Question for co-op owners

300 square foot studio.

maint is 250 a month.

fully restored brownstone in ps...

Posted by: guest at May 29, 2008 9:32 PM

490sf studio (no amenities), maint just went up to about $550 (was only about $420 when we bought it 10 years ago). We've been hit with about $10k in assessments in the last 6 years, though and another $5k or so coming due within the next year.

Posted by: guest at May 29, 2008 9:48 PM

ours is a 12 unit coop in park slope. each unit is about 1500sf and maintenance was just raised to $800/mo ($0.53/sf/mo). no doormen, no underlying mortgage

Posted by: guest at May 30, 2008 8:30 AM

Brooklyn Heights, 30-unit coop, 1150 square feet, $1350 maintenance, so $1.17/sq ft. No amenities besides p/t doorman and basement storage, no assessments in five or six years and that one was less than $1K. Maintenance has gone up due to fuel costs but board is discussing charging a winter-months-only fuel surcharge instead of another maintenance increase.

Posted by: guest at May 30, 2008 9:07 AM

875 sq foot in South slope. No ammenities, maintenance is $558 with 50% taxes.

Dont forget how much is tax dedutible, that will tell you how much actually goes to the maintenace of the building versus property tax.

Posted by: guest at May 30, 2008 9:41 AM

There is really no meaningful comparison. Especially for old builidngs.

First, whether the building has a mortgage, and how large, is going to be a determinative factor in how large the maintenance is, and the mortgage payment can make up a large portion of the maintenance, or not. In Brooklyn, the size of the underlying mortgage tends to be smaller if the building was cooped early (early 80's), as buildings cost less then. But the coop may have taken out a larger mortgage inbetween then and now, and have a larger mortgage as a result, even if an older coop.

Second, the price of oil, gas, water & sewer, electricity, insurance, and all other things the building has to pay for (except perhaps real estate taxes - don't know about that) are not cheaper in Brookyn than in Manhattan.

Third, a building with doorman, super, other staff, and a managing agent is going to have more expenses than a brownstone (or other small walk-up) with some, or none, of those expenses.

Lastly, an old building always needs a lot of repair and maintenance. How much varies building by building - depending on (1) whether needed work was deferred and you are doing a lot of catch-up, (2) whether the current owners want to spend to catch up with needed work, or defer it further, and (3) the quality and expense of the work you have done when you do it - do you hire good, insured contractors, or cheap ones?

Oh, whether the building passes assessments, or has a flip tax, also matters. Essentially, coops decide to pay their expenses by balancing the five sources of funds available to them, and different coops do it differently: (1) maintenance, (2) mortgaging the building, (3)assessments, (4) flip taxes, and (5) other fees (for subleting, storage units, etc.) Some also earn by investing the reserve fund.

Keeping your maintenance in the competitive range for resales is a good idea, but a savvy buyer will also look at the maintenance in conjunction with the size of the underlying mortgage, the reserve fund, the building's recent history of assessments, and the condition of the building (how much work has been deferred.) Some would rather pay a higher maintenance for a building kept in good shape, just as others pay higher for a doorman and elevator. It really depends more on how expensive the apartments are - what the resale market looks like for YOUR building.

Posted by: guest at May 30, 2008 10:12 AM

40 unit bldg in Park Slope. I have a 1200 sq ft place and pay 1100, but maint can run from .80 to 1.20 psf depending on floor and location of apartment (front-facing, top floor apt is 1.20 psf).

This is an elev bldg with live-in super and no other amenities. We have a 150k reserve fund which is low-ish (or so I'm told -- IS THAT TRUE?), no assessments ever, but we've had maint increases every year lately due to utilities rate and property tax hikes. No majoe work expected.

I'm interested in the BH bldg's winter fuel surcharge idea -- any thoughts about how much that will run you guys?

Posted by: guest at May 30, 2008 10:19 AM

950-1000 sq ft in Ditmas Park. Maint around 700, which is expensive for the area. 80 unit building, has mortgage, no other amenities.

Posted by: guest at May 30, 2008 10:44 AM

BH poster here responding to 10:19. Hoping the fuel charge will come in between $50-60/month per apt for Nov-Mar. The board is reviewing the fuel bills for the last three years to get an idea of average usage, last winter being too warm to use as the standard.

Posted by: guest at May 30, 2008 11:16 AM

We pay $1.22/sf maintenance in our 8 unit, self-maanged, brownstone co-op. Our RE tax is highish as the building was co-oped in 1989. There are no real services or amenities but my apartment is great and the location is fantastic.

Posted by: guest at May 30, 2008 1:07 PM

We pay $1.05 psf for 10-unit walk up. Heating oil is killing us, though. I'd not worry too much about competitiveness if you're running a deficit and eating into your reserve fund, as we had started to do.

Your first obligation is to remain a going concern. I think buyers would be more worried about a building showing a deficit than about one with high maintenance but a balanced budget or slight surplus.

Posted by: guest at May 30, 2008 10:33 PM