Teri Karush Rogers
Founder and publisher Teri Karush Rogers launched Brick Underground in 2009. As a freelance journalist, she had previously covered New York City real estate for The New York Times. Teri has been featured as an expert on New York City residential real estate by The New York Times, New York Daily News, amNew York, NBC Nightly News, The Real Deal, Business Insider, the Huffington Post, and NY1 News, among others. Teri earned a BA in journalism and a law degree from New York University. During law school she realized she would rather explain things than argue about them, so she returned to service journalism after graduation.
Posts by Teri Karush Rogers:
Q. I've been an independent marketing consultant for five years and I want to buy an apartment. Income-wise, I had one bad year three years ago but other than it's been pretty steady at around $225,000 a year. Still, I've heard co-op boards have a bias against self-employed buyers. Should I even bother looking at co-ops? If so, do you have any suggestions for how to present my income and self-employed status in the best light?
Over on StreetEasy.com, an apartment owner has posed a common renovation quandary: Spend $20,000-$25,000 on a rental apartment to bunk at while contractors tear up his apartment and piece it back together. Or save on the rent and tough it out.
Seemingly, the latter is not such a bad option if you work full time in city full of great take-out and eat-out options. But from a quality of life perspective, virtually no one thinks sticking around is a good idea.
Q. I have reason to suspect that the president of my co-op board for the last 14 years is in cahoots with the management firm, pushing through sweetheart deals with vendors recommended by the management firm in exchange for kickbacks. The final straw was when the roofing company hired by the building did such an awful job that I have had water leaking into my top-floor apartment for the last 10 months (it never did before). What are my options?
