Category: Finance

You’re unmarried, but you want to buy a co-op or condo together. What do you need to know? Will it be difficult winning the board over? How do you plan for possibilities you’d rather not consider, like breakup or death? The decisions you ma…

All board members should be involved in the budgeting process of their building. However, board members come from a wide array of professional backgrounds, and often lack experience managing large budgets and do not know how to effectively …

The numerous, rapid conversions of the 1980s resulted in many cases of sponsor default in the early ‘90s. But as the number of building conversions slowed in the ‘90s, it seems that potential conflict between shareholders and the sponsor ma…

A good treasurer is crucial to the well-being of any co-op or condo. Unfortunately, the position is, without a doubt, one of the most challenging offices to hold. Carl M. Cesarano, CPA, a partner with Cesarano & Khan PC in Rego Park, Queens…

While the real estate market today is going strong, there are still buildings facing financial troubles. Many of these are victims of the collapsed real estate market of the late 1980s and early ‘90s. The market may have dropped after the c…

Vincent DiCeglio worked for the Long Island Lighting (LILCO) company for 24 years as a customer service representative. During that period, he discovered numerous errors on clients’ bills, and felt that consumers could use an outside advoca…

Whether you’re a co-op or condo owner or on your building’s board, you are considered a primary user of the property’s financial statements. As such, you should definitely make it a point to understand what you’re looking at–to not only be …

Many expenses, small and large, are involved in the process of managing a residential building. A majority of these are unavoidable, such as mortgage payments in the case of a co-op, utility costs and payroll; however, when large sums of…

All healthy co-ops or condos possess healthy bank accounts. One way to make sure that financial glow stays bright is to infuse it with extra income, above and beyond the usual monthly fees and payments. There are a number of options for bri…

Quick: the first residential co-op was created in (a) 2000 BC (b) the 1700’s (c) the 1800’s (d) the 20th century. Now, don’t laugh off choice "a," 2000 BC. While there doesn’t appear to have been co-ops quite that far back, there are record…