Whether you live in a condo, co-op, or HOA, board elections are a complicated process, especially when it comes to voting and counting ballots. Yet electing (or re-electing) a board is probably one of the most important exercises the reside…

Timeshares are a mystery to many. What are they really? An investment? A vacation club? Some combination of both that affords an opportunity to have an ‘insider’ vacation with the vague sense of property ownership? The product often seems m…

People often say, “If these walls could talk...”, when considering the variety of experiences that a room  has absorbed over the years and would now relate if it only could. But while talking walls are a purely hypothetical construct, prope…

Overall crime in the 30 largest cities of the U.S. was estimated to be down nearly 3 percent in 2017, according to a recent study by  New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice. For New York in particular, the crime rate…

Attractiveness and so-called ‘curb appeal’ are both vital to a building or HOA’s sense of community pride and overall value. After all, it’s hard to attract prospective homebuyers if your association’s grounds are scattered with litter, the…

While many of the co-ops, condos, and HOAs that struggled to stay solvent during the Great Recession of the mid-aughts have largely recovered, the truth is that regardless of the overall economic climate, there will always be buildings and …

Education, awareness, and cooperation between management, boards, and residents can make a huge difference in deterring crime in and around a building. Some basic behavioral adjustments – such as making sure nobody follows you into the buil…

Cities and suburbs can be dirty places – and unfortunately, getting that dirt off the façade of a building takes more than just a scrub-brush and a bottle of Mr. Clean. How a building is cleaned depends on two factors: what materials the bu…

The sun stays up a little longer, the breezes are warmer, and the flowers begin to bloom. The signs all point to the arrival of spring, when we can cast off the dreary grayness of winter and look forward to blissful summer days. It is the p…

Along with the exterior appearance of buildings themselves, landscaping is the first point of contact for potential residents and visitors to a condo or HOA community. While it’s tough to quantify the effect of beautifully curated and maint…