Insurance is cyclical; there are hard markets and soft markets, and insurance companies typically make money in two ways: underwriting profit, and investment income. When the market is soft, insurance companies are looking for market share,…
Q. The 40-year-old, chain smoking, son of a shareholder lives with his parents and is not allowed to smoke in his apartment or in our co-op. Instead, he loiters directly below my apartment windows, and only below my window, and smokes alm…
Q. If unit-owner insurance policies are supposed to be approved by a co-op board, what assurances are there that the individual board members have the necessary technical background in this area to assess each policy? As a practical matte…
Q. We have a board made up of five members. All five members agreed that switching to new building management was warranted. Research was conducted for seven management companies. Two were selected, and one out of the two was voted on by …
The governing documents of a housing development—be it a cooperative, condominium, or homeowners association—spell out the rules, regulations, and policies that all unit owners or shareholders are obligated to follow as a condition of their…
Like so many other sectors of the economy, residential real estate management has changed and evolved since the turn of the millennium—and like those other sectors, much of that evolution is directly linked to the development and adoption o…
Despite the best intentions of board members, residents, and even managers, co-op and condominium properties don’t always run like well-tuned machines. Sometimes they hit a bump in the road...and sometimes they break down completely. The re…
Of all the skills a good property manager must possess, conflict management is high up on the list. Not just knowing how , but when to step in (or not) is part and parcel of helping boards and residents maintain harmony and quality o…
Owners looking to make a killing on their apartments are getting a cold splash of reality, according to a recent report from Marketproof. While sales prices in the NYC market have indeed increased by some 43% since 2006, in many cases, sell…