There are companies who start at $15K plus charge per unit. Habitat do an annual report around Jan. each year and it lists management companies and their pricing policies not all are listed. $30K is certainly too much for a 20 unit building.

We're in the middle of a search for a new managing agent ourselves. One of them told me the range was usually $500 - $900 per unit. So for 20 units, you ought to be able to find under $30k! We're a 40 unit building and are only looking at agents under $25k (and are finding plenty--based mainly on the Habitat Survey but also from asking around of friends in other buildings and real estate agents, for recommendations).

We maanage a number of coop & condos in the West & East village, our minimum is $1000 per month or $12,000 per year, we are based in the upper west side and would be happy to talk more to you about our serrvices or even come down to meet you and the Board &/or do a walk through of your building and do a free analysis of your buildings standing via NYC permit/registrations/billing etc. Call 212-799-2365 and ask for Carl Borenstein or Jimmy Maistre, we have refrences available for you as well.

This ad sg should be deleted as self serving crap

Obnoxious!

On it. Thanks for noting.

Our apologies. Still working on it. Tech things cropping up.

I'm Mr. Manager in the blog section of the site. The company that I own has a division in the city with an office on Bond Street. If you e-mail me I'd be happy to give you more specifics.

Mark

Try contacting Ira Meister at Matthew Adam Properties, Inc.(212) 699-8900 They do a great job in managing our building and very professional.

Hi Steve,

We use Blue Woods up here in Inwood and they have a 28th Street office too. We like them a lot. Not sure if they have a minimum fee. Call Don Wilson (owner) or our Manager, Justin, to get contact information for that local office at 718-549-7036.

Good lock :)

Call Impact Management
We have a 14 unit coop in NYC. They are great.

Hi Steve
we have a phenomenal company who does terrific management. The company's name is David Eisenstein Real Estate. I know they manage buildings in your area. Our building is 24 units and their fees are very competitive. Give Harry a call at 212-582-9080 and you wont have to look much further!!
If you have any questions feel free to respond.

The purpose of the site is to assist board members with their co-op and condominium building's. I do not believe the site is intended to be used for self promotion or negative statements. Clearly, since no one shares their true identity, Management Firms can promote themselves or make negative comments about other firms. Truly sad and cowardly.

Bren Management is an excellent company. Their number 1-212-681-1602. It just so happens that their president has a video on the front page of this website.

No.

Board members are shareholders in the corporation, right? If you applied your argument to anything financial, the Board would be unable to act. They couldn't set a budget, approve an expenditure, or change the maintenance fee.

Since there was a bike storage fee in the first place, it was the Board that voted it in.
The Board -- any board -- is charged with setting the policies of the business it oversees. If the Board doesn't vote on bike storage policies, there will be no bike storage policies.

On another note, I have to say that it's refreshing to see someone here complaining about a fee being eliminated!

Assuming that the cat lady has owned her cats for a long time, the Board is completely in the wrong. Rent control isn't an issue. Once a tenant has openly owned a pet for three months, there is nothing that can be done, and changing the House Rules doesn't alter this fact.

It doesn't matter when the House Rule was passed; that's a red herring. Otherwise, all a Board would have to do is periodically change the House Rules to allow pets for a couple of months, then change them back and claim that the three-month clock started with the passage of the "new" rule.

http://www.dhcr.state.ny.us/Rent/OpinionLetters/COL-1552.htm

"Where a tenant in a multiple dwelling openly and notoriously for a period of three months or more following taking possession of a unit, harbors or has harbored a household pet or pets, [...] such lease provision [prohibiting pets] shall be deemed waived. ... It shall be unlawful for an owner or his or her agent, by express terms or otherwise, to restrict a tenant's rights as provided in this section. Any such restriction shall be unenforceable and deemed void as against public policy."

Responding to my own response: It looks like there's one provision in the Pet Law that might be of use with someone who has a jillion cats:

http://www.dhcr.state.ny.us/Rent/OpinionLetters/COL-1552.htm

"The waiver provision of this section shall not apply where the harboring of a household pet causes damage to the subject premise, creates a nuisance or interferes substantially with the health, safety or welfare of other tenants or occupants of the same or adjacent building or structure."

Again, this has nothing to do with House Rules. If there's a substantial health or nuisance issue, other protections kick in.

(I'm not a lawyer; please consult your own!)

You are on the right track CDT. You can file a complaint with 311 for unsanitary conditions such as smells, improper disposal of waste etc. They actually send an inspector around to investigate We've had success with this approach as it also gives you a paper trail. Good luck.

Hi,

We have a similar elderly lady in our co-op (she rents) who had many cats. We don't have a rule limiting the number of cats but it was obvious from the smells that she was having trouble caring for them well.

The various 'extra' cats were parceled out to good homes within the co-op and she is down to 3 or 4. I am not a lawyer however my personal opinion is that no Judge would throw out an elderly lady for this rule especially is the cats are being well maintained and existed previously.

Steve

Here's the FDNY page on BBQ's:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/fdny/html/safety/barbeque.shtml

so MUCH fun. you have to love life!

I've locked a few of my clients in during the past winter and we were able to see a significant savings by entering below market. It is a risk to take, but at the very least you are locking in your budget and aren't subject to the fluctuations of the market. I would competitively bid it out between a few companies to see what the market is calling for now. What # oil are you using? Have you also looked into converting to an interruptible gas burner as well?

We currently use #6, and have several requests for proposals for NYSERDA partners to conduct an energy audit and upgrade. The resident board members and owners are for a possible upgrade and energy savings, but have hit strong resistance, sluggishness from the sponsor/managing agent on the entire heating oil process.
If we can realize the savings from the heating budget for the remaining 09 year, the plan is to redirect the savings to further the NYSERDA study and planning.

This is one of the two options, the other was to create an oil bidding program, however the managing agent/sponsor has already dked this idea as not feasibly possible from an operations standpoint on there end.

Thanks for the comments.

Is this a sponsor controlled Board or a Resident Shareholder controlled Board?

With a lock in you are either the hero or the goat.

There is just no such thing as clairvoyance in regard to the price of fuel oil.

What a lock in will do for your building is give you budgetary insurance, no more no less.

As an alternative you may also wish to consider an agreement with your supplier on a cap.

Best of luck.

Our lawyer has told us that the authority to impose a fine for violating the House Rules must come from the Proprietary Lease. A monetary fine is a material term of the Lease, and such terms can only be changed by a supermajority vote of the shareholders, not by the Board acting unilaterally. So you can put a monetary fine in the House Rules, but unless the Board has expressly been given the authority to impose such a fine in the Proprietary Lease, it won't hold up in court.

Also see this Habitat article:
http://www.habitatmag.com/publication_content/habitat_s_purchasing_primer_news_for_new_buyers/house_rules

"The rule of thumb is that boards cannot impose financial obligations on shareholders in house rules. If they want to do so, the financial obligation must be in the lease."

I know that I've taken over a few properties that were either initially self managed or had been playing with that for a while. I think that your ability to self manage will take into account a few different variables. If this is a larger property, the amount of work and detail needed for all of the items that come up (Shareholder/Resident issues as well as financial items) are staggering. You'll need to ensure that the people who are on the Board and willing to do this (assuming you're not hiring a "manager") and will have the time to devote to it.

If this is a smaller building that is less than 30 units, the issues will not come as often but you'll find more detail will be needed in the financial end of managing the property.

Depending on the size of the building that you have, a small or mid-size management firm will be able to give you professional management services form soup to nuts for less than $400 per unit. This small fee is certainly worth the expense to ensure that you are properly managed and are abiding by all of the laws and requirements of the city and state. Although the bigger firms could cost $600 per year per unit, there's no need to go that large for a smaller property.

I am an accountant by trade working with a very large non-union pension fund. My biggest suggestion for you is to make sure you have dual controls over the cash / accounting functions. I would strongly suggest hiring an accountant to handle the cash record keeping (both maintenance collection and bill paying). I use a program called MAS 90 however Quick Books could also work. Then have the Board Treasurer & President (or Treasurer / Accountant) dual sign the checks. You don't want to get into a situation where the co-op shareholders are getting into disagreements over who has control of the cash or worse, missing cash.

Thanks to each of you for taking the time to respond to my inquiry.

We are also looking into self-mang...anyone have any experience with AKAM?
Thanks...

I don't recommend self management, because you always have to make sure the jobs get done. since no one is getting paid they don't feel a strong responsibility to get the job done. The key is to have a very strong and conscientious manging agent that doesn't break the bank...
we are extremely satisfied with our agent.

Who is your Mang agent... We too are changing. Any recomendations welcome. We have about 90 units... Uper-middle income building...
HG

We use The company David Eisenstein Real Estate. They are terrific, down to every detail. All of our requests are quickly responded to, the building is immaculate. We have peace of mind knowing that our building is in good hands. Give Harry a call at: 212-582-9080

Our building is over 400 units and we have been "self-managed" since inception. However we are self-managed in the sense that we hire our own professional staff rather than using a property management firm. To do so we have a dedicated office staffed with two full time employees and a part time bookkeeper.

Our reasons for doing so are several but primarily this type of self-management gives us close control and high quality on-site customer service. We also save some money; however the savings are not significant enough to be the primary reason for our ongoing decision. Our employees are highly experienced in the management and real estate field so we are not sacrificing any quality.

I don't know how large your building is; however if you contemplating self-management by your board of directors rather than directly hiring your own employees I cannot recommend it. For any of you who have read my posts before, you know that I am a strong advocate of using professionals to do a professional's job. I believe that relying on a volunteer board that may change from year to year is a mistake. Successful management of a building requires attention to a myriad of details and no matter how well-intentioned, a volunteer board is more likely to make mistakes and may make decisions for political, rather than logical reasons.

So far our story has been a success but I am open minded. As president for a number of years, I am deeply involved on a daily basis - our manager and I work closely together as a team with me providing the direction and our manager providing the execution and valued advice. Both roles are key and they have to fit together well. Of course I am not irreplaceable, but my successor will need a similar commitment to be successful. If our manager were to leave, I would seriously consider all options, including a professional management firm.

Self-direction provides a level of service and control that you might not otherwise achieve, but it's not for everyone.