Pro Tips for Preparing Your NYC Co-op Board Package

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The co-op board application can feel like a daunting task, but we've prepared a number of tips to help you along the way. My name is Nick at Hauseit, we are the largest Reduced Commission platform for New York City, established in 2014. So, let's get started.

Preparing a board package is fairly straightforward, however, it can take longer than you expect if you are not really prepared as to how the process will unfold. So, we're going to give you a number of tips that will help facilitate an expeditious completion and submission of the package.

The first tip is related to the reference letter requirements that are usually required for any co-op application in the city. In particular, you will need to submit a number of personal and professional reference letters, as well as an employer reference letter and a landlord reference letter. Now, because you're asking third parties to provide these items you should ideally ask for these as soon as possible, if not the moment you sign a purchase contract. You could even potentially ask for these items before you have an accepted offer even if you want to be totally prepared.

The only thing to consider would be with regard to who these letters are addressed to. You can just keep it generic, so tell your references to address them such as 'To Whom It May Concern' and then at a later date you can include the information of the particular co-op building that you are purchasing into. So, just to summarize, reach out and ask for around three personal reference letters, around three business reference letters, keep in mind the personal reference letters cannot be from family members so they do need to be from arm's length third parties such as good friends or colleagues and of course business reference letters do need to be. The landlord reference letter should usually indicate the date you started the lease as well as your current rent and some sort of statement attesting to whether or not you're current on payments. Your employer reference letter should indicate your job title your start date and comprehensively break down your income specifically your base salary as well as any other metrics or calculations for overtime or bonus income.

A second tip for the purchase application is to make sure that you type the application page itself. Now while technically most co-op buildings are okay with handwritten applications as long as they're legible, sending in an application that is not typed will likely infuriate the transfer agent at the managing agent, and you really need that person to be on your side as they're the ones who correspond with the board and effectively present and transmit your application to the co-op's board of managers.

A third tip is regarding the application fees and other expenses associated with the application itself. 95% of co-ops will require that your checks are certified checks. So if you have a free day you'll definitely want to go as quickly as possible to the bank and take the time to procure certified checks for the application fee as well as any other fees that you might have to pay for such as a move-in deposit or an actual move-in fee.

The next tip is about how you actually assemble the documentation for the application. Now keep in mind that your buyer's agent will be the one who assembles everything once you've come up with all of the individual items, and in order to make this efficient we strongly encourage you to open a cloud storage folder and to begin uploading the various documents to this one centralized location. And that way your buyer's agent will be able to efficiently access the necessary documents as they're synthesizing your application.

An additional tip is regarding the financial statement of the application. Now as we mentioned it can take a few weeks to get everything together and the coop will expect that your financial statement is relatively up to date and when you come up with your subtotals in your financial statement you are typically using the figures in your monthly bank statements. So, if you think that you need some additional time and your submission of the application will go beyond say the next statement date for a lot of your accounts, it's probably advisable for you to wait until the very last minutes for you to update and do the calculations on your financial statement because otherwise you might have to just redo them once all of these new statements come out provided you haven't submitted your application beforehand.

Save 2% When Buying in NYC: https://www.hauseit.com/hauseit-buyer-closing-credit-nyc/
NYC Buyer Closing Cost Calculator: https://www.hauseit.com/closing-cost-calculator-for-buyer-nyc/
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Hauseit LLC, Licensed Real Estate Broker
Tel: (888) 494-8258 | https://www.hauseit.com
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