Going green doesn’t have anything to do with choosing a natural paint color for your kitchen, or planting herbs in your community garden. But the phrase can have many different meanings and can be done across a broad spectrum. Turning o…
With the green movement in full swing across the country, it is not surprising that incorporating energy saving and efficient measures has trickled into condominium development. Today, many buildings in the New York area pride themselv…
Blizzards. Ice Storms. Hurricanes. Floods. New Yorkers are used to being buffeted by Mother Nature. But increasingly, it seems, the impact of such storms has lingered long after the weather front blows through, with hundreds or thousan…
Noise is a key quality-of-life problem for almost anyone living in a densely-packed urban environment. Many urban dwellers are immune to it as a result of having lived all their lives in the city—maybe you even grew up next to an elevat…
Insurance is designed to be there for us when we need it most. Without knowing the full extent of our coverage, though, we may find ourselves facing an emergency with less protection than we thought. For shareholders or unit owners, it…
When it comes to insurance, there's more to think about than just premiums and deductibles; on one side, there's insurance fraud—and on the other, there's the insurance that protects you from fraud. Both sides of the equation are import…
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg recently released the New York City Executive Budget for the 2013 fiscal year. While the mayor lauded the $68.7 billion plan as a “balanced budget with no tax increases,” the City Council believes the prelimina…
Next to fire, perhaps nothing is more damaging to residential buildings and their occupants' property then leaks. Whether it’s a torrential deluge from the upstairs neighbor’s overflowing bathtub or a slow, seeping leak around the window…
In the typical suburban condo development, one must go to another location to shop— maybe to the mini-mall, or the big box store down the road. But in New York City co-ops and condos, stores are often found on the ground floor—supermark…
For a crystal-clear picture of how a co-op board or condo association is doing, there are few better lenses than the community's budgets and financial reports. From an investment perspective, they show the association board, property m…