Hi Larry,

I was reading the posts and I came across some of my own writing – what a hoot!

My co-op is not rich by any means. We are located near Dyckman Street in upper Manhattan in zip code 10040. Our maintenance fees are approximately $1.10 per square foot. With that, we are also paying off our mortgage in 10 years.

Most co-ops pay their property taxes each quarter (some through the mortgage escrow fund). What is needed to set this up is having the funds for the other three quarters worth of tax amounts. We initially had some good financial news, so in the first year, we paid all of the taxes off in July and gained the discount only. Then in August, the co-op decided to set aside approximate 1/12 of the next year’s payment and so on, earning interest along the way and also earning the discount when paid in year two. This one time change (really an investment in our co-op) has paid up four years now. And those monthly savings are available as working capital in case of extreme need. This is our way of making sure the annual expenses are kept as low as possible.

Well that worked so well that we started the insurance and water/sewer self escrows when more good new came (likely a small property tax refund or similar).

The culture of the Board is what really changed however. Initially, there was the realization that we could change and save up ahead of time.

Then more action: we are now in year two of a semi-permanent assessment equaling 5% of the maintenance to save up for future needs. It was 2.5% in year one. I envision this to increase to 7.5% of maintenance next year and finally to 10% for year four and ongoing. Let’s face it; there is always a need for capital funds. This type of semi-permanent assessment sets the expectation with the shareholders that things will eventually break and this is the Board’s estimate of an owner’s long term financial commitment above and beyond maintenance changes.

Finally, in 2023 when the mortgage is paid off, we can drop maintenance charges even more.

So please don’t tell yourselves that we are “rich” or “special”. We just decided to do it and you can too.

Thank you for sharing the original post,

Steve