The Renaissance - maintenance costs are huge

This is a common problem among HDC and HDFC apartment building- dramatically overpriced. Most just sit and sit and sit on the market.

http://www.nychdc.com/ApartmentSeekers/AS_Manhattan.html

I am guessing (but I am not sure) that owners bought dirt cheap with the maintenance bearing a significant chunk of the initial construction costs.

Will they go down as costs are recouped? These prices are ridiculously low and then you look at the maintenance and say byebye!

55% of the maintenance is deductible, the units are huge, there is a full tax abetment for another 15 years and the maintenance is not bad when compared with other buildings in New York and in the area. Here you can still buy an apartment for less that $1 Million and have space for a family with kids. The real issue with this building is this board that is too involved in everything, the president runs her personal renovation business, sells groceries to get a kick back, and she is conveniently connected to a broker that is doing sales in the building, they hang out together and this means kick backs and self dealing. There are also incredible maintenance costs that would make anyone suspicious. They also tend to harass employees and shareholders they do not like.

Real estate agents are suggesting income restrictions will be lifted on all apartments. Fiction, right?

UNIT 1006: There are no income restrictions on this home. No subletting is allowed in the building. Pets are welcome.
UNIT 302: Max income $198,000

I'm not interested in this building, don't really like it. But it caught my attention thanks to the unusually high CCs and the fact that some units are advertised with income restrictions while others claim they are not subject to them.

Is that possible? Or is it a typical bad broker' trick?

i guess there are some original/benefited residents continue to be assigned in the building that's contracted to pay less to nothing. others need to subsidize them

Some Units were initially sold with Income Restrictions, and some were sold
"Free Market"
Almost a decade later some still have Income Restrictions upon Resale while others do not . . .

the building has lifted income restrictions on some of the upper floors to help compensate for the high maint. this is a policy that is reviewed and renewed annually.

Many of the buildings in Harlem were converted into Co-Op in the last boom , and went bankrupt before they could sell all the apartments . The tenants in the building have to pay the maintenance for the empty apartments

I heard there are three underlying mortgages. If and when these mortgages are satsified will the maintenance be reduced? Perhaps the board is guilty of agressively addressing the financial issues they have face and will one day turn the corner OR the maintenance charges will keep going up up up so just stay away.

Some of the mortgage, income-limit, and resale-profit info is at http://akamgenesis.com/gensysN/Renaissance/pdffiles/resale.pdf

That may not be current, though.