This is a great time to buy a condo in Chicago. For the obvious reason: there are more sellers than buyers. However, that’s not enough to get you a great deal. Because with condominiums, more than with any other type of real estate, a low price is not enough. Here are 5 tips to make sure you’re getting a great deal.

In 1999, I was renting a nice one-bedroom apartment from Foster and Damen and working downtown. She used to take the bus to Sheridan and Foster and from there she would take one of the Express buses that went down Lakeshore Drive. Got a great view of the lake going to and from work. On nice days, on the way home, I would see people on the beaches along the way, young people like me on roller skates, young people like me playing volleyball, young people like me sunbathing or playing in the water. So when I had enough money for a down payment on a condo, I said, it’s got to be lakeside.

The condo I bought was in a building on the lake, one that owned part of the beach. The agent who was selling the condo pointed out the boundaries of the beach, told me the exact length and width. I, of course, divided them by the number of units in the complex to calculate how much was mine. Yes, I know, you own everything along with the other owners of the condo. But that’s not exciting. (By the way, I owned exactly 1 foot by 1 foot 3 inches, which in my first-time condo-buyer exuberance, I deemed sufficient.)

The agent also showed me the large terrace that overlooked my beach. It was beauty incarnate.

And that made him let her quickly go over the parking situation. She showed me the underground parking, she told me there were 188 spaces there. She knew there were 188 units, that it was a first-come, first-serve parking arrangement. I was happy.

I bought, I paid extra for the location, for the beach, for the terrace. I lived there 4 years. In 4 years, I never used the platform. At 4 years old, I ran the path that runs from Ardmore to the city center my third year there, every night for 3 weeks straight. I ran to Belmont and back. In 4 years I went to the beach 4 or 5 times.

This brings me to my first piece of advice: know yourself, what you need and want.

Now, to the second tip. For the first 2 years, parking was not relevant. Then I changed jobs and needed a car. It turned out that the 188 parking spaces in the garage below my building were shared with the condo building next door, converted into one large garage. The building next door had about 80 units.

First come first serve means you put your name on a list and wait until enough owners give up their parking space. In my case the wait was 2 months. I found out later that most people had to wait a year or more, the manager liked me, so she moved me up the list.

So tip #2, Be very clear about what the parking situation is. Don’t just hear that you have a place, but go to your place and see it. I have since seen many condo garages. Many have some spots that are smaller than the others, big enough for a small sedan, but not big enough for a pickup truck. Speaking of trucks, some of the garages don’t have enough space to allow trucks.

Parking became a problem when I wanted to sell. There is no street parking. I mean, you can’t park in Sheridan and there are a lot of apartment and condo buildings in Sheridan, Kenmore, Winthrop, Thorndale, etc. that finding a spot usually meant parking 4 or 5 blocks away. It’s not good if you’re a woman and you come home at night, it’s not good if you’re human and it’s winter. The block where you cross under the ‘L’ train tracks was always bad at night no matter who you were.

Let’s move on to Tip #3: Understand the Parking Situation

Just before I bought the condo, my landlord had decided to raise my rent from $450 to $650 and I rightly thought that if I was going to spend $650, I might as well own and build equity. The unit I bought cost me less than $650 a month (mortgage and association dues), for the first 2 years. So, I got that part right. One of the reasons I did it was that I didn’t have a car. I bought one at the beginning of my junior year in my great condo.

However, when I got parking, I had to pay $80 more every month, which brought me to over $650 a month. At that point, the guy I used to rent from had raised his rents to $700. At that time, with the $80 for parking, I was spending over $700 a month on my condo.

In the last year, my association dues went up again, this time not 7 or 8 dollars a month like before, but 30. And there was a special evaluation. The special assessment was to clean the front of the building, all 9 floors. Then another for the front door.

By now, you probably realized that I hadn’t looked at the budget before buying my condo or getting involved with the association.

So my next piece of advice is to take a good look at the budget, and my next piece of advice is to get involved with the management of the condominium association.

If I had looked at the budget, I would have realized that they were low on reserves. I got lucky and sold it for a nice profit before the big problems caused by the lack of reserves. My buyer, I met her 3 or 4 times in the year after he bought my condo, she had a lot of complaints. Many things were not done or not done on time, dirty corridors, elevators not working, etc.

Why should you get involved in the association? Because most homeowners don’t. Some, like me, don’t even expect a meeting. Which means that a relatively small number of people make decisions that affect you. Which means you might as well be one of the few people making decisions that affect you.

Not to mention, you learn that bad things will come sooner, perhaps soon enough to take preventative action.