The NY Times cited a traffic study a year or so ago. Study highlighted areas that would be prone to gridlock due to AY. Atlantic Avenue - all the way to the water - was listed as part of the gridlock zone. Anyone that thinks that AY is only going to impact a small area around the construction is unfortunately very, very mistaken.

Oh, and about the house. Beautiful. But stand on Clinton at rush hour and listen to the horns. Parking lot. Doesn't bother some people. Me, it would.

Posted by: Johnny at August 13, 2007 7:39 PM in response to House of the Day: 197 Clinton Street

Once your rents are collected - as they are today - how much are you paying for your living space, including taxes, heat and operating costs for the house? How much would it cost to rent something similar? How much would it cost to buy a similar size/condition apartment?

Posted by: Johnny at August 14, 2007 11:38 AM in response to Rent Stabilized

I think they made some very intelligent choices on space - which admittedly there isn't much of. The galley kitchen is the best of a bunch of not-optimal ideas. The wraparound breakfast. . . thingy is a nice feature. And aestheticallly, it's clean, modern and tasteful. Not saying that it's worth the money but we've seen a lot of crappily finished places equally as agressively priced.

Posted by: Johnny at August 15, 2007 11:00 AM in response to Co-op of the Day: 786 Washingon Avenue 1BR

My State Farm policy is less than 2k a year. Replacement value with mid-level deductable on 3 floor 2 fam.

Have to admit, I don't understand how market value even comes into play when buying insurance since you'd never be replacing the land under your house. The worst case is a complete rebuild - i.e. replacement cost, which most insuance companies should be able to estimate. Although I could imagine some folks would sleep better bumping that number.

Posted by: Johnny at August 16, 2007 11:27 AM in response to Townhouse Insurance: Bending Over for the Soap

One, ignore the idiots. There's plenty of horror stories and there's even more examples of things running smoothly.

Two, there's a formal letter that is used to notify folks that you're not renewing their lease. use that and hand it to them personally. However, the letter is incredibly impersonal and legal. When I used it I explained that this was a standard practice and to please forgive the harsh wording.

Three, giving them two months notice formally - and perhaps more if tenants have been there a long time - is a nice thing to do. Legally you have to give 30 days to the end of the following month. i.e. if you give the notice to them Sept 2nd, they have til the end of the month that 30 days gives them - Oct 31 in other words. But if you give it to them on August 31, they'd be required to leave no later than September 30.

Good luck and enjoy your new home!

Posted by: Johnny at August 16, 2007 7:20 PM in response to Getting rid of a tenant

You can make it work. Narrow spaces are tougher to deal with than wider (duh) but not certainly impossible. Just have to be creative - and it's a good excuse for a flat panel TV or 3 ;-)

Apt. and also Boconcept have some interesting, cheap and small furniture if you dig modern. Good luck!

Posted by: Johnny at August 20, 2007 3:49 PM in response to Narrow Space Living

A deck takes, literally a day to assemble. By the time you get reported it'll be up . . . not that I would know anything about this kind of behavior. I read it somewhere.

Posted by: Johnny at August 20, 2007 6:26 PM in response to Somebody to build an external balcony

I have the top two floors with one rental on garden and basement floors. Prior owner took out the stairs between my unit and rental so both benefit from extra room and privacy . . . I think.

We share the garden but I access it off my deck. A great setup for me and tenants.

Posted by: Johnny at August 21, 2007 6:52 PM in response to WHAT IS BETTER?

Having a similar issue, componded by the fact that prior owner built a permanent floor in the finished basement so I can't see where the leak is coming from.

Got a LOT of wrong prumbing advice and was told by a contractor that installing a patio in the back would solve the problem. $4700 to Buscarella later, I still have water and I'm still waiting for them to finish their work. Classy bunch.

my problem is that there's a drain under the permanent floor connected to the sewer line. The storm drain connects to the sewer line as it leaves the house. When the rain is torrential, rain water backs into the sewer line as far as the drain under the floor and comes out of it. Found my way to Sessa Plumbing and they're installing a one-way valve on the sewer line which will (please god) solve the problem.

Not cheap, but highly professional, responsive and were able to diagnose and, come Tuesday, hopefully fix the problem. I'm going to write a full review but so far, Sessa's been the one bright spot in the process.

John

Posted by: Johnny at August 22, 2007 5:08 PM in response to Water coming in the basement

A stadium the size of Madison Square Garden, more housing units than Battery Park City and several million square feet of retail space, all built in what's already one of the most congensted parks of the city, and built with my tax dollars to the betterment of a single developer.

Supporting a development of this size in that location is one thing, having our tax dollars pay for roughly 50% of it is entirely another. I oppose Atlantic Yards vehemently. I'd welcome appropriate development with open arm and with an appropriate amount of tax dollars. Unfortunately thanks to a lot of ignorance and political corruption that won't happen.

Posted by: Johnny at August 24, 2007 8:02 AM in response to House of the Day: 407 Vanderbilt Avenue

Get the block and lot # and check the building on ACRIS. That will tell you how many of your fellow shareholders have mortgages or home equity loans and also the building's mortgage; if any of the mortgages were taken out in the past few years (and with the huge drop in rates in 2003-2005 the building *should* have refinanced their mortgage, unless they're about to pay it off). ACRIS will show the total face value of the building's mortgage, as well as the face value of recent sales in the building.

Also get your lawyer to check to see if there has been any litigation about the building (again, only the legal name of the co-op is needed). You can find out a lot of info about the building from public sources, but let me echo the comments above about getting the original offering book (please don't meditate on the prices).

I wouldn't worry about the absence of a hot water tank. Tankless hot water is supposed to burn less fuel, although I don't know about that.

But most of all be prepared to get on the board and start handling all the affairs of the building itself. Any small building you're really doing to have to consider yourself an owner.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 4:00 PM in response to Advise Needed - Co-Op

don't disagree with any of the above. one addendum: try to find out why this place is (seems to be) mismanaged. are your business partners -- that's who the other shareholders are -- just not up to self-management, or are there 'trouble-makers' like 3:42 describes who are causing the problem (perhaps unconsciously)?

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 4:01 PM in response to Advise Needed - Co-Op

4:01,
i agree completely, my biggest question is how to find out if it is mis-managed, or there are troublemakers, our lawyer today was able to get us in touch with the board president(without going through more lawyers or agents) finally a human to human conversation (sorry lawyers but you know your not human already), but still without those financials his word isn't much.

anyway thanks everyone, hopefull good news to come after talking to board pres.

Posted by: steve37 at May 9, 2008 4:08 PM in response to Advise Needed - Co-Op

Our small co-op is in sort of the same boat. Good reserve fund, but heating oil is killing us. We've run a deficit last 2 years and jacked maintenance 15% (to $1 psf). Also, we keep lousy minutes, mostly because there are only 5 of us and we've agreed to do things on consensus/ad-hoc basis. (Except for maint. increases and capital improvements).

I wouldn't be too concerned. If the underlying mort. is as low as you say, and the reserve is around $100k, you should be fine. But, if you're uncomfortable with the lack of info., you should walk away or demand to have your lawyer review a few years' audited financial statements. Those are required and a skilled lawyer can read between the lines to find any red flags.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 4:26 PM in response to Advise Needed - Co-Op

OK just made contact, good and bad news, seems like a few folks are just happy to be a bit lazy and don't take things to seriously, that's the good news, financials to come.
Bad news is reserver fund has fallen below 10k,
.
PLace doesn't need any work beside the boiler thing, but with next to nothing in the bank, how scared should i be?

Posted by: steve37 at May 9, 2008 5:06 PM in response to Advise Needed - Co-Op

If the reserve fund is 10K, and all the building's debt is 10K, if you paid off the mortgage with the reserve fund you'd have condo financing. Condos function witout reserve funds, after all.

Isn't there a budget prepared by an accountant? co-ops are NY corporations, they have to have at least one annual meeting a year at which financial reports are presented.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 5:41 PM in response to Advise Needed - Co-Op

If the building has only 10,000 mortgaged, where is the 46, 000 that is coming in going to? Heat doesn't cost THAT much. I don't see how the building could be running at a loss. Check ACRIS.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 7:01 PM in response to Advise Needed - Co-Op

Run dude. Only $10k in the bank? What if you need a roof. $10k doesn't cover that. What if the boiler busts? $10k will not cover that.

The building can't be THAT great that you'd still be talking on this blog about it. Get the fuck out of there.

Posted by: guest at May 9, 2008 10:53 PM in response to Advise Needed - Co-Op

I agree with 10:53.

I'm not sure why you're still listening to your attorney. If you are still unsure, you should get out now. Is your attorney going to live there? Of the small amount of information you got so far, the 10K mortgage is the only good thing.

Questions:
Is your 40% downpayment going to create a reserve fund? Is the party you're buying from paying a flip tax - Is THAT going to fund the reserve? Has the co-op imposed any special assessments? After your 40% tax deduction, where is the other 60% going - is it funding the reserve???

I think you get my drift. Having no reserve is not a good thing. Some co-ops impose assessments rather than raising the maintenace, since an assessment is immediate and maintenance is for the longer term. But since this place has no reserve fund and there are people living there for over 30 years, the co-op probably doesn't want to assess someone on a fixed income.

My last question: Since there is no reserve, the maintenance just went up, there probably won't be an assessment and the co-op has not refinanced, where is this co-op going to get a large amount of cash from quickly?

Posted by: ms sandy at May 10, 2008 2:19 AM in response to Advise Needed - Co-Op

OK the reason we are talking now, is because this is our dream place, exactly what we asked for the first day we went into the brokers office 2 months ago, we have seen tons of places and this is the one that fit's us perfectly.
the part that doesn't fit us perfectly is that i believe i am a smart business person, and buying into a poorly run business is not the best choice, however a place like this might be worth a little extra effort.
and my attorney is the one who raised the red flags, why wouldn't i listen to that? isn't that what we pay them for, to find out all possible problems with the prospectus and contract.
the only good thing is that the roof is a few years old and in good condition, boiler although inefficient is in good working order.

anyway thanks for all your responses, we are going to renegotiate our offer to reflect all the details left out. if they say no, oh well, and if they say yes, buying into a troubled business is not as bad of an idea.

Posted by: steve37 at May 10, 2008 9:37 AM in response to Advise Needed - Co-Op