rejected by co-op board

Maybe they decided there were too many pied-a-terre in the building? The seller's broker should know, if only so they don't waste their time presenting unsuitable prospective buyers. Absent that, I'd say look at it like a lucky escape: if the board is so mercurial there is no rhyme or reason to their decisions, you don't want to be a shareholder there.

Was it this one? http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/452186-coop-350-east-77th-street-upper-east-side-new-york

it coauld also be that the sales price was too low.

Could also be that co-op did not feel comfortable with someone paying all cash, for pied a terre, for apt between 1st and 2nd. if you do have all these millions, your target should be more on fifth and mad. money laundering could be an issue these days. Are you from south america? just food for thoughts... Also, condo would make way more sense for pied a terre anyway...

Also, "the_president", you mentionned that could be the price is too low... does this happen often that co-op rejects because of low price? Even in our current economy? When buyers were all fighting to get a place, I understand,, but don't think this is still the case...

Someone on the board hopes to buy it for him/herself?

Sue the bastards, buy a condo. Co-op boards are crazy.

It's illegal for co-op boards to reject on price.

Then of course, millionaires don't file "law suites."

Not illegal ot reject based on price, but huge conflict of interest if a board member purchased instead.

NWT, yes that was the one, on top of everything they increased maintenance fees 11.5% in 2009 and now 7.5% in 2010 plus a surcharge for four months of over $100.00, I'd say the building has problems or/and the board and managing agent don't know what the hell they are doing. LonelyWolf not some South American, just a retired NYC, businessman who moved out of state after 911 and now figures prices are cheap enough to buy a pad in NYC, in fact kids when to private fancy private schools in NYC, not that it did them any good !!, but considering that I was trustee on those schools, can't figure this one out, something smells here, MALY is right who wants them anyway, problems abound here, future buyers be on guard, I feel bad for seller, who can't get their money out of this bad situation at the moment.

Here's another possibility:

Given:
Teeman have a net worth in the millions and will pay for the coop in cash.

A review of Teeman's financials show that he has highly leveraged and risky businesses/holdings. Declines in those businesses/holdings could easily force him sell this coop in the near future in distressed prices.

Some coops do not like being considered a second home either. Higher rates of default or non-payment of common charge.

or maybe Teeman's full name is: Teeman Madoff

teeman- it stinks, you put time into it and had a plan. no one likes to be rejected, particularly without a reason. again, it stinks but think about how bad it sucks for the seller!!
you are in a good place as there are lots of nice apt available now!

Condos make better pied-a-terre. Consider yourself fortunate.

i agree, go for a condo for a pied-a-terre and consider this an education into the current real estate market. when you want to sell it one less thing to stress about.

teeman, did you use a buyer's broker to assemble your co-op board package?

I don't work the UES but I know that there are people who do.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

Hi Front porch-
yeah, a broker from Elliman did my board package, and it was as professional as any presentation I've ever seen, impressive, and one foot thick with tax returns, partnership LLC's,tabs, etc. thanks for the advise, good luck with these Manhattan co-ops, hope nobody wants to get their money out quick from some of these !!!

Teeman, I'm sorry. What a disappointment.

My sources suggest that pieds-a-terre are not allowed in this building, however. I don't have absolute confirmation of this, I just got up!, but I suspect this is the most likely reason you were rejected.

{Manhattan real estate agent.}

Fluter,
Thanks for your input, I would love to know what your sources say, the selling broker (Corcoran) was specifically asked about pied-a-terres, and responded it's on a case by case basis, and that someone from Bermuda recently purchased a unit for part-time occupancy, if they had a specific
absolute policy it would have been nice to be so informed, like I should sue the RE agent, I've spent $2500 on legal fees etc., to say nothing of time and hotel rooms to do searching. The Real Estate industry, brokers in particular should get a better hold on this thing.............for everyone's benefit, like don't you guys have some association, membership type organization, my broker, spent hours on putting together a board package, only to get taken out to dinner by me.....
glad I'm not part of this industry

I have sold a few piede a terres over the years, had a closing on one last week.
In the future the only thing I can suggest is that you or your broker call or email the managing agent of the building to confirm the buildings policy. Most times the sellers brokers information is correct, but I always like to check myself. The stakes are to high.

FYI: There is no mention of this particular buildings policy in the databases that I checked.

Best of luck in the future!

Keith (Broker)

Again, I don't know this building, I don't work up there. But if you're a strong candidate with a strong package and no firm policy against p-a-ts ..

that suggests that the building's percentage of full-time resident occupancy is getting too low for board comfort, which is something both the agents should have been able to warn you about before going forward.

Even if there's no blanket ban, generally this is the kind of dirt that board members tell us as agents.

Also, if the building has a lot of renters, any lender lending on the building will have a recent questionnaire defining the percentage of owner-occupants somewhere in their files if they care to look for it. (It's info that the managing agent can provide, too, but they'll usually charge you two or three hundred bucks to answer the question.)

Teeman, I'm sorry this happened to you. It sucks. If you're interested in co-ops in the future, don't just ask about the policy on p-a-ts but ask the seller point-blank about owner-occupancy and owner-residency percentages in the building.

Best of luck!

ali r.

Teeman, I got a question for you. I never understood the whole pied-a-terre thing. How often are you planning on using this place? Maybe a couple of weekends a month?

I'd rather do a nice hotel at $400-500 a night. I figure $500K and $1500/month are in the ballpark of spending $2500 a month, and I guess the other choices in NYC would be (theoretically) more attractive to me. I can understand the advantages of having one's "own" place vs. leaving a small wardrobe with a hotel, or not wanting to be around a hotel enviroment all the time, but I was wondering what your motivations are.

inonada-
nothing like home, your art work, your paintings etc., especially for a major collector, besides hotels can be a
pain in the ass, holidays you can't get the room you want, the temperature isn't always really
adjustable, no way. at home your kitchen if you don't want to go out, if you have money, you buy your own digs, hotels are good for the twice a year visit to Italy, Europe or the Caribbean,
best-

Same argument(but weaker) can almost be made for Condo hotels, which seemingly only benefit the developer, but buyers swear it makes sense.

Teeman, if i used the second home often enough, I think I would place a monetary value on the knowing that I could leave my stuff laying around and knowing it was mine to use anytime. Not sure what that value is however.

Hmm -- perhaps you can have the staff hold a few paintings along with your small wardrobe ;). To each his own -- cheers.

Riversider, it seems to me that the "home" aspect is very important to teeman. I.e., if the choices were to spend 2 weekends in hotels whenever he wanted (I guess with a name like tee-man, we can assume "he") vs. just sit at his home in the 'burbs, he'd just sit at home in the 'burbs.

' I have net worth in the millions and this building wasn't on fifth or park ave,'

maybe they thought you were a dick...sounds like it.

Yeah, teeman. You're a dick because you gave them information they specifically requested. Asshole.

"Some coops do not like being considered a second home either. Higher rates of default or non-payment of common charge."

BINGO.

teeman, i am sorry you had to go through that, i will say that especially on parts of the UES when managing agents tell the broker everything is a case by case basis this is usually an indication of a "close lipped" kind of board. Basically the board does not want to set official policy about each circumstance because they want total discretion. It can be very frustrating for both agents and potential buyers. What i usually do in these cases is ask the doorman for a contact for someone on the board so that i can speak directly with a board member to get the most accurate information possible so as to not waste everyones time. The managing agent is probably just instructed to tou the party line and give the same answers for everything.

" What i usually do in these cases is ask the doorman for a contact for someone on the board so that i can speak directly with a board member to get the most accurate information possible so as to not waste everyones time."

Any board member who would agree to speak "out of school" directly to a prospective buyer leaves the entire board open to a potential lawsuit.

And if I find out that our doorman has been naming names and providing contact information to outsiders, he'd be out on his ass within the hour.

the story borders on the absurd. agree with Matt

Sounds like a composite character: petrofrizz plus wonderbra, with a smattering of Tsarina Whatsername.

teeman

Did you meet with the board at all. Or were you rejected based on your board package?

I wonder why nobody suggested the possibility that the building admin is maliciously interfering with this shareholder? (scoots sort-of did)

But that would NEVER happen in New York... :)

It's not price protection because there have been other sales in this range for 1 brs and a studio for 310k.
The apartment actually started out pretty high and made reasonable price reductions when offers were not made.

Teeman said that he was going to pay cash which means there would be no lien by a bank. So even if Teeman were to have a complete economic meltdown the coop would probably profit from his misfortune.
And everyone knows by now that the Coop stands in front of the bank if there were a lien. nuf said about that for now.

I agree with stevejhx - Sue the bastards. If you truly do exceed all of the financial criteria then it's not far fetched for one to consider that there was some sort of discrimination.

Better yet, contact the shareholder and let him know that you will testify on his behalf if he chooses to challenge the building for malicious interference.

There needs to be legislation which protects shareholders rights and mandates full transparency. Otherwise these landlords will continue to make up their own laws. They just don't have to tell anyone there doing it.

The problem in these situations is that people usually do just walk away and seek the path of least resistance while these real estate parasites destroy peoples lives ...
"on a case by case basis"

Teeman - do you have college age kids, or kids in their 20's? Some coops don't like pied-a-terre owners with young adult kids. Might turn into situation with lots of overnight "guests" causing problems for the other owners.

thanks all for your input, I agree with andwin, most people walk away, I like contacting seller, but remember they have to deal with this board in the future to finally get out!, ironic after paying cash, I had millions in cash (bonds etc.), documented in package, so finance can't be issue, they didn't ask for escrow of maintenance, they waited six weeks before rejection and never asked for interview, I'm going to buy a condo, who needs this, don't want my money or my estate to have to deal with any NYC co-op board, interesting here that 19 out of 80 units are still in sponsor control, but your right on the money, this needs legislation to address issue, brokers and co-op owners awake to the REALITY this happens in NYC, often enough, do you guys want to kiss your money goodbye, secretive demons abound !!
for whatever reasons...........

Clearly, teeman isn't telling the whole story.

On paper, no co-op board is going to turn down an alleged multi-millionaire who's willing to pay cash.

Something else is going on here.

****
"Some coops don't like pied-a-terre owners with young adult kids. Might turn into situation with lots of overnight "guests" causing problems for the other owners."

That's another "BINGO!"

****
"I wonder why nobody suggested the possibility that the building admin is maliciously interfering with this shareholder?"

Because these cases, if they exist at all, are few and far between.

If we can't stand the shareholder, why the hell would we "interfere" with the process of his LEAVING the building??

Well, there's finally the answer from the OP: "19 out of 80 units still in sponsor control." No mystery there.

ali r.

Move on. You don't want to fight to purchase a co-op where you were rejected. Even if you win, and especially if you win; the Board will make your life miserable. With so many great condos on the market, why even bother with a co-op?

the orginal post sounded sucpect to me, but i thought MAYBE it is legit.... As it goes on it becomes more and more ludicrous, it's either a fake post or teeman is a MAJOR dick. if you have so much money, art work a great life ect move on. Or is your ego that big you can't believe you were rejected?

RE2009, we have our answer: major dick.