Posted by Rob FL on March 28, 1999 at 19:33:37:
This is assuming that by Co-Op you mean a cooperative. This is a form of ownership similar to condominiums. In Florida, most of these are on trailer park communities. A cooperative association owns the entire park. Owners within the park by stock in the cooperative. This stock ownership allows them to have a proprietary lease on a particular unit in the park. Like a condominium the stockholder has to pay monthly dues to cover common expenses, taxes, etc.
The 2 problems with cooperative are this. (1) If the cooperative association bought the park using a master mortgage on the whole park, and enough stockholders do not pay their monthly dues, the entire park could get foreclosed and even the regular payers could get foreclosed out and evicted. (2) Your individual unit cannot be mortgaged individually. This is because you bought stock in the cooperative and lease the unit. You do not actually own your unit so you cannot get a mortgage on it.
In my opinion cooperatives are ridiculous and I would never consider buying in one.
my .02