Most of the time, a condo association or co-op building and its management company enjoy a mutually beneficial partnership—the management company and the individual agents try their best to serve their clients, and their client communiti…
Usually, life in a condo goes on uneventfully on a day-to-day basis, with routine maintenance, elections, gardening, move-ins, move-outs and the like taking up most of its attentions. Every once in a while, however, something comes …
Unless they're self-managed, most urban residential buildings employ professional property managers to handle their books, bid out repair jobs, hire contractors and deal with the day-to-day administrative functions that few unit owners o…
Ask Mark Weisman, the president of Brownstone Real Estate in Boston, what makes a good managing agent, and his answer is simple: "You should be able to solve small problems before they become big problems—that's basically it." This des…
Time was, if the tiles in your building's front foyer got grimy, your super would pour some ammonia or bleach in a bucket, grab the nearest mop, and get down to business. If a drain was slow, out came the heavy-duty industrial solve…
Whether you live in Brookline or Boston, Cambridge or Somerville, major capital improvement projects like façade restoration, elevator refurbishment or roof replacement can be a big problem for condo, co-op and HOA boards and managers—espec…
According to legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi, "The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual." The coach's wisdom can actually be applied to almost any life situation—sports, volunteers, an…
In a city with a history as rich and storied as Boston's, it's no surprise that history is told in large part through its architecture. The face of that architecture, quite literally, can be found in the facades that give each building its …
New York City and its surrounding boroughs have always been known for its robust population of vermin—rats and cockroaches have been part and parcel of city life ever since the Dutch settled here and founded New Amsterdam. While roach and r…