Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultrarunner
Co-ops are often very exclusionary as my High School friend found out...
He is very accomplished in the theater business... acting, producing, original scores, etc... we have caught several of his productions when they left New York and opened in San Francisco...
He has twice been turned down my co-op members where he wanted to buy in...
Hard to believe because one he was paying cash and is a really good guy and straight shooter.. the reason given is he was not a family person and would be away for months at a time so not a good fit for the community.
True New Yorker in that he doesn't even own a car...
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most co-ops not at the high end are really not choosy at all . as long as you meet the financial criteria generally you are good to go .
but they can be strict on that since if you don't pay your maintenance everyone else has to pony up until they foreclose on the apartment .
in the non high end apartments if you are turned down there is generally a pretty good reason .
our kids all owned co-op's as their first apartments with no problems at all . in fact they were just starting out and did not even have long term credit history's yet
we are thinking of buying one next year and no job's are fine with them as long as you have assets . in many high end buildings that is not the case ..
the co-op structure lends itself well to people with lower incomes and assets .
because many buildings have their own piece of the apartment price held by the building mortgage your bank is only on the hook for a piece of the apartment . another bank and loan is holding the rest of your purchase price .
the banks are more inclined to loan you money when they are not on the hook for so much .
if the building was condo maybe you would need a mortgage for 400k . but structured as a co-op ,maybe you need only a 250k mortgage and the rest is held by the building and is included in your maintenance fee .
this structure was favorable when landlords took rentals co-op and they needed tenants to be able to buy in order to make the conversion happen .
banks tended to be more willing to loan smaller amounts to the less wealthy tenants .
since landlords needed a light at the end of the tunnel to get out from under rent stabilization because politicians duped them and this was a perfect way .
generally co-ops are popular in areas with some form of rent stabilization .
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