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Shareholders in our midtown manhattan coop have been discussing comparative maintenance levels in our coop relative to others in the area.
One shareholder and board member agreed that maintenance per square foot of apartment space is a solid way to compare.
Would anyone agree? Or offer another way to compare.
Also, if the above is correct, what would maintenance per square foot be to be considered reasonable or high?
Thanks for any advice offered.
It's probably the most accurate way to compare them.
Keep in mind that the square footage of an apartment has it's tricks as well.
Some include the partition walls, others the closets and some the outside building walls.
Our co-op starting tracking square footage/maintenance stats about five years ago when shareholders complained about our "high" fees. We discovered that our co-op, though slightly above average for our area, was still a very good value where maintenance is concerned, especially important in the larger apartments.
Don't forget that the fees also reflect the cost of the underlying mortgage. That varies from coop to coop so it is very hard to compare other than in a very general way.
Lol - not a chance. Building layout, location and service load issues have a huge impact. For example an 111 unit Coop in one building with doormen verses an 111 unit Coop in three buildings with doormen are very different from a cost perspective.
In my opinion, be very careful in making comparisons like this.
Deciding whether or not maintanence is high is extremely subjective. There is no scientific method to determine it. Appraisers would be the first ones to tell you this. However, it is a good idea to look at the ratio between maintancence and sq. ft selling price. That gives you a broad perspective on your building and others.
Hope this helps.
http://www.thepinehurst.org/resources/ManhMaintWeb.pdf
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The New York Council Of Cooperatives issues a pamphlet every year with comparisons of coop maintenance charges of is member's buildings broken down into several subcategories.
For apartment buildings the comparison is done on a per room basis and for loft buildings on a per sq foot basis.
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