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…
Consider the story of Dave. He was the treasurer for his co-op, and served the board for just over four years. Dave felt that he'd done a tremendous job—not that anyone ever noticed, much less bothered to thank him. As far as Dave w…
In the early 1990s, thousands of New Yorkers purchased apartments in newly converted co-op buildings; in the early 1990s, thousands of New Yorkers also watched their investments collapse. The co-op market was tanking, equity was at risk …
Cons and hustles are as old as civilization itself. For as long as there have been goods and currency to collect and divide, there have been unscrupulous individuals who are ready to relieve the unwary consumer of their holdings. Banking…
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…
One of the fundamental truths about condominium life is that, eventually, your building will need extra money. A leaky roof, an inefficient boiler, busted pipes, elevators that don't elevate—the list is endless. If your boar…