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Condos

The companies that define the condos industry, each read on the same nine-check website rubric — a 0–100 score with the exact fixes — alongside the concepts, the developments and the questions that shape the field.

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The companies

22 companies in the condos industry, each graded on the nine things that decide whether a buyer or an AI assistant can find and trust them online. Open any name for the full write-up and the specific fixes.

70+ solid   45–69 gaps   under 45 costing customers

Sites we couldn’t reach

12 businesses whose website blocked our scanner — common when a site filters datacenter traffic, and not a sign the site is broken. A blocked site is never scored zero.

Who defines the condos market

The firms, funds and institutions that set the terms in condos — context, not local listings; never scored.

Condos guides

Concepts

Warrantable condo

A project that meets Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac eligibility, so a unit in it can be financed with a conventional conforming loan at standard rates. Warrantability is a property of the building, not the buyer — the same borrower can be approved in one tower and declined across the street.

Non-warrantable condo

A project that fails one or more agency tests — too many investors, too much commercial space, active litigation, thin reserves, high delinquency, hotel-like operation. Units still sell, but through portfolio, non-QM or cash buyers, usually at a higher rate and a larger down payment, which narrows the resale pool.

Fannie Mae project review (Limited vs Full)

Two levels of scrutiny. Limited Review applies to certain established projects with larger down payments and checks a short list of conditions. Full Review examines the budget, reserves, insurance, delinquency, ownership concentration and legal documents. Which one applies is driven by occupancy type, loan-to-value and whether the project is established or new.

Condo Project Manager (CPM)

Fannie Mae's web application where lenders enter project data, get a certification, and see whether a project has been flagged as unavailable. A CPM certification is the practical proof of warrantability that a listing agent can ask a lender to confirm before a building goes under contract.

PERS (Project Eligibility Review Service)

Fannie Mae's manual pre-approval process for new and newly converted projects, and for projects needing an exception. Developers of new towers pursue PERS approval so their buyers can get conventional financing at closing rather than discovering the project is unreviewable.

Investor concentration limit

The cap on the share of units that are non-owner-occupied. When investor ownership climbs past agency thresholds, new purchase loans for investment or second-home buyers are restricted — which is why a building that rents well can become harder to sell.

Single-entity ownership limit

The cap on units owned by one person or entity. One investor accumulating a block of units in a small project can push it over the limit and make the whole building non-warrantable, even though nothing about the individual unit changed.

Commercial space percentage limit

The cap on non-residential floor area in a project. Mixed-use towers with ground-floor retail, restaurants, offices or a hotel component are the ones most likely to trip it — a common outcome in downtown Austin's mixed-use podium towers.

Delinquency threshold

The share of units more than 60 days behind on assessments, generally limited to 15%. It is a direct reading of association financial health, and it is the metric most likely to move month to month, so a project can pass review in March and fail in July.

Reserve study

A professional analysis of the association's long-lived components — roof, elevators, facade, mechanical, garage — with remaining useful life and a funding plan. Lenders increasingly want to see one, and buyers should read the percent-funded figure before the amenity list.

10% reserve requirement

The agency expectation that at least 10% of the association's annual budget is allocated to replacement reserves. A budget without that line, or a reserve study showing severe underfunding, is a leading indicator of a future special assessment.

Deferred maintenance

Repairs the association has postponed. Post-Surfside, agency guidance distinguishes routine deferred maintenance from 'critical repairs' affecting safety, soundness, structural integrity or habitability — and a project with unaddressed critical repairs is ineligible until they are resolved.

Condo project questionnaire (Forms 1076 / 1077)

The standardized Fannie/Freddie forms the association or its manager completes for the lender, covering ownership mix, delinquency, insurance, litigation, reserves and — since the post-Surfside revisions — structural inspections, critical repairs and special assessments. Many deals stall simply because the management company is slow to return it.

Litigation exclusion

Pending or threatened litigation involving the association can make a project ineligible, particularly construction-defect or personal-injury claims that exceed insurance. Minor matters — a small-claims collection action against a delinquent owner — are generally carved out, but the lender decides, not the seller.

FHA condo approval

HUD's project-level approval, searchable in the HUD condominium lookup, that lets buyers use FHA financing with low down payments. Approvals expire and must be recertified, so a building can appear on the list and still be unusable if the approval has lapsed.

FHA single-unit approval

A path allowing an FHA loan on an individual unit in a project that is not itself FHA-approved, subject to limits on how many units in the building may use it plus owner-occupancy and financial conditions. Often the only low-down-payment option in a downtown tower.

Portfolio lending

A bank or credit union originating a loan it keeps on its own balance sheet rather than selling to Fannie or Freddie, so it can set its own project rules. This is the standard workaround for a non-warrantable building — usually a higher rate, a larger down payment, and a relationship requirement.

Non-QM lending

Loans outside the Qualified Mortgage framework, sold to private investors, used for non-warrantable projects, condo-hotels, foreign nationals and bank-statement borrowers. It keeps deals alive at a price, and it is the market that sets the true floor value of a unit in a failed-review building.

Short-term rental permission

Whether the declaration and the city allow nightly rental. It cuts both ways: STR-friendly buildings command investor demand and higher gross income, but hotel-like operation, mandatory rental pooling or a front-desk booking program can push a project outside conventional eligibility and shrink the financeable buyer pool.

Homeowners association (HOA)

The mandatory nonprofit corporation every condominium owner belongs to, governed by an elected board, funded by assessments, and empowered to maintain common elements, enforce rules and place a lien for unpaid dues. In a condo it is not optional and cannot be resigned from.

Master vs sub association

In multi-building or mixed-use developments, a master association covers shared land, garages or amenities while each building's sub-association handles its own. Owners pay both, and lenders review both — a clean sub-association can still be dragged down by a troubled master.

Declaration / CC&Rs

The recorded document that creates the condominium regime, defines each unit's boundaries and undivided interest, designates common and limited common elements, and sets the covenants, conditions and restrictions that run with the land. It outranks the bylaws and the rules.

Bylaws

The association's operating rules — board size and elections, meetings, quorum, proxies, officer duties, budget adoption. Where the declaration says what the property is, the bylaws say how the community governs itself.

Resale certificate

The Texas disclosure package a seller obtains from the association for a buyer, stating current assessments, any special assessment, delinquencies, litigation, insurance, violations on the unit and required fees. It is the single most information-dense document in a condo transaction.

Condo docs delivery period

The contractual window in which the seller must deliver the resale certificate and governing documents. The clock on the buyer's review runs from delivery, and late delivery is a routine cause of extended closings.

Right of rescission

The buyer's contractual right to terminate and recover earnest money if the condominium documents are not delivered on time or if the buyer objects after reviewing them. It is the practical teeth behind the document-review period.

Special assessment

A one-time charge levied on owners for a cost the operating budget and reserves cannot absorb — facade repair, garage waterproofing, elevator modernization, an insurance shortfall. It is the risk that most distinguishes condo ownership from single-family, and it transfers with the unit unless the contract allocates it.

Reserve fund

Money set aside for major component replacement rather than day-to-day operations. Well-funded reserves smooth costs into monthly dues; thin reserves push them into lump-sum assessments at the worst possible moment.

Operating budget

The association's annual income and expense plan — management, insurance, utilities, staffing, landscaping, elevator and life-safety contracts, plus the reserve contribution. Reading two or three consecutive years shows whether dues are keeping pace with real costs.

Dues per square foot

Monthly assessment divided by unit size, the only fair way to compare buildings. A tower with concierge, valet, pool and 24-hour staff will price far above a low-amenity mid-rise, and the gap is a service level, not a markup.

Transfer fee

A charge collected at closing when a unit changes hands, covering the association's or manager's cost to update records and produce documents. Small in dollars, but it belongs in the buyer's closing-cost estimate and is frequently overlooked.

Capital contribution

A one-time payment at closing, often one to a few months of dues, deposited into the association's reserves rather than credited to the seller. It funds the community's long-term capital plan from each turnover.

Master insurance policy

The association's property and liability coverage on the building and common elements. Its form matters enormously: 'bare walls' covers structure only, 'single entity' adds original fixtures, 'all-in' extends further into the unit — and the gap defines what the owner's own policy must cover.

HO-6 walls-in policy

The unit owner's policy covering interior finishes, improvements, personal property, liability and loss of use, sized to fill the gap the master policy leaves. Lenders require it, and buyers routinely under-insure because they never read the master policy form.

Loss assessment coverage

An HO-6 endorsement that pays the owner's share of a covered association loss or deductible assessed back to unit owners. Limits are often left at a token amount when the association's deductible could allocate far more per unit.

Master policy deductible allocation

The rule — in the declaration or by statute — determining who absorbs the association's deductible when a covered loss occurs. Rising deductibles, especially for wind, hail and water damage, have turned this from boilerplate into a real six-figure question for associations.

Common elements vs limited common elements

Common elements (lobby, roof, structure, corridors, garage) are shared by all owners; limited common elements (a balcony, an assigned parking space, a terrace, an HVAC condenser) are common property reserved for one or a few units. The split decides who maintains, repairs and pays for what.

Undivided interest

Each unit's fractional ownership of the common elements, fixed in the declaration and typically allocated by size or value. It drives the owner's share of assessments, insurance proceeds and voting power, and it cannot be separated from the unit.

Parking: deeded vs assigned

A deeded space is real property conveyed with (or separately from) the unit; an assigned space is a limited common element allocated by the association and can sometimes be reassigned. In downtown Austin the difference can be worth a meaningful share of the unit's value.

Air rights

The legally severable right to develop the space above a parcel. It matters to condo buyers twice: the tower they are buying into may have been built on purchased air rights, and the view they are paying for may be erased by a neighbor exercising theirs.

Mixed-use podium

The lower floors of a tower holding retail, restaurants, parking, offices or a hotel, with residences above. It is what makes downtown living walkable — and it is the most common reason a project exceeds the agency limit on commercial space.

Condo conversion

Turning an existing rental building into individually owned units by recording a condominium declaration. Converted projects get extra lender scrutiny — newly converted projects face specific agency requirements around rehabilitation, reserves and presales.

Condo regime declaration

The recorded instrument that creates the condominium under Texas Property Code Chapter 82. In Austin it is also used for detached and small-lot 'condo regime' houses, where buyers own a house but hold it as a condominium unit with an association — a structure that surprises buyers and complicates financing.

Right of first refusal

A declaration provision letting the association or its members match a third-party offer before a unit can be sold. Agency guidelines restrict rights of first refusal that impede free transferability, so an aggressive ROFR clause can itself threaten warrantability.

Rental cap

A limit in the declaration or rules on how many units may be leased at once, often with a waiting list and a minimum lease term. It protects owner-occupancy and financing eligibility, and it directly determines whether a unit works as an investment.

Pet restriction

Rules on number, size, breed and common-area conduct for animals, plus the separate legal treatment of assistance animals. A frequent source of enforcement disputes and a genuine deal-breaker for a large share of buyers.

Estoppel

A written statement from the association confirming the amounts owed on a unit as of closing — dues, assessments, fines, transfer fees. The closing figures come from it, and an error found afterward tends to become the new owner's problem.

Condo-hotel (condotel)

A project operated with hotel-like characteristics — front desk, central reservations, mandatory or optional rental pooling, daily housekeeping. Conventional agency financing generally excludes condotels, pushing buyers to non-QM or cash and defining a distinctly separate resale market.

What’s happening

• The 2021 Surfside collapse permanently changed condominium underwriting. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued temporary requirements for projects with significant deferred maintenance and later folded them into their permanent selling guides, drawing a bright line between routine deferred maintenance and 'critical repairs' that affect safety, soundness, structural integrity or habitability. A project with unresolved critical repairs, an unfunded special assessment for them, or a directive from a regulatory authority is ineligible until the work is addressed — a standard that did not exist before 2021. 2026-08 source ↗
• The standardized condominium project questionnaire was rewritten around structural integrity. The joint Fannie/Freddie forms now ask directly about structural inspections, their findings, critical repairs, and special assessments and their purpose, and associations are answering under scrutiny they never faced before. The practical effect in Austin is that closings now hinge on how quickly and how carefully a management company completes a form, and boards have discovered that a careless answer can freeze sales in their own building. 2026-08 source ↗
• Reserve funding moved from a governance nicety to a financing gate. Agency review now looks for a reserve allocation of at least 10% of the annual budget or a reserve study supporting a lower figure, which has forced boards that historically kept dues artificially low to confront the arithmetic. Buildings that deferred that reckoning are the ones now delivering large special assessments to owners who bought on the strength of cheap dues. 2026-08 source ↗
• Insurance is the fastest-moving line item in association budgets. Property premiums and deductibles for multifamily and condominium buildings have escalated sharply, with wind, hail and water-damage deductibles rising and some carriers withdrawing from the segment. Because the master policy is a common expense, the increase flows straight into dues, and where the declaration allocates the deductible to unit owners it flows into individual claims — making loss-assessment coverage on the owner's HO-6 a live question rather than boilerplate. 2026-08
• Tightened agency standards have pushed more projects into non-warrantable territory. Between the critical-repairs rules, reserve expectations, insurance adequacy checks and the growth of Fannie Mae's unavailable-project list, buildings that financed conventionally a few years ago now fail review. The consequence for buyers is a two-tier market: warrantable buildings trade on conventional rates, while non-warrantable ones depend on portfolio and non-QM lenders whose pricing and down-payment requirements set a visibly lower clearing price. 2026-08 source ↗
• Portfolio and non-QM lending has become an essential part of the Austin condo stack rather than a niche. Local banks and credit unions that hold loans on their own books, plus non-QM originators, are the reason units in mixed-use podium towers, condotels and litigation-affected projects still trade at all. Agents who cannot name a portfolio lender for a given building are effectively unable to represent it. 2026-08
• Special assessments are rising in both frequency and size, driven by the same forces: insurance, construction-cost inflation on facade, garage, elevator and mechanical work, and decades of underfunded reserves now coming due at once. Assessments are also arriving with more transparency, because the revised questionnaire forces disclosure of their existence and purpose, which in turn feeds appraisals and buyer negotiation. 2026-08 source ↗
• Austin's downtown residential pipeline continues to deliver at scale, but the mix has shifted toward rental. Several of the largest recent and in-progress towers in the core are apartment or mixed hotel-office-residential products rather than for-sale condominiums, which keeps genuine condo supply comparatively scarce even as the skyline fills in. For-sale delivery is concentrated in the Rainey Street district, the Seaholm and Second Street area, and a handful of high-profile towers on the eastern edge of downtown. 2026-08 source ↗
• New-tower absorption downtown has slowed from the pre-2022 pace. Projects delivering into higher interest rates and a softer Austin resale market are carrying inventory longer, and developers are competing on incentives, rate buydowns and finish allowances rather than headline price cuts. Standing inventory in recently completed buildings is now a real factor in resale pricing for older units in the same district. 2026-08 source ↗
• Short-term rental rules cut two ways for condo owners. Austin's STR licensing regime, its history of litigation over the city's ordinance, and each building's own declaration jointly determine whether nightly rental is possible — and a building that permits it gains investor demand while potentially losing conventional financing eligibility if operations look hotel-like. Buyers pursuing STR income need to clear the declaration, the city and the lender, in that order. 2026-08 source ↗
• Property taxes and HOA dues together are compressing condo affordability more than the sticker price suggests. Texas has raised the school-district homestead exemption substantially in recent legislative sessions, which helps owner-occupants, but rising assessed values, insurance-driven dues increases and non-homestead treatment of investment units mean the monthly carrying cost of a downtown unit can move materially without the purchase price changing at all. 2026-08 source ↗
• Interest rates reshaped the resale market's composition. Higher financing costs pushed marginal buyers out, lengthened days on market for units above the district median, and increased the share of cash and second-home buyers at the top end. Sellers in buildings with high dues face a double squeeze, because the dues figure enters the buyer's qualifying ratios exactly like principal and interest. 2026-08 source ↗
• The condo-versus-single-family price gap in Austin has widened as detached inventory recovered. Attached product has generally underperformed detached on appreciation in the current cycle, which is a genuine argument for buying and a genuine caution for selling — and it makes total cost of ownership, including dues, taxes, insurance and assessment risk, the honest basis of comparison rather than price per square foot. 2026-08 source ↗
• Condominium regimes are increasingly used in Austin for product that does not look like a condo at all — detached houses, duplex conversions and small-lot infill recorded under Chapter 82 to subdivide land that could not otherwise be platted. Buyers get a house and an association simultaneously, and financing follows condominium rules, which regularly surprises both buyers and out-of-market lenders. 2026-08 source ↗

Questions people ask

What does it actually mean to own a condo instead of a house?

fee title to the air space inside the unit plus an undivided interest in the common elements, and membership in an association you cannot opt out of

What is the difference between a condo, a townhome and a condo regime?

condo is a form of ownership, not a building shape; a townhome can be either fee-simple or condo, and a condo regime can cover detached houses

What are common elements and limited common elements?

define the shared-by-all versus assigned-to-one-unit distinction and use parking, balconies and patios as the examples owners actually argue about

What do HOA dues actually pay for?

list the components — insurance, utilities on common areas, management, staff, amenities, reserves — and say that reserves are the line most often underfunded

What is a special assessment?

a one-time charge levied when reserves cannot cover a capital repair; explain how it is allocated by ownership interest, not by unit size preference

What is a reserve study and why should a buyer care?

it is the association's forecast of component life and funding; explain that its absence is itself a finding

What is a warrantable condo?

define it as a project that passes Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac project review so a conventional loan can be sold to the agencies; the unit is not what is being reviewed, the project is

What is an HO-6 policy and why does my lender want one?

walls-in coverage for what the master policy excludes, plus loss assessment; explain that the declaration decides where the master policy stops

What changed in condo lending after the Surfside collapse?

the agencies drew a line between routine deferred maintenance and critical repairs affecting safety, soundness, structural integrity or habitability, and made unresolved critical repairs a disqualifier; cite the Fannie Mae Selling Guide

What is a resale certificate in Texas and what is in it?

the association's statutory disclosure package under the Texas Uniform Condominium Act; describe what it must contain and that the buyer's review clock runs from delivery

What is a condo-hotel and why do lenders treat it differently?

explain the hotel-like operations test — rental desk, mandatory rental pooling, daily housekeeping — and that it moves a project out of conventional eligibility rather than making it unfinanceable

Is a condo a good investment compared with a house?

answer with the total-cost-of-ownership frame — dues, taxes, insurance and assessment risk against price per square foot — and do not assert an appreciation gap without citing ABoR or TRERC data for a stated period

How is a condo in a mixed-use tower different from one in a low-rise building?

commercial square footage, shared podium systems, hotel or retail co-owners and cost-sharing agreements all enter both the budget and the lender's review

Why can't I get a normal mortgage on this condo?

explain warrantability, investor concentration and the reserve requirement; do not quote a threshold percentage without citing Fannie Mae

How do I find out whether a building is warrantable before I make an offer?

the answer is a lender-run project review plus the association's questionnaire; the agency project lists are lender-facing, so no buyer can look this up from a listing

What is investor concentration and why does it stop my loan?

explain the mechanism — too many units held as rentals shifts the project's risk profile — and point to the Fannie Mae Selling Guide for the current limit rather than stating a percentage

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