Every time someone enters or leaves a building, they travel through at least one of the common areas. Multiply that times the number of units in a building and you can get a rough idea of how much faster these areas may wear out than an…
It’s the same dilemma that single-family households across the U.S. are facing: What bills need to be paid immediately and what bills can wait? And should we stretch ourselves thin, taking more out of our bank accounts to pay for privat…
Unless you have a degree in accounting, your first board meeting could come as a bit of a shock. You probably knew board members oversee the finances of the corporation, but who knew there were so many records to produce and filing dea…
The age-old adage from Benjamin Franklin perhaps says it best: nothing is certain but death and taxes. And without some assistance on the legislative front, taxes are likely to increase significantly for New York City co-op an…
In your own household, you have money coming in and money going out. You have things you want to save up for—say, a new cool high-def, flat screen television or the latest iPad. Yet you owe your car company and your creditors. To keep i…
In December 2008, the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the United States was in a recession that had started back in December 2007. The official announcement was old news for most Americans. As the dust cont…
Wait a second. You say you bought your apartment, but you don’t own it? Huh?” Explain the concept of the cooperative apartment —you buy shares of a corporation and then rent the apartment to yourself—to a homeowner outside of Ne…
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…
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…
Money is a topic some people are skittish about discussing. When you’re a board member or the managing agent of a residential co-op or condo building however, there’s no benefit to skirting financial realities just because they may be di…