Running a co-op, condo or HOA is a business, and like most businesses, proper budgeting is the key to financial health. Just like businesses, associations usually have two separate yet vitally important budgets. The first budget is the day…
The words “housing crisis” still have the power to send shivers down the spines of homeowners who are still feeling the effects of the collapse of the market in 2008. That collapse was itself triggered for the most part by the writing o…
Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of the recent recession was the sudden evaporation of credit from major banks and lending institutions. The logic behind it was understandable: too much easy credit had led, in part, to the col…
Even in the best of economic times, preparing a co-op or condo’s annual budget can be a tiresome task, fraught with uncertainty, estimations and shifting numbers. Factor in one of the most harrowing economic downturns in a century, with…
As every board member knows, a realistic budget is essential to the financial health of their co-op or condo. Creating a workable budget is not an easy task: while you can use the current year's budget as a jumping off point, many expens…
It may sound like an oxymoron, but in the world of co-ops there is such a thing as “bad income.” The federal tax code requires that cooperative buildings receive at least 80 percent of their income from their shareholders—usually in th…
Q My co-op has a balloon mortgage that will burst in approximately 5-6 years if not refinanced. We were told that the lender will not allow a refinancing for at least another year, if not longer, and has refused to do one for the past …