How to choose a coop apartment in Manhattan

Look for 80% owner occupied (more stable and easier to get financing). Maintenance of < $1.50/sf. One year expenses in reserve. Higher maintenance is typically associated with a large underlying mortgage or ground lease. Check terms of underlying mortgage, if any, to make sure that it's refinanceable and won't cause a maintenance spike or assessment upon refinance. Avoid ground leased buildings. Higher maintenance could also be due to a lot of building staff and/or amenities. If you want those things, you'll pay for them through your maintenance.

"And what would be the reasonable monthly maintenance fee for a small one bedroom apartment for the size of 300~600 sf."

Depends on the type of building.

Brownstone? Expect to pay around $1200/month.

Huge prewar in Washington Heights walkup? More like $550.

And then there's everything else in between.

Hi, if your friend said that comment seriously, I would consider finding other avenues to find information.

The particular maintenance attached to each apt in a building is determined by numerous factors.

Poor management could possibly lead to higher maintenance fees, (when you look at the average boards budget, there is only a small percentage of variables they can effect as so many of the costs are fixed, unless we are talking fraud or large unnecessary legal bills), however the much more common factors are.

Real estate tax's are a large expenditure so you will often see higher taxs/maintenance attached to more prime locations as they are more valuable and get taxed more. ie CPW and or a park block buildings have higher real estate taxs then say Amsterdam Ave for the same sq ft.

The number of apt's in a building, in smaller building say <50 Apts it is more expensive to offset the costs of staff/ amenities etc. Which is part of the reason why economies of scale are favorable to bigger buildings, like the Majestic, or Beresford have relatively low maintenance considering all the services they provide and the location. Also maybe more relevant 200 west 86th st.

It is very few buildings where the allocation of shares (which determines your maintenance) wasn't divided by a calculation that takes into account, more shares for south facing apts rather than North, more shares for the "view" side, more shares each floor you go up, if you got outdoor space etc.

Hence it is hard to have a hard and fast rule about maintenance psf, $2 foot is often the amount quoted that you hear brokers saying clients start to balk at figures going over that mark so stay under that.

Good luck

Hi, this is unusual my comment posted leaving out about 3 sentences and re arranging 2 sentences, has anyone had that happen? I will say it perhaps my posts are too long :)

One important one so the paragraph makes sense was in paragraph 5 ...If you are in a smaller building say under 50 apts you have less apts to divide the costs between, which is why economies of scale favors the larger buildings, ie the Beresford, Majestic or 200West 86th st all have relatively low maintenance psf considering there location, number of staff and amenities.

When apts are allocated shares (which determine your maintenance), it is often based on a number of factors including, South facing gets more than North facing apt, the "view" side gets more shares, each floor you go up often more shares are allocated etc

All of the above factors are more common reasons for a higher allocation of shares/ higher maintenance.

Re: share allocation, another factor when the co-op was established was, market demand for apartments of different sizes at that particular time.

E.g., the Normandy's sponsor tried to go co-op in 1971, 1974, and 1980. The 1980 one was successful. In that offering plan, the share allocations for the smaller apartments increased a bit, and those for the larger apartments decreased a bit, from the earlier offerings because of change in demand. So that 1980 market established the share allocation forever, regardless of changes in demand in the decades since.