Maintenance/CC increases for 2010?

We had our budget meeting last month, and managed to keep ours down to 1.9%.

what did you budget for tax increase?
what did you budget for fuel increase?
what did you budget for union labor increase?

no answer of course.

another so called fact pulled out of nowhere.

Um, pull up your pants and give me a second dude.

What did we budget for a tax increase? Nothing -- since the city's tax increase is likely not going to happen, at as much a projected, and not this year (based on our own interview with a city spokesperson).

Fuel increase? Same as last year.

Union labor increase? Same as last year -- the built-in 3% raise, as per the union contract.

The cost of heating oil has been dropping.

Incidentally, my building in particular has a healthy reserve, and because this has been a particularly tight year for many shareholders, we made the decision to actually CUT expenses (yes, it can be done) and if need be, dip into the reserves for any surprise repairs.

what expenses did you cut?

not labor.
not fuel.
not taxes.
not professional fees.

what did you cut? your own under the table payments?

I'm pretending ours has gone down by 1%. We had a 10% assessment spread over the last three months of 2009 (for a boiler and odds and ends) so 2010 will be a bit less than what 2009 ended up totalling. Unless, of course, there's an assessment next year, too.

"what expenses did you cut?

not labor.
not fuel.
not taxes.
not professional fees.

what did you cut? your own under the table payments?"

Have you ever done a building budget? You go line by line ... for about 4 pages. Over the course of about 60 lines of expenses, you'd be surprised what you can trim.

so...what did you cut in the 4 pages each with 15 lines?

not labor, right?
not fuel, right?
not taxes, right?
not professional fees, right?

how much do those four lines make up of your entire budget? 85%?

CC, I've grown weary of this thread, and am moving on.

Feel free to continue your one-handed typing while you get all "worked up" over me.

Going up under 5% in percentage equal to RE tax increase.

I can't speak for any building other than my own, but we have found ways to slash costs in many key areas. We are a small building- so take it for what it's worth.

Labor- we had 1 extremely over-paid part time employee (both in terms of actual compensation and value he provided for the building) which we replaced with a 1099 agent who is cheaper and has been doing a much better job.

Fuel- Natural Gas prices have been lower than last year- I accounted for the massive run up of energy in our common charges in 2007.

Taxes- we cut our 1 employee. Since it's a condo, property taxes are not included in the equation.

Insurance- we cut our 1 employee, cuts our insurance costs at the state and the building level

Professional fees- Accountant is slightly cheaper since we no longer have quarterly taxes to pay and found a slightly cheaper accountant as well (I admit this is really inconsequential- but wanted to show it is possible to cut costs here).

Hard to believe, but we have been told that our maintenance charges will be REDUCED by 10%.

Basically, a tax certiorari proceeding was resolved in favor of the building. The rebated amount is not going to be given back to the owners but is being used instead to reduce maintenance charges in 2010.

Definitely not complaining.

Looking at 5% maintenance increase next year. Main driver is labor, which we are increasing by ~3%. The rest of the increase is a bunch of paper cuts that somehow add up...

Ours is going up 7.5% ($100/month).

+5%

2%, largely to cover increase in RE taxes caused by an increasing assessed value.

no change

My rent went down again.

somewhere - that was actually a funny response. But my mortgage-free coop maintenance will now be $630.

my pile of money from not paying a mortgage got 25% bigger this year.

somewhere - just keep saying to yourself "it is better to rent then own, it is better" then mail your money to someone else.

2% for next year for my building.

keep saying its better to own than rent as you mail your money to multiple other people... and then watch your equity disappear.

I know you're bitter, but lashing out and lying won't fix that....

wait, correction...

'keep saying its better to own than rent as you mail TWICE AS MUCH MONEY to multiple other people... and then watch your equity disappear.'

forgot that part.

I love how owners really think they aren't giving anyone else any money.

lol.

"'keep saying its better to own than rent as you mail TWICE AS MUCH MONEY to multiple other people... and then watch your equity disappear.'
forgot that part.
I love how owners really think they aren't giving anyone else any money.
lol."

Jesus, you never stop do you? It's true, paying a mortgage requires giving money to someone else. It's not true that we all pay twice as much money. Some pay less. But you know this, even in your black-and-white vision of the world.