All A-Board

I've spent a lot of time lately explaining the difference between a co-op and a condo here in NYC to friends and family.  In a nutshell, it breaks down into what you own.  In a condo, you own your unit from the walls inward.  It is yours, you are a property owner, and you can (generally) sell it to whomever you like and do whatever like to it.  In a co-op, you own a share of the controlling interest in the building proportionate to the size of your unit, and you hold a permanent lease on your unit to live in.  So the apartment is not your property, and the co-op has a great deal of say in who you can sell it to and what you can do to it.

Fortunately, I now live in a condo.  Condos are rare in NYC, for reasons that aren't particularly clear to me.  Co-ops seem to be the norm in this town.  So I consider myself pretty lucky to have found a good one.  Still, both condos and co-ops are overseen by a Board of Directors.  In a co-op, the Board has near-limitless power, since they control essentially the whole building.  In a condo, the Board is not quite so omnipotent, but is still responsible for building management, maintenance, and generally keeping all the residents happy.  After all, someone needs to actually run the building.

Last week, we had our first Unit Owners meeting, where everyone in the building got together for the first time.  At this meeting were the Sponsor (the developer who built the building) and his lawyer, who officially transferred control of the building to the Owners (us).  The first thing we then had to do was elect our three-member Board of Directors.

At this point I should mention, everyone in this building is pretty cool.  Everyone I've met so far has been really nice, very open and welcoming.  It really makes me feel even better about living here.  Many of them are just like Lynn and I, young first-time homeowners.  I suppose that last one is actually the one possible downside: no one has owned an apartment, so no one has any condo or condo board experience.

Still, we had to elect a Board, and elect one we did.  Five of us volunteered, based on interested more than experience (since there was none among us).  We held sheets of paper in front of us with our unit numbers, and stood in a line along the wall in front of everyone, like a police line-up.  We went down the line telling a little bit about ourselves and what experience might be relevant.  And everyone voted on the neighbors they just met, based solely on those few minutes of talking.  I was elected, along with another guy on my floor, and the guy who lives directly above me.  The only thing we knew was that we had our work cut out for us.

And it's true.  We met for the first time, and are still in the process of even identifying all the things we have to take care of.  It's a long list that includes everything from hiring someone to take out the trash to dealing with bank accounts and financial stability and buying a grill for the roof deck.  But though I'm not exactly sure what's next yet, I'm really confident about this.  The three of us are all on the same page, we get along really well, and we're all having fun figuring out what we're supposed to be doing.  It'll be an interesting experience, but a good one.

Best of all, we're creating a community in our little building.  And we're off to a great start.