townhouse is in general bigger than condo. Most townhouse’ HOA fee (<$100) is a lot smaller than condo’s condo fee ($200-$300). If your family is getting bigger, like having a chtild, parents visiting and etc, townhouse can handle that. But condo may not. About appreciation, I believe townhouse may hold value better than condo, will have more appreciation.

The good place to buy condos are beach front where you have a ocean view, or inside downtown where you have a great night life. In normal suburban area, if your finance allows, go for a townhouse. Even better, go for a single family house, if possible.

Because even if you desire to, most probably you will move to somewhere else within 10 years. Average american move every 7 years. You may move to more prosperous region, like DC region, or move to wherever job is paying you higher in the future. Few people get stuck in one place for 15 years, let alone 30 years. So, you need to use bank’s money to ride out this 10 year, hopefully by the end of 10 year, you will make 50% gain on your house. Since you will buy in southern VA, I will use 50% 10 year gain. But if you live in DC suburb, I would say you should expect to get 100% gain in 10 years. Since money is devaluing every day, it makes no sense to pay off low interest loan. Use your money in some other high yield investment.

I’ve been thinking about this questions. From my experience and logics. Here is my guideline:

Investment houses: Never exceed median price for the local market. Because median price reflects the price point at which most people can afford.

I am not sure it’s a blessing or curse for the long term. In Bay area, it’s not a market to over stretch your leverage. This is a market full of uncertainty and untraveled territory. It’s very unpredictable as to how high it will rise int the future. Hidden inside unprecedented median price and crazy bidding for average looking million dollar houses, risk is also very high.

Think of eviction as a blessing hidden in disguise. Only going through eviction, a landlord can truly appreciate this business and appreciate how important it is to check credit report before signing the lease. Only through the experience of eviction, landlord can learn to suppress the impulse to rent it out as quickly as possible. All evils are done in renting fast. A lot of owners are under the pressure to save losing money to vacancy, they rush to rent it to almost anyone, in many cases, they rely on gut feelings and often forego credit check. Yes, these landlords can be lucky for a long while, but they cannot graduate from an accidential landlord to a professional landlord without going through an eviction process by themselves. Luck will not happen all the time, one of those days, your gut feeling will fall prey to the reality. So, treat this wonderful mischief of having to evict some bad tenants as a God-given learning opportunity. If you graduate from this “school”, you will get more professional. Then, your true rental business can officially start…