Great unit in a lousy co-op

Unacceptable risk. Risk much lower in reverse: crappy apartment in great building. Never buy into a bad building.

I agree with Kyle...no way would I take that risk--I do not believe it is even quantifiable

You left building condition out of the equation.

If the building is impeccably maintained and recently went through necessary large capital improvements, then maybe it could still be worth considering if you feel that the situation is solved and under control.

The high maintenance may be related to a large underlying mortgage on the building as this is a coop.

I always ask what the size of that mortgage is and how much would be ascribed to the individual unit under consideration. Say it was, $250,000. In that case you can easily just add that figure to the indicated cost price and then consider whether the price is attractive.

Is it pooly run financially? Or are they just fighting not to raise maint?

Take a look at a few years of audits. You can see what the financial picture is very clearly.

@Topper, I agree that pro rata share of underlying mortgage should definitely be "added in" to the price. If the underlying mortgage is significantly larger than average, I'd also add in a penalty to reflect that more of your carrying costs are going to be (1) at a less favorable interest rate, (2) partially or wholly outside of your control, and (3) often interest-only or effectively interest-only after refinancing costs.

Never have the nicest house in a bad neighborhood.

that's you in a nutshell.

>that's you in a nutshell.

Why thank you. I'm blushing.

I'm going to take the OP's post at face value. S/he says the coop is "poorly run." If that is true, there is no price at which one should willingly enter into a longterm very expensive investment with these people. I have no idea what "frequent" means in terms of special assessments, what they were for, why the reserves are low, what "low" means to the OP, or what the "etc" means. The OP has concluded it is a poorly run coop, though. That is a deal-buster. Period. Whether you can afford the added expenses if the price is low enough is not the only factor in the equation for this problem. I'd also wonder whether the other shareholders can continue to afford the frequent expenses, rising maintenance, lack of reserves and bad management. Their defaults are my headaches. And if they are forced to sell to get out of the coop, that bodes badly for preserving value if they're under duress. And if the building is that badly run, then that says something about the disfunction of all shareholders in the building--they elect the board.

I