What is a Minnesota Condominium?

A MN condominium (aka a Minnesota condos) are the most basic sense is a building containing many individual residences inside. In this building residences are usually stacked on top of each other and side-by-side, so unless you are on the top of or bottom floor, you’ll have neighbors living above and below you. And unless your condo is at the end of the building, you’ll also have neighbors on either side. Usually, then, each individual owns their own unit, but has a shared ownership in the common grounds.

Condominium style living has existed for thousands of years in any place where the population is dense. It is an efficient way for communities of people to live together in a small area and maintain their privacy, while sharing the neighborhood.

A Minneapolis condominium also has the least amount of responsibility in care of all the types of living circumstances. You must obviously take care of the interior of your unit, but not typically anything outside of it. Hallways, parking lots, and shared facilities, like exercise rooms and swimming pools will all be taken care of by an Association. This association charges you a monthly fee and manages the maintenance of any shared facilities. The more facilities, the larger your monthly fee to take care of it all. But also, because you’re sharing the community, the Association will have general rules that everyone must follow. For example, the most common is the limitation in number of pets and size they may be. Often a building will have age restrictions, for example 55 +, or even buildings that don’t allow children.

If you are concerned that the bylaws of the community may be too strict for you, make sure to review the condo docs before you close on your purchase of a condominium. In most states, you will have a 10 to 15 day time window in which to review the documents. If you find anything that does not work for you, you cancel your offer on the condo. If, however, you decide that this is the community for you, when your 10 to 15 day window ends, you will continue as normal, to close on your new purchase.