Linda Salamon of Roslyn, L.I., nabbed one of the recession’s sweeter real estate deals when she bought a $400,000 Lower East Side co-op at 413 Grand Street for $33,000 last May, the Daily News reported. Alas, the Seward Park Co-op board revoked her sale three months later, saying the sale, by auction, ignored the board’s right of first refusal.
Salamon is suing the co-op and Chase Home Finance, which put the apartment on the block after the current occupant defaulted on a $349,600 loan.
As monthly charges for co-op and condominiums continue to increase, many residents are exploring a cheaper alternative called self-management, in place of a super, according to the New York Times. A small percentage of buildings in New York City, most of them with only a handful of units, operate on this system, where residents are responsible for everything from taking out the trash to balancing the books and filing required forms with the Department of Buildings. The amount of money saved through this method can be as much as $750 a month, as is the case in a self-managed 12-unit prewar co-op in Park Slope, where two-bedroom apartments have sold recently for $589,000 and $575,000. As the economy struggles to recover, industry experts have noticed a growing interest in this “do-it-yourself” route. According to Rebecca Poole, the president of Real Estate Management Group, the three-part workshop that she teaches on self-management has started to attract representatives from buildings that are larger than the typical self-managed property. [NYT]
Manhattan residential sales activity picked up for the Corcoran Group in February, according to market data from the residential brokerage. Condominium unit sales
closed by the company increased 9 percent month-over-month, according to the
company’s monthly market snapshot, while co-op sales shot up 23 percent
during that same time period. But while co-op sales prices were able to hold
steady with an approximately 5 percent increase between January and
February, condo prices were 4 percent lower in February 2010 than they were
in the previous month. TRD [more]
An Upper East Side co-op board has managed to complete an $8.5 million refacing project, install $3 million in upgrades, and deposit $12 million into the board’s reserve fund — without raising the residents’ maintenance fee. While this sounds too good to be true, Habitat Magazine explained how the co-op board at 360 East 72nd Street refinanced its underlying mortgage to fund the approximately five-year project, which included numerous improvements, including work to the building’s chiller and elevators, on top of the brick refacing of the building’s exterior.
Co-op and condo boards are looking to cut costs because of the
recession. Carol Carson, board president of a 16-unit walk-up building
in Sunset Park, said maintenance fees should be raised so money can be
added to a reserve fund which would be used for emergency repairs, but
other residents disagree because they cannot afford the increases.
Instead, Silvana Vlacich, president of a 132-unit co-op in Murray Hill,
said that flexibility and re-evaluation is key for saving money. “My
advice is to do your homework on every aspect of your building,”
Vlacich said. “If you’re not getting service from your professionals,
or if your staff is not performing, you’ve got to fix it. Re-evaluate
everything you’re doing.” Attorney Ronald Sher, a partner at Himmelfarb
& Sher, also stresses the necessity of vigilance. “Boards have to
make sure that shareholders and unit owners are current in their
monthly payments,” he said. “Plenty of boards wait months before they
refer arrears to counsel, but boards are going to suffer hardships if
they do that now.” [more]
