Building a successful enterprise from the ground up requires dedication and commitment from dozens, if not hundreds, of people. That’s certainly the case with the creation of a new co-op or condo community, entities that are just as much…
The co-op we owned was a huge brick pre-war building. Three of its sides were either attached to other buildings or sealed off by high barbed-wire fencing. The only way into the building was the front door, and that meant going through …
Common areas are among the most heavily trafficked places in your building or community, so it’s no surprise that these areas are prone to a great deal of damage and wear-and-tear over time. But regular upkeep, scheduled maintenance and…
We’ve all heard the expression about the importance of “putting your best face forward.” It holds true for the building industry as well—though in that case, “putting your best façade forward” might be more accurate. All puns aside,…
Few things illustrate the fragility of modern civilization more clearly than plumbing problems. A broken pipe, a backed-up toilet, a flooded bathroom—any one of these can quickly go from annoyance to emergency, and the longer a plumbing…
Technological applications to residential building life are becoming more prevalent, and in some cases, they’ve even become more affordable than in the past. An “intelligent” building is able to monitor its environmental, mechanical, and…
During the day, J.R. “Sankarasivam” Jeyaranjan works 40 hours a week as a bank risk manager. At night and on weekends, and during pretty much any spare time he has, Jeyaranjan is president of his Jersey City co-op’s board of directors, …
Q We are an adult community consisting of a complex of three separate buildings. Ten directors make up the officers and manage the community with each individual condo building managed by three trustees. The community has no Alternativ…
Conventional wisdom holds that if you have to have neighbors, you’re better off living next door to owners than renters. By definition, owners have a stake in their building, and are supposedly better neighbors. They are cleaner, quiete…
Sometimes, no matter how much it may pain us to do so, we all have to say or do unpleasant things. That can certainly be the case for co-op and condo board members, most of whom will one day face the dreary prospect of raising maintena…