Co-op and condo boards, together with their professional managers, are responsible for their properties' financial well-being. Every financially-challenged property faces the same perils: an inability to meet ongoing expenses, the consequen…

You've found your dream home at last. However, you don't have those hundreds of thousands stashed away to pay for your new co-op or condo in cash. What do you do? Like most new home buyers, you apply for a mortgage. But as an individual y…

You probably don't think about your building's boiler very often. As long as it provides heat and hot water, it's pretty much out-of-sight, out-of-mind. And when the boiler does need repair, you probably depend on your management company …

Maintaining authority over sales by estates has become a difficult challenge for co-op boards of directors. It is essential for co-ops to be reasonably assured that future maintenance payments will be made and that they will be able to c…

Every day in New York City interior renovation work is taking place that is illegal to a greater or lesser degree. Just because the work looks good, does not mean that it meets Building Code requirements or that it's what the board of di…

If two people have a hard time agreeing on what movie to see, it would seem impossible that the residents of even the smallest co-op or condo building would be able to agree on a color scheme for the new lobby. But that's no excuse for…

How do you take a small kitchen, make it three times as large and make sure that it fits in with the rest of the apartment? Interior designer Gail Green would say very carefully. And that is exactly what she did for one family's kitche…

If you've just moved to a new co-op or condo, you probably feel as though you've been through a living hell. For several agonizing months, you and your trusty broker have schlepped from apartment to apartment in an endless, overwhelming s…

The co-op and condo universe can be divided into two types of properties: The vast majority that engage a professional management firm and those that choose to go it alone. All properties need the services that good full-service managemen…

What can a board do if its building is faced with extensive capital work while recovering from the real estate slump of the early 1990s? Assessments are unpopular and reserves are low. There's a desire to have construction operations com…