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From what one has seen much of the superintendents tend to be "family", that is the father or someone else worked for the building or managing agent and their sons come in and work their way up.
Our building had an old school Italian super (nosey, loud and in general a SOB). He was replaced by a younger guy who works for the landlord (like his father) but for another building. He lives in ours and takes care of the super's functions but his "9-5" is elsewhere.
Am seeing more and more smaller buildings going with that sort of arrangement. Many of one's friends and co-workers no longer have a full-time live in super. But rather someone that is "on call", and comes daily to take care of things like taking out the trash, sweep sidewalk, etc....
Dirty secret is that old school supers never really made much. A bulk of the benefits were in the free apartment, maybe cable and some other "goodies". They were most always married and it was the wife who you went to during the day while the husband was at his "other" 9-5. If it was something serious she would either telephone the husband and he would sort things out. Having the wife at home gave the building someone to let in workers, exterminators, sweep the sidewalks, clean the halls, etc....
Many buildings are finding it more lucrative to "hire out" a super and rent out what had been the super's apartment in the building. All over the UES am seeing more and more basement apartments that once were super's rented as market rate units. Modern technology such as cell/smart phones or even beepers means you really don't need to have someone located on the premises 24/7.
Know one guy who is super to >ten buildings on the UES. He comes in daily from NJ, does his work and then drives back home.
IIRC there may be a law that supers are supposed to be certified to operate steam/hot water boilers.
As others have said union men make more but still even in larger buildings a bulk of super's money IMHO comes from bennies. For instance many supers in parts of the UES, UWS and elsewhere use their work address to get their kids into those locally zoned schools. You see more than a few local UES "handymen" picking up and dropping off their kids at P.S. 6 for instance. These are not just those who live in local buildings, but who are 9-5 as well.
In my 125 unit Bronx co op we have a full-time live in super and a full time porter who lives outside.We pay the super about $65,000 salary (plus health insurance plus retirement contributions) for a total of about 80 or so. In addition,he gets a 1,400 sq ft 2 br,2 bath apartment which we totally renovated when the previous super retired.He has a 6 day work week and is on call 24 hrs during those days.When he has days off or is on vacation(3 weeks a year) he gets covered by the super of the building next door which is managed by the same company.He does just about everything for everyone with a smile and we love him.
His apartment would probably rent for around $2,000 or $2,100/mo.I think he pays his own utilities.
In my 125 unit Bronx co op we have a full-time live in super and a full time porter who lives outside.We pay the super about $65,000 salary (plus health insurance plus retirement contributions) for a total of about 80 or so. In addition,he gets a 1,400 sq ft 2 br,2 bath apartment which we totally renovated when the previous super retired.He has a 6 day work week and is on call 24 hrs during those days.When he has days off or is on vacation(3 weeks a year) he gets covered by the super of the building next door which is managed by the same company.He does just about everything for everyone with a smile and we love him.
His apartment would probably rent for around $2,000 or $2,100/mo.I think he pays his own utilities.
$65,000 for what exactly? Does he sweep and mop, etc.?
Superintendent, to have better opportunities or similar trade job, get as much certification and licensing as possible. FDNY and Buildings department(?) does the testing. NYU continuing education, Pace University, SUNY offers courses in building maintenance and management.
Courses and certification in boiler maintenance, Fire Safety Director, HVAC systems, basic contracting , basically building utilities , will get you far.
Free housing is not always a blessing, but the Union is. 32 B J gives out a good pension, but the union is not as strong outside Manhattan. That free housing is not going to be the best apartment in the building, but most times, a big basement/1 st floor apartment.
Dont let the word Super go to your head, if you land one of these jobs.
Oh wow. I didn't realize supers got such a good deal. Is this mostly in really nice Manhattan luxury condos, or also in crappy outer borough cheap rentals too.
Because the super in my building does the absolute minimum possible.
And he is often unavailable
My Dad was a super for a 65 unit building in the bronx. For the first 16 years of my life, thats all we knew. 24/7 tending to peoples problems, fixing leaks at 3AM, mopping the hallways, putting out hundreds of bags of garbage to the curb twice a week, dealing with roaches and rats in our apartment (We lived in the basement)... Dealing with FDNY and CONED Knocking on our doors all week for different building inspections... The list goes on.
Yes we had free rent, yea we had free cable TV and Phone.... in the end it was totally not worth it.
So for those thinking it is amazing to live Rent Free and earn "$65,000".... well its not that simple. You basically have to live where you work and be at the beck and call of 65+ different people.
My super has a job. If it's a true emergency got to call the landlord. The super is unavailable until 7 pm .
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