As the 2012 federal legislative fiasco over the debt ceiling—as well as any number of other spending bills proposed since then—demonstrated, balancing a budget can be like pulling teeth. Balancing a condo or HOA community's budget can some…
Preparing the annual budget is by no means an easy task. Those charged with preparing cooperative, condominium or HOA budgets will soon begin reviewing costs, gathering data and projecting expenses for the coming year. Communities, busines…
Matters of finance are difficult enough without the added stress of worrying about whether that deal you thought might be too good to be true is—in fact—too good to be true. With the onset of the recession and the revelations surrounding l…
Think back to when you were younger and got your first job. You worked your hours—perhaps flipping burgers, taking orders or cutting the grass—and then earned your first paycheck. You went to the bank, signed the back and had it cashed and…
Even before the economic meltdown and the media storm swirling around the thievery of money men like Bernie Madoff, financial mismanagement and fraud have been destructive problems for many co-op and condo owners. A co-op or condo is…
You always want to feel safe in your home, but as the past few years have proven, you never know when a major calamity or weather disaster is going to strike. While most of New York City proper wasn’t hit as hard by Superstorm Sandy as som…
If you own a co-op or a condo, it goes without saying that you want to make sure you get all the tax credits and abatements available to you. One of the most important of those is the New York State School Tax Relief Exemption—more commonl…
Running a co-op, condo or HOA is a business, and like most businesses, proper budgeting is the key to financial health. Just like businesses, associations usually have two separate yet vitally important budgets. The first budget is the day…
With natural disasters causing catastrophic property damages becoming more common, associations must be prepared for unexpected expenses, such as a major roof repair, or the installation of a new heating and cooling system. These major cap…
These days, just about everyone is cutting back on spending, either to make ends meet, saving for something special or a rainy day, paying off debt or funding their retirement. Consumers are cutting coupons, looking for deals and keepin…