In most cities, traditionally, the choicest pieces of real estate are owned by native sons and daughters, people who are from the area. Money comes in from everywhere, but the entrepreneurs making that money are homegrown. Heinz and Carn…
The “Green Movement” has quickly gone from fad to trend to global initiative. In the U.S., corporations as well as commercial and residential property owners are being challenged to find ways to embrace ‘Green Initiatives’ in response to…
A good redesign of an outdated, obsolete, or run-down common area in your co-op or condo building can be a thing of beauty. Spiffing up a lobby, hallway or elevator can not only inspire residents to take more pride in where they live, bu…
It’s difficult to plan a budget for your building—and, more importantly, to stick to it—if problems arise that your board/management team haven’t anticipated. Maintenance issues and structural crises aren’t just inconvenient surprises; i…
Monthly charges, including common charges, emergency repairs, lawsuits, assessments, maintenance fees, dues and so forth, are a big part of owning a co-op or condo in New York City. When an owner is late, or misses monthly payments entirely…
For almost a year now, we have been hearing more and more about the subprime mortgage crisis. Subprime mortgages are mortgages that banks sell to borrowers whose problematic credit ratings do not allow them to get mortgages at better rat…
Carrying on The Cooperator's popular series of "roundtable" discussions for professionals in various disciplines of the city's residential real estate industry, a group of representatives from the worlds of co-op and condo law, finance a…
In any business—whether it's a flower shop or a gas station—there are those who have more dollars to work with, and those who have fewer. It's the same for co-ops and condos. New York is home to a seemingly endless variety of residential…
Most people would rather not talk about divorce or death. Unpleasant as they are however, they're both facts of life—facts that any apartment owner must face up to and plan for. In the case a co-op or condo apartment, a thorough, legal…
Most co-op buildings carry an underlying mortgage—the cost of which is paid for each month by shareholders as part of their maintenance fees. Quite often, a co-op corporation will seek to finance a major project or building improvement b…