[Rain Man]

I think a condo is a great way to inexpensively get into the housing market, particularly if you would otherwise be renting and not taking advantage of the free money that Obama is taking from me and your children and giving to other people.

My one warning is that you should buy in a larger complex. My first home was in a small complex with seven units. No one would run for office, so I became president and then no one would run for treasurer, so my wife became treasurer. Of the seven units, my wife and I and two other units handled everything. One other unit would occasionally help if trapped with no escape, and the other three units basically treated it like an apartment and never did anything. They'd walk right by the rest of us when we were doing maintenance and never say a word. Eventually we got tired of being their servants and upgrading their property values and sold it.

With a larger condo association, you can afford to hire a property management firm, whereas in a smaller one you're relying on cooperation from the owners, which simply won't happen in a fair manner.

That condo was a great investment for us, though.