Advice selling coop townhouse, River Park

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reserve study for River Park suggests that special assessments of perhaps several hundred thousand dollars for the townhome units could eventually come due to take care of the deferred maintenance needs. This likely means they must triple the current already wildly excessive HOA fees or pay in large lump sum special assessments. New aluminum barrel roofs are needed at $150,000 each. New soffits are required. The HVAC chiller broke down last summer. The recently redone HVAC piping is leaking. TheHOA is essentially broke. The project may no longer be economically viable. This 62 year old coop development is essentially unmarketable.

I wonder if in the next 5-10 years the HOA sells the whole community to a developer for the land value?

People are already refusing to buy the units - this one has been on the market since March https://redf.in/SjhZgd

And if I was an owner, if faced with a $150k bill just for the roof (ignoring all of the other issues), in a place that’s impossible to sell, I’d vote to just sell the whole community.

[Anonymous]

I’ve always wondered who buys these?!

At some point the music stops. No?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Americans, save nyc, just don’t get coops. I’ve given up trying to explain them. To a far lesser degree they don’t understand condos either.

Could it be because the Americans in question, other than NYC, aren’t in a prestigious Manhattan?

Rat infested crimey no school SW can’t compete?

[Anonymous]

Why is the maintenance so high? What does it cover that is the so costly. It is already high without the assessments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is the maintenance so high? What does it cover that is the so costly. It is already high without the assessments.

It’s a combination of factors. All external construction is aluminum and custom designed so there’s no off-the self replacements. Everything is 60 years old. All infrastructure is shared and the responsibility of the community rather than the city (in the city, if a sewage pipe or water pipe bursts, DC pays for it. In River Park, the community pays for it). The community is mostly concrete which wears out and must be repaired every few years. Most of the infrastructure is under concrete which must be torn up to make repairs.