2006 Jul
2006 Jul Vol. 26, No. 7
Focus on...Budget & Finance
A Successful Experiment in Living
Nearly 150 years ago, the grounds of Parkchester in the Bronx served as a shelter for New York City’s homeless children. It was a place where kids could learn a trade and get a second chance. Today, Parkchester is enjoying its own second chance, a revitalization befitting of a place that once served as a model of planned community living. Read More
It's All About Trust
Once an estate planning operative for only the rich and famous, trusts are commonly used today to facilitate estate planning for everyone. While empty-nesters downsize and seek out residences that are more maintenance free—such as co-ops or condos—they are also seeking to create an estate plan that insures a distribution of their assets with minimum tax consequences. Accordingly, co-op boards are increasingly faced with requests to approve transfer of ownership of co-op apartments to trusts. What are the ramifications of such transfers, and what should a board do when faced with such a request? Read More
Superbroker
In New York, buying and selling real estate is almost a contact sport. The hours are long, the stakes high, the customers savvy and demanding. In a city of eight million people, there are thousands of real estate brokers, but only an elite handful who successfully operate in the stratosphere, brokering multimillion-dollar deals, managing rosters of super-rich clients, and handling some of the most breathtaking residential properties on the planet with aplomb. Read More
The Color of Money
All of the city services that co-op and condo owners enjoy come with a price and the agency that is generally the keeper of those very large purse strings is the New York City Department of Finance. Read More
Brokers & Bankers
Nearly 100 percent of New York City co-ops have an underlying mortgage of anywhere from a few thousand dollars to millions of dollars. If you own a co-op, having an additional multi-million dollar mortgage hanging over your head might sound like an alarming prospect. You might be surprised to learn that while homeowners generally pay off their own mortgages in 30 years or less, very few co-ops have paid off their underlying mortgage. Because of that, many buildings are forced to refinance when the term of their current loan comes to an end. Co-op board members looking to refinance will then turn either to a mortgage broker or a mortgage banker (or lender) to lead them through the process and obtain the financing they need. Read More
Future World
Most of us don’t like to spend a lot of time contemplating our so-called “final wishes”—we’d much rather leave planning our wills and executing our estates for another day. Uncomfortable as the subject is for many people however, it’s vitally important to make those decisions now, rather than waiting until it may be too late. The issue of estate planning is especially important when it comes to the right of transferring co-op shares or leaving a beneficiary your condo apartment. Read More
Finding Good Help
It is a fairly common situation: The managing agent of a 30-unit condo calls the building’s legal counsel and asks whether the building is required to hire or retain a resident superintendent. Sometimes the building wants to rent or sell the superintendent’s apartment to offset expenses—or perhaps the board believes that there is not enough work to justify hiring and paying a full-time, live-in superintendent. Read More
A Necessary Convenience
Some of the world’s most valuable real estate exists in New York City, and the wealth doesn’t end with residential buildings and office space. In a city with so many people and so little space, a place to park your car can be priceless. Just ask anyone who’s spent half an hour driving around Brooklyn or Queens at night looking for a parking space like it’s the Holy Grail. Because of the subway system and other underground infrastructure, office buildings are rarely allowed to put much parking underneath their property, unlike other big cities where the city insists that buildings accommodate the vehicles of all the people working inside. Read More
Share and Share Alike
They’re the smallest pieces of the co-op puzzle. The one item without which the whole endeavor could not function. Just like in a Fortune 500 corporation, the shares in a co-op reflect value, and can be highly sought-after prizes—depending, of course, on the exclusivity of the address. But for all the talk of shareholders and shares, what do these items really represent, and how do they function? Even co-op owners themselves are sometimes unsure about exactly what it means to own shares, and how those shares are allocated. Read More
Prewar Finances
With all the luxury condos going up in New York City today, many people still maintain a soft spot for the city’s prewar apartment buildings. You’ll see them all around town—on Central Park West and Fort Washington Avenue in Manhattan; on Pelham Parkway and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx; and on Eastern Parkway and Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn. Read More
Maintenance Increase Strategies
The dreaded phrase “maintenance increase” is two words that most co-op owners may not want to hear, but sometimes it is necessary for a building’s board to make the unpopular decision of raising fees. With rising operating costs, fuel and insurance rates climbing, and the need for periodic emergency repairs, raising maintenance fees often is not only a necessity but may even be advisable. Read More
