Reference letters for coop boards?

Get one from your banker and one from your boss/business partner.

I have experience on admissions committees. The business letters should impart a sense that you are good at your job and that it is secure and that you are someone people like to work with and depend upon. No employer is going to say your job is secure, but such letters can convey the same by emphasizing the importance of your role, the respect in which you are held by your colleagues, your dedication to the job, the enormouse value of the institutional knowledge you possess. Business reference letters that emphasize your integrity and low-keyed approach to interpersonal relations, your "like-ability", and role as a consensus builder are good because these are qualities a board wants in a coop shareholder.

In getting reference letters, just remember your audience and that you are tyring to pursuade them that you will be a good addition to their "community" which is how most boards see their coops.

Don't sweat it too much as the board knows you are going to come up with a favorable letter and they hardly pay attention to them.

One of the two letters should be your current employer and the other one can be from any of the above referenced sources.

Run the letters by your broker first as he or she should have gone through this many a time and can recommend any neccesary changes.

Project stability and the positive "neighbor-like" qualities you bring to the table at the interview and all will go well.

Congrats on the new home.

In the most ideal world, at least one of your referrers knows someone on the board -- so if you can find that kind of a connection, great.

If not, don't worry about it. The next thing you want, ideally, are referrers who have known you for some length of time -- a vendor/agency partner is perfect.

Kylewest pretty much hit the themes you want to stress -- but I would add fiscal responsibility. Integrity and neighborliness are going to come through in the personal letters, what you want to give in the business letters is a portrait of someone who will wade hip-deep through a blizzard to pay their maintenance bill.

Also, both of these letters should be on business letterhead.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

Above is one of the reasons why Manhattan has no subprime "crisis" I salute co-op and condo boards, they prevented exactly what is ailing the rest of the country.

There are Condo boards?

AvUWS: Yes, condos have boards (and/or committees) but they seldom perform the "gatekeeper" function steveF is saluting.

As for the merits of that gatekeeper function, it has advantages and disadvantages. In a seller's market, a tough board is great: it protects value by keeping out the socailly and/or financially unfit, and also creates an aura of exclusivity that may make a co-op more alluring than its architecture, infrastructure, finances and amenities justify.

In a buyer's market, however, a tough board can be the bane of a seller's existence. And in any market, the social impact of one group of residents ruling on the acceptability of aspiring buyers can be have some unfortunate effects. If you're white, straight and married (and, even better, armed with a lot of old money), it's an abstract issue, or not an issue at all. If you're not any of those things, the issue can be quite concrete.

By the way, I'm white, straight and married. Missed out on the old money, though.

west81st: but even in a buyer's market, the fundamentals for the board are still the same and viable: enough money left to cover carrying charges and a more or less non-combative personality. Which is not verifiable, meaning personality, by the way, And I've seen the boards adapting to the changing situation. Of course, if it's the board that has a combative personality...

I was kidding around, but made my point I think. There aren't the same gatekeeper functions, for both good and ill.

In general the boards are both good and ill. They may encourage a certain stability in the market, but of course it cost those owners the same price appreciation in the good times. Basically it reduces the scope of the swings in either direction which can be good or bad depending on what you are looking for.

It also gives someone else the right to control what you do with your life. And don't discount the "unfairness" of someone who may have renovated their own apartment now not allow you to do it.

I think that in a good building the rules are as written in by-laws or house rules. And the renovations are either allowed or not allowed. I've seen buildings where the board members tried to allocate a special laundry room time for themselves. At some point, those board members were the applicants.

Inquirer- maybe they wanted to hold the board meetings there? ;)

Then again, maybe they were not applicants, just "insiders" when the building went coop and never had to go through a board approval.

No, they were not. One of them bought 2 apt, combined them, and became the president. All in 4 or 5 months. A very likable guy, semi-famous actor, and a total psychopath.

The gatekeeper function can also backfire in other ways. Coops are often so strict in looking at people's finances and background and the process is so burdensome that, once the applicant is accepted, the applicant already has a heightened sense of entitlement and is much more hyper sensitive on quality of life issues. Quite simply, they often expect more and put up with less. As an attorney, I've seen a much higher rate of people suing their neighbors and boards amongst coops than condos -- even accounting for the greater percentage of coops.

joepa - maybe condo people just don't have enough boards to sue.
Seriously: a condo gives one much more freedom, therefore fewer rules, fewer violations and it's harder to sue because there are fewer clauses to sue over. Which is also a double-sided thing. And logically, condo owners should (and (and in my experience do) have more sense of entitlement because it's their castle.

AvUWS, I knew you were kidding (you saved me some typing, actually), but of course you're dead on if you're talking about new construction.

inquirer - I'll concede that, though there is still plenty to sue over in a condo.