In my experience it may not be worth the rent. I've been in 2 buildings with cell tower experience, in the first there was so much rancor that for the first time there were enough people to hold a special election and almost unseated the board when they had towers installed and the residents, especially on the top floors where not told or asked. In the second case the issue was just dropped for fears of the same happening. So before moving on this you should get buy in from at least the people on the top floor

That said there are cell tower brokers that know who is buying nad how to market you and get you the best price, and as I recall it wasn't that great

Try searching the archives here for cell tower

We have a large roof space with excellent exposure; however last year we rejected offers from one of the major mobile providers. Even after refusing the first offer and having them redesign the unsightly antennae that they originally proposed, their subsequent offer was nowhere near enough to warrant the potential political rancor that Jack in Brooklyn also described.

There is a lot of misinformation out there about the effects of RF and having an engineering background, I am not particularly concerned. However, no matter what evidence you may present to the contrary, you are unlikely to convince those living on the top floor that they should not be concerned. I agree with Jack - it's not worth it.

You haven't posted in a long while. Please don't say you've given up your blog. We need differetn voices!

Sorry for being MIA for the past several weeks; however I have been devoting myself to some business interests. Good news is that I will be back on the blog in the next few days - thanks for asking!!

If the porter calls in sick and the Superintendent has to perform his duties during the same time of work, he should not get OT. Same goes for the porter.
If the porter calls in sick say on a Sat. when the Superintendent is off and he performs the work then he is entitled to OT.

Resident Manager in Manhattan.

This is trickery. If employees are alternatively calling in "sick" and you picked up on their pattern to gain OT pay. The co-op should have the right to fire.

Chubby
Thanks for your response. The board is dealing with the chronic sick pattern between the two employees.
The management company will be responsible for creating this mess.

Trick is to have a porter in a near by building who would like some extra pay at (regular salary of course). Some times a porter is looking for extra work, on his days off, if your porter calls in sick you may be able to call him.

CDT: We're in Manhattan but we also have an apt in a high-rise NJ condo. Every apt has a terrace and we've had trouble with pigeons landing on and messing up the terraces for years. We finally solved the problem!

We hired a company that put a dish of corn kernels injected with a chemical on every terrace. It doesn't kill or poison pigeons and it wears off. It disorients them so they decide (however they do that!) not to return to where they got the corn kernels. That was in spring 2008. We haven't had one pigeon on or even flying anywhere near any terrace in the building since then.

The company is Bird Doctor, Inc. (subsidiary of a large company called Bug Doctor, Inc.) They're in NJ but they work in the entire tri-state area. Their number is 201-599-1007 and their website is www.birddoctorinc.com. We tried many things but this is the only one that worked, and 100% effectively.

BP, thanks for the enthusiastic response. Unfortunately, your description sounds like the bird-disorienting drug called Avitrol, which is no longer legal in New York, though it's fine in many other states.

Any other ideas? I'm very interested in hearing real-life war stories about how pigeon problems were handled, whether or not the results were successful. We'd love to banish pigeons from our building, but we don't want to throw away money on ineffective techniques.

CDT:I don't know if Bird Doctor uses a product containing Avitrol. I was told they use various chemical and other things - mechanical systems, audio-visual devices, wire mesh, etc.

One coop installed small spikes 3" apart along the top of their terrace railings. It seems pigeons usually go on the railings before they go onto the terrace floor, and when their feet land on the spikes they don't like it and fly away. The coop told me this works much of the time but not all the time.

Another coop used "bird netting." It's taut and attached at the top of a terrace railing and at the edge of the terrace ceiling. It's sort of a screened-in porch effect. It's flexi-fiberglass and not a tight weave like wire mesh. The weave is wider but not enough for pigeons to squeeze in. It's clear color so it doesn't interfere with visibility or the look of the terrace, and it allows air to circulate freely.

This coop installed the netting from terrace floor to ceiling. I know people who live there. One has a dog and the other has two cats. They like the full-length netting because it creates an invisible blanket on all the railing posts as well as from the railing top up. They can let their dog and cats out onto their terraces without fear that they'd fall or jump off!

We tried scarecrows that look like hawks which go after pigeons. We tried a glue-y substance you squeeze along the top of the railing like toothpaste so pigeon feet stick to it. That worked briefly until the birds stopped landing there and went straight to the terrace floor. We tried windsocks, hanging plants. Someone suggested painting the railings a weird color to scare the pigeons. He owns 4 apts and tried lime green paint on his railings (without coop permission) which looked awful! The coop made him remove it. I don't even know if pigeons see colors, and if so maybe they like lime green because it seemed to attract even more of them.

As I said, I don't know if Bird Doctor uses Avitrol but if you have pigeon problems it may be worth contacting them for info. It's a large well-known company. "Bird netting" sounds like it might be worth checking to and I would think Bird Doctor would be familiar with it.

Hope something I wrote here is of some help. You should also tell residents not to throw any food/seed out windows or put it on window sills for pigeons or any birds. Some people like to feed the "dear little things" but once they territorialize your place it's very ifficult to get rid of them, and they can carry diseases.

BP, thanks for all the additional details. In particular, the bird netting sounds less odious than anticipated. I'll talk with the rest of our Board about investigating this possibility. (And I promise we won't paint it lime green.)

By the way, although I've had no reports of our residents feeding the pigeons, we live next door to a hotel where pigeon feeding has been a problem in the past. Someone over there may be doing it again.

Thanks again.

Steve, if you have the available cash, there is really no downside to paying early as long as you do not need to liquidate an investment paying a higher rate in order to do so. There is actually a sliding scale of savings - 1.5% if you pay in full by July 1, 1% if you pay the remaining due on October 1, and so on.

In our case we have not been able to take advantage of this discount because our quarterly taxes are over $600k and prepayment would require too large a cash outlay.

Go for it!

This is a great question, and I'll be interested in the replies. It's a tough one!

I know a solid contractor, I work as a resident manager and this contractor does everything by the book. he may take a little longer then your normal g/c, but this guys does it right the first time around he does it all contracting to woodworking. he's not the cheapest but by far not the most expensive.A true gem...

Nick (646) 315-4446

Does this guy named Nick have a construction company name? Sure don't look to good for the Resident manager to recommend a contractor?

Nick's Contracting is the name. Doesn't look good for a resident manager? That's pretty insinuating.

Thanks for the input hopefully I can get a few more contractors to contact

If the seller is paying the buyer's closing costs, the seller may be trying to reduce the net gain for the purposes of calculating capital gains taxes.

If the seller thinks that by paying the buyer's closing costs that he will be able to deduct those costs, he will likely find out the hard way that he was wrong...they are only deductible by the buyer.

There are universal bracket of at least two sizes, depending on how large and deep is your AC that may be used. However, I would say that drilling may be essential to maintain the bracket in place. For your info, it would be best to anchor the AC to a window than having an A/C fall on someone's head.

AdC

There is a universal bracket for A/C's. It come in two sizes for use with different sizes of A/C's. However, I would say that drilling to the structure or the the frame may be essential to maintain the bracket in place.

AdC

There is no other way to mount the Universal Bracket unless you drill into the window sill, if you have aluminum windows heres a tip, apply some caulk around the screws threads and then screw into the sill to make a tight weatherproof seal.

We use the standard agreement but one thing that we do put into place is a rider to the sublease which states:

This rider dated __________________ attached to and part of lease dated ______________ between ________________________ as landlord and __________________________ as subtenant in bldg # ____and Apt. # ______ at Cooperative or Condominium name in City, NY.

This agreement made part of lease dated _________________________ as follows;

In the event of bank foreclosure or if maintenance charges, etc. become delinquent on the unit _____ at Address, City , NY ZIP upon written notice from The Board of Directors or Managing Agent to subtenant, subtenant shall make all future monthly rental payments to The Board of Directors. Payments shall be payable in the following manner:

Cooperative or Condominium Name
C/O Excel Bradshaw Management Group, LLC
393 Old Country Road, Suite 204
Carle Place, NY 11514

The payment of the monthly rent to the Board and the acceptance of the rent by the Board shall not constitute a landlord/tenant relationship between the parties.

Upon resolution of all delinquent charges subtenant shall resume paying landlord, upon notice by The Board of Directors or Managing Agent.


___________________________________
OWNER:

___________________________________
TENANT:

The Blumburg apartment sublease?

Look at our sublease documents at:
http://www.thepinehurst.org/residents.htm

Scroll down to "Application forms" and then under "Sublet" you can download both the applicant's cover sheet and other forms.

The previous commenter's rider about the subtenant paying directly to the co-op in the case of delinquency or foreclosure is very interesting, but I wonder if it would hold up in court. Doesn't the mortgage holder have first dibs on being repayed?

It has held up in court on the Condominium side, and we have luckily only used it on the Cooperative side thus far for delinquent Maintenance payments for the Cooperative. We have not had to deal with the Shareholder's mortgagor.

Thanks -- the rider is certainly worth considering!

All it does is protect the building. Nothing damaging in that. Good luck.

No, the coop's claim to maintenance is senior to that of the lender. This is why often times a share loan for a coop has a higher rate of interest than a loan on real estate