2022
Three Keys to a Successful Hybrid Annual Meeting
Some boards still prefer to hold their annual meetings in person, and a handful choose to hold hybrid meetings — allowing participation in person and virtually. This last group faces special challenges. To help meet them, a new webinar has been put together by Avi Zanjirian, a partner at the accounting firm Czarnowski & Beer, and Adi Regev, group product manager at Zoom. Read more…
Penny-Wise But Pound Foolish – How to Prioritize Maintenance Projects & Reduce Risk
Deferring maintenance and repair work may be tempting in the short run to save money or avoid an unpopular assessment, but disasters can happen when crucial projects are put off for too long. Watch this webinar recording to learn more about the risks and liabilities boards court by deferring needed maintenance, the steps boards can take to avoid those potential catastrophes, and how to ensure that reserves are adequately funded and properly allocated. Watch now…
2021
Effective Budgeting Ensuring Your Property is Financially Sound
Board members have a fiduciary responsibility to the cooperative or condominium association they serve. Understanding the budgeting process can go a long way in fulfilling that duty. Watch this webinar recording to learn the answers to more annual budget frequently asked questions, as well as some guidelines to ensure your property is financially sound. Watch now…
Invisible Threats – Protecting Your Community’s Information from Hacks & Cyber Fraud
Data breaches at property management companies have exposed hundreds of co-op and condo residents’ most sensitive information – including social security numbers and home addresses – raising questions about liability, confidentiality, and who gets access to a community’s private information. Join this expert panel for an in-depth look at how your board-management team can be proactive in protecting your own data and information. Watch now…
Do it Right, Make it Better – Enhancing Your Annual Virtual Meetings
As hard as it’s been, the challenges of navigating the pandemic have inspired many boards and managers to get creative and figure out smarter, better ways to conduct the crucial business of running their communities – including annual meetings. This informative webinar will highlight how effective boards have achieved that success…as well as offering some cautionary tales. Watch now…
Tax Time – Filing, Paying, and the Income Tax Implications of Working Remotely
2020 is a year that none of us will ever forget. With income tax filing season around the corner, we would like to familiarize everyone with how working remotely might impact our personal as well as business income tax this year. Although we won’t be able to offer specific income tax advice, you will come away with an understanding of the most important aspects to discuss with your tax advisor. Watch now…
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…
THE SCHECHER FACTOR “Telling it like it is”