What Are the Risks of Buying a Co-op in NYC?

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What are the risks to buying a co-op? We'll discuss this topic in the following video. My name is Chris at Hauseit. Hauseit is the largest For Sale By Owner and Buyer Commission Rebate company in New York City, established 2014.

The first major risk to buying a co-op in New York City is the risk of having a corrupt or inept co-op board. For example, you're in serious trouble if you buy into a building where the co-op board is utterly corrupt and one or more officers or board members are taking kickbacks or illegal referrals from contractors for a large jobs in the building. For example, the typical referral fee can be 25% or more for a job often given in cash. Now, if a co-op board member is receiving a kickback, he or she may not bother to solicit competitive quotes or even multiple quotes and as a result, the contractor who gets the job as a result of the kickback maybe marking up the job significantly.

For example, in New York City and especially in Manhattan, it's not uncommon to see jobs with the 6-figure price tag such as a $100,000 to repair part of a roof. If that is the quote given and the board members do not bother to solicit additional quotes because perhaps of a secret arrangement, well the board member may pocket $25,000 to him or herself and the rest of the shareholders pay up.

Another risk is that the board members are simply incompetent or totally inept for the job. For example, some board members may retain power but they don't speak business English. They may have a simple grasp of English but they simply do not understand anything related to real estate and thus are effectively unable to cover or even respond properly to emails.

Lastly, a less insidious but just as deadly risk is buying into a building where the co-op board is simply lazy. We get it, everyone is busy in New York but this is a typical tragedy of the commons in economic terms that we often see in New York City where board members all slack off in the hopes that one other board member or someone else in the board will take over or spend more free time governing the building.

Another major risk to buy a co-op is having poor building management. Essentially, a managing agent that is corrupt, inept or simply lazy. In this example, just like co-op boards, a managing agent can't be utterly corrupt and accept kickbacks or referrals illegally perhaps in cash from contractors. This means perhaps due to the fact that the managing agent is accepting in illegal kickback or perhaps simply because the managing agent is lazy, the managing agent may not bother to solicit multiple quotes or competitive quotes. The managing agent may simply choose to reach out to the 1, 2 or 3 contractors that he or she already knows quite well just to get an uncompetitive quote from a couple of places and to present it to the board.

In another vain, a managing agent can simply not respond to you even if you are on the board. In this infuriating instance, the managing agent may only respond to one particular officer such as the "President of the board" which for some bizarre reason, the managing agent may feel has authority and even though you are on the board you effectively don't have any power because the managing agent refuses to respond to any calls or emails from you.

Another less insidious but equally dangerous risk to having a poorly managed building is a managing agent that is simply not on top of it and that is lazy or inept and doesn't respond to letters or fines or a notifications from various city agencies in a timely manner. In this case, letters may go unnoticed and fines can wrack up quickly with lots of penalties for lateness and delays.

Another real risk to buying a co-op in New York City is the prospect of having a neighbors who are utterly crazy. Now this can range from neighbors who "power trip" and believe they have the power in the world because they are on the co-op board. In the sense, they do have a tremendous amount of power over shareholders and their day to day life. But you can also face crazy neighbors who have power by virtue of being in the co-op board who simply are petty. Perhaps, you didn't say hi to them properly or with enough enthusiasm in the elevator.

Save 2% When Buying in NYC: https://www.hauseit.com/hauseit-buyer...
NYC Buyer Closing Cost Calculator: https://www.hauseit.com/closing-cost-...
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Hauseit LLC, Licensed Real Estate Broker
Tel: (888) 494-8258 | https://www.hauseit.com
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