Good Article, Terrible Headline (NYT on coop apartment letters of recommendation)

A Sunday NY Times article about letters of recommendation in cooperative apartment purchase applications has a lot of good content – but a terrible headline. Mightier than the Board is bass-ackwards, as the text of the article demonstrates that The Board has all the power in reviewing an application, not the letter writers or the purchasers.

And some Boards are far more willing than others to use (abuse?) that power.

Perfunctory letters (“I have known John Smith and Mary Jones since college and they will make great neighbors”) never help a purchase application, but ‘reasonable’ Boards will look positively on any detailed letters from people who know the applicants well that speak to the applicants’ relevant qualities as potential neighbors and shareholders. Other Boards (be they unreasonable or downright snooty) require letters from “people like us”, which can be other captains of Industry, society dames, or people who belong to the right clubs. Indeed, in the most extreme cases, if your grandfather did not go to church with their grandfathers, forget it.

I worked on a purchase application last year for an established and financially secure 60-something couple seeking to buy in a not-quite-snooty building. At the suggestion of the listing agent, they provided biographical material about their parents and their adult children. The word is that the Board was pleased to see that one set of parents of this mature couple had owned a coop nearby (a similarly snooty building it seems). Would they have been approved without that ‘connection’? No need to find out, but that was the report.

Letter writing is a lost art, and coop reference letter writing is a most arcane skill that few people have. That is why I do a lot of coaching for letter-writing (which I tell my buyers to blame on their anal agent) and why I suggest they get one more letter than they need (which I tell my buyers not to tell their letter writing friends and associates).

Tough town. Tough business. Mistakes here are very painful!