2017 April
Focus on... Landscaping & Lawn Care

Landscaping Seasonal Maintenance
2017 April Seasonal Maintenance

Building maintenance follows a schedule based on the seasons, each of which presents a unique set of challenges to a co-op or condo. At certain times of the year, it just makes sense to do certain regular maintenance projects: weatherizing,…

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Landscaping Caring For Trees
2017 April Caring For Trees

Trees may seem like the ultimate in low-maintenance landscaping; they’re naturally occurring, live for decades (sometimes centuries), don’t really require much in the way of watering, and sometimes don’t even need pruning.  But while all th…

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Management Aesthetic Rules in Co-ops, Condos & HOAs
2017 April Aesthetic Rules in Co-ops, Condos & HOAs

For many people, one of the most attractive aspects of co-op or condo living is the fact that everything, from the windows to the elevators to the numbers on the apartment doors, looks great. Clean, bright, elegant and well-maintained. For …

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Finance Co-op and Condo Financing
2017 April Co-op and Condo Financing

Today, some eight years after the economic devastation of the Great Recession first began to gather steam, financing for co-op and condominium buildings and individual unit purchases is again widely available. The market is overall quite he…

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Organizations Group Financing
2017 April Group Financing

Projects, projects, projects – do they ever end!? The short answer is...nope, they sure don’t.  Whether it is New England, New York, Florida or California, the nature of condominium projects (i.e. roofing, siding, decks, pavement, etc.) is…

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Q&A Q&A: Is the Board Limited to Owners?
2017 April Q&A: Is the Board Limited to Owners?

Q. We live in a fairly large condominium building, and, of course, don’t know all of our neighbors. We recently learned that one of the newly-elected members of our association board is a resident, but not actually a unit owner. Is this a…

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Q&A Q&A: Why Can’t We Use Clotheslines?
2017 April Q&A: Why Can’t We Use Clotheslines?

Q. With the arrival of nice weather, we would like to save energy and practice a “greener” lifestyle by hanging our laundry outside. There is no formal line-drying area at our townhome community, so we asked about installing a line on our…

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Q&A Q&A: Voting by Proxy
2017 April Q&A: Voting by Proxy

Q. For the annual meeting, there are seven people running for five positions. The management company sent a proxy to all owners and requested that it either be mailed to them or dropped in the mailbox in the building lobby. This mailbox i…

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Real Estate Trends Trends in Residential Architecture
2017 April Trends in Residential Architecture

Tastes and styles change with the decades—and sometimes with just the seasons—and what is considered fashionable now may seem hopelessly dated in just a few years. (Just look at bell bottoms.) That said, innovations and re-imaginings in res…

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