Every year, the shareholders of co-op apartments gather together—in their building's community room, or even in the basement in the shadow of the laundry machines, on flimsy chairs that are only used once a year—to discuss their mutual inve…

Sometimes being on the board of a co-op or condo is like being a politician. Fellow residents look to you to solve problems. They can vote for you, or they can choose not to vote for you if you do something they dislike. You feel li…

As the trees start greening and the last dregs of winter ice and slush melt away, it's once more time to turn our collective attention to The Cooperator's annual Co-op & Condo Expo—to be held this year on Wednesday, April 25th on three floo…

Nothing worth doing is ever easy. That rule of thumb certainly applies when it comes to the creation of co-ops and condos. Whether constructing a new building or converting an existing one, it can be a tricky business. The person o…

Thirty-eight of the 400 individuals on Forbes magazine's list of the richest Americans—almost ten percent—call New York City home. All thirty-eight are billionaires. Some of them, like Ralph Lauren and Donald Trump, are household names. Two…

While the real estate market across the country has cooled in general, it's still going strong in New York. The New York City market has always stood apart from the rest of the country, for reasons that everybody here practically knows b…

An old adage of the real estate game speaks of the importance of "location, location, location," meaning that value goes up (or down) depending on where a property for sale is located. The hot 'location' in New York is constantly moving. Al…

East of the busy intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues in Downtown Brooklyn, where the Long Island Rail Road and almost 10 subway lines intersect, one finds, in the shadow of the landmark Williamsburgh Savings Bank building,…

Q In our Queens co-op (containing 68 apartments) we do not allow laundry washing  machines. A few owners have had them from years back, others have recently  renovated and installed washing machines in their apartments.    This cau…

Q Our building is 75 percent shareholders, 25 percent sponsor units (renters). The  sponsor units fall under the Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA) of 1974. My  question is, doesn’t everyone in the building, shareholders and sponsor u…