passatdoc
Well-known member
@henene4 and general co-op discussion
Ventless dryers: auch Bosch in USA. Letzter Oktober war ich in einem Wohnung-Hotel in Berlin----mit Bosch Waschmachine sowie ventless dryer. Habe Persil (Color Megaperls) in Rewe natürlich gekauft. ("da weiss man, was man hat....").
Re: co-ops. My mother is a broker in Manhattan and sits on the board of her building. She has seen it all: people being turned down for not having the right club memberships, interracial couples being turned down, etc. She puts her clients through mock interviews to prepare them for board interviews. As stated earlier, you can't bring an attorney or realtor with you to the meeting. It's just you (and, as Laundress stated, sometimes the family dog).
As Launderess stated, in some cases the board simply performs "due diligence" (i.e. can you really afford to live there and share the costs of running the building), but it's also correct to say that some (not all) boards go way beyond this to perpetuate social, religious, and racial bigotry/snobbery. The "board package" is very intrusive. It's taken for granted that either you are buying cash or putting down a large amount (we're talking large apartments here, not 1-2BR where the buyers may actually be middle or upper middle class). But they want to know that your income and net worth are stable enough to shoulder the cost of living there, since maintenance fees may run thousands of dollars monthly. By checking your clubs, social organizations, schools attended, houses of worship if any, etc., they get a sense of the social "class" of the buyer.
As Laundress stated, foreigners flush with "new money" cash can't pass this scrutiny. They may pass financial tests, but not the social scrutiny. As an aside, upper middle class Europeans have been investing in NYC real estate, usually more to have a pied-a-terre in NYC rather than as a speculative investment (and/or to park some of their money in the USA). Such buyers usually are better off buying a condo, since the board package process would likely be a mystery to them.
My favorite example was Gloria Vanderbilt being turned down at River House, one of the WASPiest buildings in Manhattan. No reason given, but Gloria's theory was that the board disapproved of her association with musician Bobby Short and the prospect that a black man might have access to River House as a live-in or frequent visitor.
One point that no one has mentioned: in order to initiate the purchase process, one must make a deposit (10% of the price, I think) which is non-refundable if you pull out (example: if you decide to buy elsewhere). However, if you go through the process in good faith and are rejected, you generally receive a full refund. However, if it can be proven that you deliberately failed the interview in order to be rejected on purpose (i.e. you secretly wanted out with a full refund), you may not receive the full refund.
I have a cousin who is a hedge fund manager, married to a woman originally from Shanghai (but with a Harvard MBA) who works for a very well known financial organisation (can't name it here, but a hint: the company is very closely associated with the Republican Party) who are based in Hong Kong. They are considering sending their children to US prep schools (boarding) so as to increase their chances of admission to a prestigious US university (Ivy League or Stanford). In preparation for this, they needed a "home base" in the USA and decided to buy a co-op on Central Park West. They had to go through the interview process and said it was brutal, even in a supposedly liberal building. Their chief concerns were whether the board would "approve" of an interracial couple, and whether the fact that for now the co-op would not be their primary residence would be an issue----some boards want their residents to be present and actively involved in running the building, rather than as absentee owners. They did ultimately pass and are now in the building, but they said it was not a slam dunk and that they left the interview confident but NOT CERTAIN that they would be accepted.
[this post was last edited: 9/25/2013-10:04]
Ventless dryers: auch Bosch in USA. Letzter Oktober war ich in einem Wohnung-Hotel in Berlin----mit Bosch Waschmachine sowie ventless dryer. Habe Persil (Color Megaperls) in Rewe natürlich gekauft. ("da weiss man, was man hat....").
Re: co-ops. My mother is a broker in Manhattan and sits on the board of her building. She has seen it all: people being turned down for not having the right club memberships, interracial couples being turned down, etc. She puts her clients through mock interviews to prepare them for board interviews. As stated earlier, you can't bring an attorney or realtor with you to the meeting. It's just you (and, as Laundress stated, sometimes the family dog).
As Launderess stated, in some cases the board simply performs "due diligence" (i.e. can you really afford to live there and share the costs of running the building), but it's also correct to say that some (not all) boards go way beyond this to perpetuate social, religious, and racial bigotry/snobbery. The "board package" is very intrusive. It's taken for granted that either you are buying cash or putting down a large amount (we're talking large apartments here, not 1-2BR where the buyers may actually be middle or upper middle class). But they want to know that your income and net worth are stable enough to shoulder the cost of living there, since maintenance fees may run thousands of dollars monthly. By checking your clubs, social organizations, schools attended, houses of worship if any, etc., they get a sense of the social "class" of the buyer.
As Laundress stated, foreigners flush with "new money" cash can't pass this scrutiny. They may pass financial tests, but not the social scrutiny. As an aside, upper middle class Europeans have been investing in NYC real estate, usually more to have a pied-a-terre in NYC rather than as a speculative investment (and/or to park some of their money in the USA). Such buyers usually are better off buying a condo, since the board package process would likely be a mystery to them.
My favorite example was Gloria Vanderbilt being turned down at River House, one of the WASPiest buildings in Manhattan. No reason given, but Gloria's theory was that the board disapproved of her association with musician Bobby Short and the prospect that a black man might have access to River House as a live-in or frequent visitor.
One point that no one has mentioned: in order to initiate the purchase process, one must make a deposit (10% of the price, I think) which is non-refundable if you pull out (example: if you decide to buy elsewhere). However, if you go through the process in good faith and are rejected, you generally receive a full refund. However, if it can be proven that you deliberately failed the interview in order to be rejected on purpose (i.e. you secretly wanted out with a full refund), you may not receive the full refund.
I have a cousin who is a hedge fund manager, married to a woman originally from Shanghai (but with a Harvard MBA) who works for a very well known financial organisation (can't name it here, but a hint: the company is very closely associated with the Republican Party) who are based in Hong Kong. They are considering sending their children to US prep schools (boarding) so as to increase their chances of admission to a prestigious US university (Ivy League or Stanford). In preparation for this, they needed a "home base" in the USA and decided to buy a co-op on Central Park West. They had to go through the interview process and said it was brutal, even in a supposedly liberal building. Their chief concerns were whether the board would "approve" of an interracial couple, and whether the fact that for now the co-op would not be their primary residence would be an issue----some boards want their residents to be present and actively involved in running the building, rather than as absentee owners. They did ultimately pass and are now in the building, but they said it was not a slam dunk and that they left the interview confident but NOT CERTAIN that they would be accepted.
[this post was last edited: 9/25/2013-10:04]
