Inspection on a Co-Op?

Subject: inspection

Always get buildings inspected in a real estate transaction. There are so many things an untrained eye would be unaware of, and once the deal is done, it's done. No do-overs.

An inspection is well worth the money.

Good luck.

Banks Do NOT require it to be inspected they require an appraisal BUT have it done especially if it is a small building you wnat to know what you are in for iof some thign were to breakdown you will have to help pay for it if the buildng doesnt ahvea big reserve fund.

Go with the inspector when he does the inspection so you can see what he is talking about and dont let the brokers talk you out of it It will cost you between $500-1000 for an inspector but it is worth it.

You should do it even if it is a new construction building because the developers are not always doing what is necessary in all the apartments

Banks require appriasals not inspections

Subject: inspection for a coop

I don't think it is necessary. You have inspected your apt, correct? Any internal plumbing, roofing matters, are the responsibility of the coop. Have you reviewed board meetings and finances? You should know from those documents about any major work or reassessments that may come up. I was on a board of a large co-op and I don't recall anyone having an inspection made.

whynot_31 wrote: get it inspected.

1. The bank will probably require it.

2. It will tell you things like when the roof, plumbing and boiler was last redone, each of which would lead to a huge assessment.

Not all buildings have huge assessments, our building has a nice reserve fund, so, we never have assessments and would have plenty of money to redo our roof, etc. if necessary. i would think a financially stable coop would have a good reserve fund, ask about that!

That being said, yes, have an inspection done, it is a common thing to do and will be very beneficial to you.

OK, I see a few of you talking about assessments, I must live in an odd coop because in 20 years, we have never had an assessment, and we have redone our roof, put in a new boiler, etc. etc.. Be leery of coops that have assessments frequently, something is wrong there!

Seriously? The quarters in the basement laundry machines? first of all, you pay to do laundry in your own building? A washing machine doesn't cost that much to buy outright. The 4 machines in our building were bought at stores and we don't pay to use them.

Anyway, seriously, no reserve fund? Why not? over the years we just built in a little extra into our maintenance payments until the reserve fund was built up to the amount we felt comfortable with.

Plus, every year when we do our budget, we allot a certain amount for repairs. now of course, we can't guarantee that building repairs will fit nicely in there, but, that is why the reserve fund. We have never had an assessment and we have done our roof, our boiler, various plumbing issues, we even did our sidewalk and cement work in front of our building 2 years ago, and last year, had some extra lights put into the basement along with hook ups for an extra washer and drier (which we also purchased).-the reserve fund wasn't touched for that, only the repair money we put aside every year.

now, granted, we have no mortgage on the building, but that only happened about 4 years ago. And things were operating like this back then also. Why wouldn't your building have a reserve fund? how large of a building do you live in? What is your maintenance payment every month?

maybe we are in better shape because we are only a 7 unit building?