I live in a single family home, but I have sold a lot condos. And despite the fact that each provides us a way and place to live, they are really two different animals. Without going into too much depth about the differences in ownership and financing (which are significant), the main difference is in […]
Originally written February 2018 · updated June 2026.
I live in a single-family home. But I’ve sold a lot of condos — and despite the fact that both give you a place to live, they’re really two different animals.
I’ll skip the deep dive on the ownership and financing differences (which are significant). The one I want to talk about is this: how a condo gets valued — especially against its own neighbors in the same building.
Quick example: Ginter Place offers city-skyline views from the southeast corner above the 7th floor. A factoid like that isn’t trivia — it’s the whole ballgame when you’re pricing one specific unit.
The single hardest part of valuing a condo is putting a number on the view and the position within the building.
Think about your last hotel stay. You pay the same base rate as everyone else for the room type — king vs. queen, smoking vs. non. But where that room sits changes everything. Next to the elevator? Third floor staring at the trash bins? Wedged by the ice maker or the fire exit? Now flip it: 18th floor, river side, sun setting over the water. You feel like you won the lottery.
Condos are the same. In the Vistas, the NW corner is generally the most coveted, with the SW a close second — and you can read a unit’s position right off its unit number.
It makes a difference. A big one.
Unlike a hotel, every condo unit is priced individually — and assigning value to all the little pluses and minuses is genuinely hard. (Some aren’t so little: the Gotham requires a Fannie Mae variance because of the percentage of commercial space in the building. The right agent knows that going in, and what it does to value and financing.)
The honest answer: it’s part science, part art, and part experience.
The Science. We use what we call ratio pricing — mapping how prices relate across different sides, floors, and views. Read the data right and you start to see the premium each element commands. (Why the details matter: The Reserve is two buildings — one has its taxes abated, one doesn’t. That’s not a footnote, that’s real money.)
The Art. As a buddy of mine who sells homes in the Outer Banks likes to say, a view is worth whatever someone’s willing to pay for it. Once you know what to look for in the numbers, you develop a feel for the gap between the east side, the west side, the river side, and the city side.
The Experience. We’ve been lead sales agent on close to 20 condo projects, so we know what each one actually offers — finishes, parking, dues, financing, management, amenities. Knowing that the Emrick Flats has only 14 garage spaces and 6 lot spaces for its 25 units — and that only 5 units have private decks — changes how you read every comparable sale there. Or that the Decatur is just 4 units, which means it’s financed differently than a 5-plus-unit building, and every unit is unique enough that comps get tricky fast.
Every kind of home takes real expertise to represent well. But nowhere is it more true than condos. The variables are endless, and frankly, MLS data does a lousy job of capturing the differences.
Every agent has a specialty. Condos are ours. Let us help you actually understand the market.
Rick
