What seemed like a good idea \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a two bedroom coop in Brooklyn that would be a weekend place for the next five years, a year round residence thereafter, is now but a failed exercise that has left us $1000 poorer, but a good deal wiser. Two years of open houses, multiple failed bids (10% off asking with an all cash offer), misinformation, and miscommunication ended suddenly when our successful bid made directly to the owner was left unconsummated. The coop board, who accepted pied a terres on a case by case basis, felt this would not be a case. When I asked the board president, what was it about our case that was troubling, the answer was nothing. We have never accepted a pied a terre, and you were not going to be the first. When I asked if they had been misleading, the answer was no \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we review all such requests, and reject all of them. Fortunately, our denial was based on an introductory letter that we had written. This spared us the $1350 in fees, as well as an exacting and total examination of our finances in which our privacy was never guaranteed. Top all that off with a management company whose customer service style would have been more appropriate to selling soup in Manhattan. Ultimately, we learned a lot. Coops are bizarre and arcane real estate instruments that we want nothing to do with. We had received all pertinent documents from our attorney: board minutes that would indicate a narrow minded leadership by individuals not qualified to put together a grocery list. House rules, renovation regulations, inflated mortgages, assessments, and fees upon fees. I am so grateful that the board, in their own misguided way, set us straight and relieved us of this irrational desire to own a second home. And as much as I hate to say it, a buyers broker would have been very helpful in this matter. There is no way they would have allowed six months to be wasted in a deal that had little or no chance to be closed. A commission is to important to waste on such foolishness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What seemed like a good idea \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a two bedroom coop in Brooklyn that would be a weekend place for the next five years, a year round residence thereafter, is now but a failed exercise that has left us $1000 poorer, but a good deal wiser. Two years of open houses, multiple failed bids (10%…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14629,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"schneps_byline":"","schneps_post_style":"","schneps_post_source":"","schneps_syndicated_read_more":"","schneps_post_source_sitename":"","schneps_syndicated_thumb_html":"","schneps_syndicated_thumb_src":"","schneps_post_source_shortname":"","schneps_post_source_url":"","schneps_post_source_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"districts":[],"class_list":["post-47100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-real_estate"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/brownstoner.com\/forum-archive\/2010\/08\/a-failed-search\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"A Failed Search: A Coop Pied a Terre in Brooklyn","url":"http:\/\/www.brownstoner.com\/forum-archive\/2010\/08\/a-failed-search\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.brownstoner.com\/forum-archive\/2010\/08\/a-failed-search\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"Real Estate","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"sjtmd"}],"creator":["sjtmd"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Forum Archive","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2010-08-03T14:18:57Z","datePublished":"2010-08-03T14:18:57Z","dateModified":"2010-08-03T14:50:37Z"},"rendered":"