As the future of the economy remains questionable, the matter of your building’s finances begs the question: Should your co-op or condo board reexamine how you invest your reserve fund? No doubt, this has already crossed your mind, but even…
The side of your residential building is a windowless plane of painted brick that stands ten stories higher than the adjacent co-op, clearly visible from the well-trafficked Queensboro Bridge. The side of the building has deteriorated a bit…
When Irwin Cohen, president of Manhattan’s A. Michael Tyler Realty came on board in 1997 to manage a ten-unit co-op on the Upper East Side, the building was on the verge of bankruptcy. In addition to depleting their reserve fund to pay for …
In the wake of the World Trade Center attack, many boards are re-assessing their building’s security needs and taking steps to insure that their residents and residents’ property are well looked-after. Clearly, a building’s most valuable co…
Here in New York, where real estate values have risen to unprecedented levels, limited equity co-ops created under the Mitchell-Lama program are presented with the choice of either embracing their own dizzying market value by removing the r…
The well-known business guru Peter Drucker once said, "Long-range planning does not deal with future decisions, but with the future of present decisions." This is the basic philosophy professional financial planners use in guiding their …
If someone were to tell you that as a New York co-op or condominium owner you may be throwing away up to $1,000 a year on unnecessary taxes, you’d probably be pretty indignant, right? No matter who you are or what you do, a thousand bucks i…
The time has come to ask yourself some tough questions: Do I find myself constantly sneaking my clothing into my partner’s closet? Am I running out of drawer space because my bureau is overflowing with items I can’t fit into my tiny closet?…
On March 22, 2001, after 53 years of accepting New York City’s trash, Staten Island’s Fresh Kills Landfill received its final shipment. Fresh Kills was originally intended to serve as a temporary storage site, but over 400,000 garbage barge…
In the depths of a New York winter, few things are as uncomfortable and uneconomical as drafty, rattling windows. Icy wind howling around your building is one thing–you can always appreciate the austere beauty of the drifting snow from a co…