It’s not unusual today to find an array of amenities —pools, hot tubs, decks and similar areas for socializing — on top of new urban condominium buildings. Older residences may or may not have such facilities, but even without the steady u…
These days, just about everyone is cutting back on spending, either to make ends meet, saving for something special or a rainy day, paying off debt or funding their retirement. Consumers are cutting coupons, looking for deals and keeping a…
Remember the old jingle, ‘it takes a licking and keeps on ticking’? It was the famous tagline from the Timex watch advertisements. The gist of the ad is that no matter what you threw at it, a Timex watch kept working. If you think ab…
Living in New England can be something of a dirty job. And the task of cleaning off months (or years) of accumulated grime and dirt from the exterior of a building takes much more than a scrub-brush and a bottle of Windex; it requires prof…
Local real estate professionals contend that the market for condominiums is on a slow and, generally steady, uptick all over New England, but the place to sell a condo right now is definitely Boston, with an inventory that cannot meet dema…
While everyone dreams of “maintenance-free” living in a condominium, the reality is that every home — single-family or condominium — requires ongoing maintenance. The beauty of condominium living, of course, is that “someone else” — …
Q I am on the board of a condo. We have a unit owner who is in arrears on maintenance and has cumulative late fees of several hundred dollars. The late fees result from being consistently late in making payments over the last few years an…
In the increasingly-paperless world of modern banking, there are fewer hands writing checks and processing transactions. With no need to physically deal with cash and checks, this should mean fewer mistakes — and better security. Does this…
With freshly-fallen snow blanketing your condominium landscape, it’s easy to be lulled into thinking the property really is “pretty as a picture.” But keep in mind that in a few short weeks, that blanket may be melted away, revealing an ar…
While keeping the records of the association is not the most fascinating part of serving on a board of trustees, it is in some ways the most important. In fact, the flow of paperwork is the lifeblood of the community. The association…