In your own household, you have money coming in and money going out. You have things you want to save up for—say, a new cool high-def, flat screen television or the latest iPad. Yet you owe your car company and your creditors. To keep i…
Curb appeal provides that first impression, the attention-grabbing feature that all condominium and co-op properties strive for. In New York City, curb appeal usually starts with colorful flowers or planters out front that may reflect t…
As winter looms, property owners can cut costs and save on their heating bills with preventive maintenance and upgrades to their steam systems. Here are some suggestions for savings from Con Edison. Optimize Steam Piping Syste…
According to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), New York City currently has the largest unfiltered surface water supply in the world. Every day, some 1.3 billion gallons of water are delivered to more than …
In December 2008, the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the United States was in a recession that had started back in December 2007. The official announcement was old news for most Americans. As the dust cont…
Wait a second. You say you bought your apartment, but you don’t own it? Huh?” Explain the concept of the cooperative apartment —you buy shares of a corporation and then rent the apartment to yourself—to a homeowner outside of Ne…
New York is one of the most diverse cities on the face of the earth. Its huddled masses yearning to breathe free include immigrants from places completely unlike the Big Apple: Kazakhstan, Zimbabwe, Uruguay—even North Dakota. There are m…
Most people don’t think much about their garbage after they toss it down the chute or into a container for pickup, but the fact is, removing a multifamily community's trash and recyclables can be a big job, especially in a private devel…
For the most part, human nature is fearful of change; people are more likely to stick with what they have and what they know, rather than explore new possibilities and take on unknown risks. That’s certainly the case with condo and co-o…
As any good co-op or condo building administrator knows—either through common sense or painful experience—failing to clean up snow or ice promptly can result in injuries, acrimony, and expensive lawsuits. Any one of those is reason enoug…