Wait time for co-op board interview?

If these were typical times, the typical wait time might be relevant.

Your broker should be asking the seller's broker for info.

Our building averages 6 weeks between submission of board package and interview in the best of times. We recently did 2 during the pandemic where it took the managing agent 4 weeks to get the package to the board, and then it took the board another 4 weeks to schedule the interviews, leaving the buyers wondering for 8 weeks, so I would not be alarmed if you haven’t heard anything even for a few more weeks.

I'm baffled as to why anyone would want hardcopy as opposed to electronic applications right now. Maybe they're letting them age for a month before opening them.

I was baffled by many things coop until I got into the room where it all happens. Depends on the building, but average age of the board member goes a long way towards explaining what might be otherwise challenging to understand. Our building is getting better with younger shareholders dragging it into the 21st century so that now the issue is more one of dragging an entrenched managing agent into the 21st century. When you have a board composed of septuagenarian ladies-who-lunch being led by a managing agent account rep of the same ilk, things don’t exactly proceed the way they would if an individual in a competitive profession were running the show.

Did the management company reach out to you? Based on my past experience (twice), the management company emailed me (my email is in the application package) for questions, additional info, and status (whether the application was sent to the board).

I think for long documents, hard copy is much easier to read.

I don't like reading board applications electronically, and I PREPARE them electronically.

However, IA in these times you need an electronic copy since the board members are likely not in town, and the mails are slow.

Potential buyer, seller's broker should contact the managing agent and ask if the package has yet gone to the board, and if so, on what date. That's the query. Don't mention the word "interview."

FP, sorry I’m obtuse and gotta ask. What happens if you say the word “interview”?

The ghost of Andy Warhol haunts you.

LOL. 30, if I thought I could do something to get the ghost of Andy Warhola to haunt me, I'd do it in a heartbeat!

Nada, one thing that happens in co-ops is that board members (who, remember, don't get paid anything for serving) feel beleaguered. Prospective purchasers are ideally respectful of that...especially since maybe it's ladies-who-lunch in MCR's co-op, but in a lot of co-ops around the city, it's people who are stepping away from the fairly demanding jobs they need to have to afford these apartments.

So when there are timeline questions, they need to be phrased a little bit deferentially -- you certainly wouldn't want to come across as entitled by assuming that you're getting an interview.

I'm going to pause to mull about the etymology of "entitled" for a minute, since an image of Luann de Lesseps, the least likely co-op buyer ever, just floated into my head.

ali r.

https://therealdeal.com/2020/05/28/british-aristocrats-sue-to-quit-park-ave-purchase/

To be clear - we no longer have the ladies who lunch on our board, but the over-extender finance types who I was counting on to bring discipline to our budget have a different set of issues. At least the septuagenarian ladies who lunch were clueless as to the hole they were digging for the building; now we have two finance types who are trying to sell who know exactly what they are doing. I have given my opinion that they’d be best served by getting the building into solid financial shape, but they are just hoping a fool will come along and allow them to sneak out without paying the bill.

Oh FFS. There may be factors I don't know about, but if I were the seller in that Park Ave. transaction, I'd go after my board. The governor (who seems reasonably careful about other things) has said that move-ins and move-outs are okay.

Thanks, FP.

MCR, did you mean “over-extender” finance types or “over-extended”? I.e., are they over-extended themselves personally, or do they have an innate need to over-extend everything the touch, like a Midas of credit?

Midas of credit.

Interestingly enough, one of the finance types appears to be coming around. Both finance types are large shareholders, but the one who is coming around is a monster shareholder and is carrying a disproportionate share of the maintenance. Came in from out of state a few years ago and I think fancied himself as an expert in real estate without heeding anybody’s advice that no matter how much you think you know about real estate, NYC is different.

Back in my last (nightmare) Coop, 3 of the Board members were selling their units so they were keeping the maintenance artificially low and it wasn't even covering operating expenses. I brought it up at the annual meeting and the Board denied it. The managing agent denied it. The account denied it. The Board President derided me asking if my calculator was broken.

The next year at the annual meeting the new Board announced that THEY had "discovered" that maintenance wasn't covering expenses and announced a maintenance raise and assessment. The managing agent had changed. I protested that the accounted should be fired because they knowingly covered up the previous Board's falsification. The Board President said no because "they had seen emails from the accountant to the Board warning them that maintenance wasn't covering expenses." Considering the accountant's purpose is to represent the shareholder's interests against just such malfeasance in a "checks and balances" way (and the board president then was a former attorney) I was dumbfounded.

30, Curious how the coop was meeting the cash shortfall? Increased borrowing or reduced cash balances every year?

Both.

1 year later, no more lockdown, but same situation as the original poster here.

Submitted board package to the managing agent on May 3 (they confirmed receipt). After that, they were not heard from for weeks, until my attorney finally got some info, that the board was to look at the package at the board meeting on May 25. On Thursday, May 27, I called the managing agent for an update, and she said our application was approved for an interview. She said she would get back to us by Friday, May 28, with interview date and time. Since then management has not been heard from (broker and I both reached out) - no response to any correspondence. What else can I do?

My lease and rate lock have both expired, I am about to be homeless! This is so stressful!

Krolik--Sorry you are stressed out. But please understand it is pretty standard for co-op boards to take at LEAST 4 weeks to review and decide on a purchase application package. Many purchase applications will say to allow 60 days (though a diligent board should be able to review in a timelier fashion, as it appears this board did).

The fact that you submitted on May 3 and it is today only four weeks later (including a holiday) is not in any way out of line. It is of course odd that the managing agent did not convey the board's decision to go forward with an interview until you checked in but at this point my suggestion would be to be patient. Keep in mind an interview requires several board members to be present (on Zoom or in person) and can take some time to coordinate.

The pending lease and rate lock expiry is unfortunate but, frankly, is your problem. Your agent should have informed you about the standard time-line for board approvals at the outset. If you pester the board now it may not be in your best interest and the deal could go south. Just my two cents.

Some Boards wait until a formal Board meeting (6-8 weeks between meets) before a discussion about an application. Others decide applicants between meetings
Sometimes, the package is so poorly put together, that a Board asks for more documentation.
It's not a simply yes or no

This is an insane system costing buyers real money in rate lock extension fees. Apparently the delays are really, really bad right now. We got our interview and approval a week ago, but now are told that we need to wait several weeks after the approval and past our rate lock expiration for the building management to prepare documents for the zoom closing!

https://www.brickunderground.com/buy/advice-for-dealing-delays-condo-coop-questionnaire-mortgage-contingency-rate-lock-nyc

This is a huge waste adding to the insane transaction costs in the city.

This is not a city for the faint hearted.

It's also a combo of mortgage brokers and buyers' brokers lying about the timeline. The groundwork should have been laid for the possibility that closing might be six weeks post-approval... that's not necessarily an outlier.

Seems odd to me that the managing agent cannot prep the closing materials more quickly. I usually sign materials for sales within a week of approval (board president). Not sure why it would take 'weeks' for them to prep these.

No one was lying about the timeline. I think the timeline is objectively ridiculous. What can possibly be the reason for six weeks wait AFTER bank commitment and signed board approval? Why is it assumed I can just indefinitely pay lock extension fees, and where am I supposed to live in the mean time?

You can buy a house, with a mortgage, in 30 days, in any other state in the US.

Boards and management companies have no incentive to work quickly. At best, they might care about minimizing their own costs, but even that's overoptimistic in many cases.

In theory the sellers should be your liaison here, since they have similar uncertainty about housing/storage, not to mention carry costs (could be an order of magnitude higher than your bank fees). What's their story? If they're not willing to go to bat with their managing agent, I'd start to suspect that they are ok with if not intentionally causing the delay. (I wouldn't suspect a frosty relationship with the agent, as that would just be more reason to accelerate the process of getting them out the door, from the latter's POV)

All this is to say: this isn't a NY thing as much as a sharing-walls-with-many-cooks thing. A detached house in NY would work more like a detached house in OH than like a co-op in NY.

K, you may think the timeline is objectively ridiculous, but if it's SOP, then it's the timeline. This is not in the hands of the brokers, this is in the hands of other parties. Why are they so slow? IDK, because I'm not one of those parties. But I can tell you things are aggravatingly slow: I have a sale that was board approved in May, and it will close ... in July. Condo, all-cash.

Congrats Krolik! Soon you will be on the other side. If your next phase of NYC real estate is renovation, it is only a matter of time before you miss the simplicity of purchasing. :-)

Ali - and how is this situation with your condo normal? I know things are aggravatingly slow!

What is preventing them from stalling for 6 months?

As an update, I closed on the apartment. The seller and his attorney calling management and making a big fuss helped a lot!

You might see me in another thread later moaning about renovations. lol.

Congrats, Krolik!

Congrats!!

Carry on!