What is the difference between a co-op and a condo?

In a co-op you buy shares in a corporation and a proprietary lease on your unit; the board approves you and the monthly maintenance bundles the building's costs and often its mortgage and taxes. In a condo you own real property, pay common charges plus your own taxes, and financing and subletting are usually easier.

How do I check whether a co-op or condo building is financially sound?

Ask for the last two years of financial statements, the current budget, the arrears picture, the reserve fund, the underlying mortgage terms, recent and planned assessments, any litigation, and two years of board minutes. Your attorney reviews these documents before you are committed; the buyer's job is to make sure they are asked for.

Why do some lenders decline co-op and condo buildings?

A building loan is really two approvals: you and the building. Low owner occupancy, weak reserves, heavy arrears, litigation, or a large sponsor share can fail a lender's building review even when the buyer qualifies. Many lenders do not write co-op loans at all, so the building type narrows which lenders can help.

How long is a mortgage pre approval good for?

Typically 60 to 90 days; the letter itself states the date. Refreshing one is usually light, updated paystubs and sometimes a new credit pull, so an expiring letter is an errand, not a restart.

Buying on Long Island · co-ops and condos

Buying a co-op or condo: read the building before you love the unit

With a house, you inspect the house. With a co-op or condo, the unit is the small half of the purchase. The building's finances decide your monthly bill, your ability to get a loan, and what the place is worth when you sell. Most buyers never see those numbers until their attorney does. This page tells you what gets asked, what the answers mean, and who actually verifies each one.

On this page: co-op vs condo · the building health questions · the cheap maintenance trap · who verifies what · the board package · financing a building

Co-op vs condo, the two minute version

A co-op means you buy shares in the corporation that owns the building, plus a proprietary lease on your unit. The board must approve you as a buyer, the monthly maintenance bundles the building's operating costs and usually its underlying mortgage and property taxes, and subletting is often restricted. Co-ops are usually the cheaper way into a given area, and the tradeoff is the board process and a narrower lender shelf.

A condo means you own real property with a deed, like a house. You pay common charges for the shared spaces plus your own property taxes. Financing is easier, renting the unit out is usually allowed, and prices run higher for the same square footage. The board reviews rather than approves in most condos, through a right of first refusal that is rarely exercised.

The building health questions

These are the questions I put to the managing agent and the listing side on every co-op and condo deal. None of them is rude. A building with good answers is proud of them.

The last two financial statements and the current budgetIs the building running a surplus or a deficit, and which way has it moved over two years? A deficit is not automatically fatal, but it has to be explained by something that ends.

ArrearsHow many units are behind on maintenance or common charges, and how far behind? Every delinquent unit means the paying owners are carrying the building. Rising arrears show up in your maintenance bill about a year later.

The reserve fundHow much is set aside, measured against the building's age and what is coming: roof, boilers, elevators, pointing. There is no single magic number; a young building needs less, an older one with a tired roof needs much more. Your attorney weighs it against the engineer's picture.

The underlying mortgage (co-ops)Balance, rate, and the maturity date. If the building's mortgage balloons next year and rates moved against it, the refinance lands in everyone's maintenance. This one question has saved buyers real money.

Assessments, past and plannedAn assessment is a temporary extra charge for a project the reserves could not cover. Ask what was assessed in the last five years and what projects are being discussed now. The word "discussed" matters; tomorrow's assessment is in this month's board minutes.

LitigationIs the building suing or being sued, beyond routine collections? Active construction defect or injury litigation can freeze lending on the whole building.

Owner occupancy and the sponsor's shareWhat share of units are owner occupied, and how many does the original sponsor still hold? Lenders read both numbers when they underwrite the building, and weak ones can shut off financing for your future buyer too.

Maintenance history and the flip taxHow much has maintenance risen over five years, and is there a flip tax, a transfer fee the building charges when you sell, and who pays it? Both belong in your resale math on day one.

The board minutesTwo years of minutes is where the building tells the truth about itself: the leaks, the fights, the projects, the assessment that is coming. Your attorney reads them before you are committed. If a building refuses to share minutes, that is itself an answer.

The cheap maintenance trap

Buyers compare maintenance the way they compare rent: lower is better. Sometimes the opposite is true. Unusually low maintenance in an older building can mean the board has been deferring work for years, and the bill for that arrives later as an assessment or a maintenance spike, usually right after a new owner moves in.

The same logic runs through price. When two similar units in similar buildings sit far apart in price, the market has often already read the financials for you. The discount is real; it is just not free. The point is never to avoid those buildings. It is to buy them with your eyes open and price the coming work into your offer.

Who verifies what

Nobody expects you to audit a building. New York has a division of labor for this, and it works when every seat does its part.

Your attorney

Reads the financial statements, the offering plan and amendments, and the board minutes during due diligence, before your deposit is at risk. This review is the reason the questions above get real answers. In New York your attorney is not a formality; on a co-op or condo they are the inspection.

Your lender

Underwrites the building, not just you. Owner occupancy, reserves, arrears, litigation, and the sponsor's share all go through the lender's building review. A decline at this stage is information: the lender is telling you what it thinks of the building's finances.

Me

I get the documents and the answers before you fall in love with the unit: the questions above to the managing agent, the financials and minutes to your attorney, the building details to your lender early so the two approval problem surfaces in week one, not week six.

None of this page is legal or financial advice. It is the map of who gives you that advice, and when.

The board package, the part nobody warns you about

On a co-op, after your offer is accepted you assemble a board package: application, financial statement, tax returns, reference letters, and whatever else the building's form asks for. Then the board interviews you, and then the board decides. A co-op board can decline a buyer, and the process adds weeks to the timeline, so we build it into the plan from the start instead of discovering it under contract.

The package is also where preparation shows. A complete, clean package moves fast; a package with gaps sits on a board member's kitchen table for a month. I have seen both. We do the first kind.

Financing: the building picks the lender shelf

Here is the part that surprises people who have only bought houses: many lenders simply do not write co-op loans, and some condo buildings fall outside the standard approval lists that the big loan programs use. So the question is never bank versus anyone else. The question is which lenders actively lend on this building type, and ideally on this building. That is a shorter list than the internet suggests, and it is why the lender conversation on a co-op or condo starts with the building's details, not your paycheck.

Use any lender you like, and shop at least two, comparing APR rather than the teaser rate. The pre approval questions, how long a letter lasts, what refreshing it takes, what the credit pull does, live in the buyer guide's pre approval section. The lenders who pick up the phone for my clients are on the resources page.

Talk through a building with me The full buyer guide