is a city-imposed requirement for rentals. Condo boards generally vote on their building's allowable ratio of owners to renters (80/20 is standard, Rieling says), so a license should ensure the condo board approved the property's rental.

Evan Dean and Wes Johnson chose to rent a basic two-bedroom Logan Circle condo for many of the same reasons anyone picks a place. For starters, the rent seemed cheaper than similar apartment options. Dean admits the condo factor has caused him to be extra careful.

"I try not to hang anything," he says. "You're thinking, 'This is a person's home.'" But the flexibility dealing with the condo's property management company helped convince the roommates to renew their lease recently.

That one-on-one service often appeals to folks fed up with bureaucracy-laden apartment buildings. Lina Karaoglanova and Linda Shim have rented a two-bedroom condo in Kalorama for the past two years. Before that, the friends lived in a large luxury apartment building south of Dupont Circle. "We get personalized attention. The relationship with our landlord is much more personal and casual," Karaoglanova says. "Things tend to be less official in general. There isn't any paperwork, but we get all the same services."

The fact that their neighbors are mostly owners is a pleasant perk, adds Shim. "They take cleanliness very seriously. People are more respectful of the property," she says. "The residents are also older, and that helps us avoid the ‘college dorm' atmosphere of our previous apartment."

Written by Express contributor Katie Knorovsky
Photos by Lawrence Luk for Express