2020
Protect & Defend – Fortifying Your Building’s Financial Plans in the Ongoing Pandemic
As co-op and condo administrators work to draft and ratify their 2021 budgets, there will be some difficult decisions to be made – and the stakes have rarely been higher. View this in-depth panel discussion to get professional guidance and advice on how to navigate the maze of these decisions, get a better handle on potential budgetary pitfalls, and keep your financial ship from swamping under YOUR watch. Watch now…
Capital Contributions
Making sure your building’s finances present well can be challenging in the best of times. But doing so in the COVID-19 era adds a layer of complexity. Read more…
2016
The Seven Steps After You’ve Read the Monthly Management Report
Habitat Magazine gets the low down on “The Seven Steps After You’ve Read the Monthly Management Report” from a variety of competent professionals. Read more…
Reading the Management Report: the More Eyeballs, the Merrier?
Habitat Magazine reveals how legal/financial problems are solved by NYC cooperatives and condominiums. Read more…
Keeping Legal Costs Down
From time to time, an association or co-op must consult with an attorney about things like lease negotiations, dispute settlements and contract reviews. It’s important to have a qualified attorney or law firm on your side but that doesn’t mean a board-management team can’t save money on those notoriously steep legal fees. Read more…
Can it Wait?
With the economy moving back toward a more robust state, building administrators are still looking for ways to save money in an increasingly competitive real estate market. Read more…
2015
Planning for the Future
Some boards may not realize that many of those fires might have been preventable in the first place had board members made the smart investments, and took the time to plan. Read more…
How to Upgrade Your Building’s Retail Space to Market Rate
Habitat Magazine shares “How to Upgrade Your Building’s Retail Space to Market Rate.” Read more…
Argo Real Estate’s Annual Treasurer’s Breakfast
2014
Budgeting and the Bottom Line
A well-defined, well-written budget is a powerful financial tool allowing funds to be saved and/or allocated for specific costs and projects; budgeting is a way to estimate expenses and allow for those funds to be available when needed. Read more…
Steps a Co-op or Condo Board Can Take To Protect Your Building’s Funds
Habitat Magazine illuminates the “Steps a Co-op or Condo Board Can Take To Protect Your Building’s Funds.” Read more…
Bank on It!
Administrators need to keep their operating funds both safe and accessible, and also take care of their reserve and operating funds. Read more…
2013
At Press Time
How to Create a Five-Year Capital-Improvement Plan
The first step when creating a capital plan? Define a capital expense. Many people think of it as something that’s not recurring. Read more…
Argo Real Estate held its third annual Treasurer’s Breakfast at The University Club in Midtown Manhattan.
Argo Real Estate held its third annual Treasurer’s Breakfast at The University Club in Midtown Manhattan. Nearly two dozen attendees gathered for a discussion on the essential elements of the budget process. Read more…
Should Co-op / Condo Boards Create a Five-Year Capital-Improvement Plan?
Why go to the trouble — and possible liability — of crafting a plan? After all, long-range planning is never easy. Given such unpredictable recent history as 2007’s economic downturn and the costly rebuilding from super-storm Sandy, projecting a capital-expenses budget even five years out seems more a matter of crystal balls than of silicon chips. Read more…
Tax-Abatement Assessment: What to Do When Not Everyone Gets Abated?
By 2014-2015, the abatement phase-out for non-owner-occupied apartments will be over. But there is still something else to consider before then: What should co-ops do about that assessment that has traditionally been levied — the one that is equal to the abatement? Read more…
Losing on Tax Abatement when NYC Falsely Calls You Not Primary Resident
Out of the 536,746 condo and co-op units in the city, about 366,000 unit-owners are eligible for the tax abatement, reports the city. The rest are excluded for a variety of reasons. Out of that number, the Department of Finance labeled 120,000 as occupied by “non-primary” residents. Read more…
2012
By the Book
Unless you have a degree in accounting, your first board meeting could come as a bit of a shock. In other words, you’ve got to know what’s in the books and reports of the corporation. Read more…
Inventory Control
Regardless of whether you live in a co-op or a condo, or whether your community is a small, self-managed one or a sprawling development with hundreds of units managed by a professional property management company, there is or very well should be a system of checks and balances in place to help the administrative side of the operation run smoothly. Read more…
Insurance Fraud!
When it comes to insurance, there’s more to think about than just premiums and deductibles; on one side, there’s insurance fraud—and on the other, there’s the insurance that protects you from fraud. Read more…
Fannie Mae Guidelines for Buying Selling
For all the challenges, there are eight steps condo and co-op board members can take to make their buildings more attractive to lenders, ensuring that their residents won’t run into unexpected roadblocks when they try to sell or refinance. Read more…