180 closings
Verified transactions over the prior five years, 112 of them buyer side.
An Uptown Albuquerque realtor is mostly selling associations, because in a condo the building you are buying into matters as much as the unit you are standing in.
Melissa Salazar works Uptown alongside the Northeast Heights and the foothills, on both sides of the deal.
The walkability is the reason people buy here, and it is real: Coronado, Winrock and ABQ Uptown, with I-40 and Louisiana a couple of minutes away.
Dues and what they cover. The reserve study and whether the reserves are actually funded. Any special assessment that has been voted on or even discussed in the minutes. The owner-occupancy ratio, and whether rentals are capped.
Melissa gets you the association documents inside your inspection period with time to read them. An underfunded reserve is a future bill with your name on it, and it is visible in advance.
On a condo the lender underwrites the project as well as the borrower. Owner-occupancy, reserve contributions, how many units any one owner controls, pending litigation and the amount of commercial space all feed into whether a building is warrantable.
Non-warrantable is not fatal, but it narrows your lenders and usually costs more. Worth establishing in the first week, not the third.
How many spaces convey, whether they are deeded or merely assigned, and what happens when somebody visits. Then which way the unit faces, because proximity to the retail core and to I-40 is the trade you are making for the walkability.
These are twenty-minute questions that decide whether you still like the place in year three.
When you sell, your buyer's lender runs the same project tests yours did. A well-run association with funded reserves and a clean rental picture sells to a wider pool than the identical unit across the street.
Which is why the association questions are worth asking going in, not just coming out.
Verified transactions over the prior five years, 112 of them buyer side.
Total verified sales volume across those transactions, averaging $423,100.
Licensed in New Mexico since 2018, and a professional real estate photographer since 2016.
The commercial core around Coronado Center, Winrock and ABQ Uptown, roughly bounded by I-40, Louisiana, Menaul and San Mateo, plus the residential streets immediately around it. Housing is mostly condominiums and townhomes, with older single-family just outside the retail core.
Two groups, mostly. People who want to walk to shopping, restaurants and a gym and be on I-40 in two minutes, and downsizers who are done with a yard and a roof. It is also one of the easier places in the city to own something and travel for months at a time.
The association, in detail. Monthly dues and what they actually cover, the reserve study and the reserve balance, any special assessment that has been discussed, the owner-occupancy ratio and whether rentals are capped. Then parking: how many spaces convey, whether they are deeded or assigned, and whether there is anywhere for a second car.
Usually, but it depends on the building rather than on you. Lenders look at the whole project: owner-occupancy, how much of the budget goes to reserves, how many units one owner holds, litigation and commercial space. A building that does not meet those tests is called non-warrantable and financing gets narrower and more expensive. Find out which one you are dealing with before you fall in love with the unit.
Tell Melissa what you are trying to do and when. If the answer is that you should wait, she will say so.