Meanwhile, “we knew we would have to sacrifice some things,” said Ms. LeCount, who works in public relations. “So we sacrificed  we didn’t think of the day-to-day lifestyle things we were going to miss.”

They missed them badly. Street parking was so scarce they sometimes had to park five minutes away. Their car got nicked and dinged, so they bought a bumper guard. After shopping for groceries, they often had to double-park their car in front and run their bags inside.

Without a washer-dryer, laundry consumed their weekends, even after they stopped doing it themselves at the laundromat. They scheduled weekend trips around their laundry drop-off. Mr. LeCount stocked up on gym shorts and T-shirts to ensure he would always have clean workout clothes.

Image Liberty Towers in Jersey City had a rental unit available with a balcony. Credit... Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

Worst of all, the building required numerous upgrades. Ms. LeCount, vocal at her first condo board meeting, quickly found herself the board president. She was in charge of fixing the cracked stoop, which was in danger of collapse. It had to be demolished and reconstructed. “Who knew a stoop would be $50,000?” she said. “I had no idea.”

Because the building had no reserve account, the stoop project required a special assessment to each unit. The LeCounts had to take more than $5,000 from their savings.

Fixing the stoop took months. “It totally changed the curb appeal in a positive way,” Mr. LeCount said. But “it was a significant amount of work and very stressful. It really took its toll on us. It caused us anxiety and sleepless nights.”