Discrimination in co-op boards. How would you deal with it?

[Daniel Patterson]

Hi everyone,

So my mother and I had listed 3 units in a cooperative development in central Long Island. The first one we listed for $169,000 and the other two were around that price. All of these units are one bedroom. We had a perfect qualified young single male buyer for the first one who was putting 20% down and had a great job working as an IT tech close to the co-op. Everyone who knows real estate sales knows even the simplest deals take a month or two or three(if your getting a loan). So like any other co-op, he needed to get approved by the board before we could close. Now the board wont interview any potential buyer until we had the commitment from the bank for his mortgage. So 2-3 months go by and were all set to close in 2 weeks or so and it turns out he gets denied by the board. We couldn't even ask why he got denied. Everything's all secretive and hush hush. Be aware, this entire development is 100% elderly white women. They want nothing to do with a young man moving into their community. So a month goes by and we still can't find another buyer for the unit but we managed to get the listing for the unit next door. Both units are similar in condition and price. Within 3 weeks we find a buyer for that unit... A perfect young single woman putting 20% down and great job as a new teacher in a close by school... Sound familiar? Both deals were exactly the same.. This woman got accepted, and were closing next week. Now a few weeks after we listed the 2nd unit, we got another listing a few doors down in the same building. This unit is nicer than the two previous ones. We found a buyer for this unit and again, its a perfectly qualified young male. Now to jump back to the first listing, the 169k unit. We found a buyer around the same time as this young male. She was an elderly woman and what do you know, she got accepted the day after she did her interview. Now back too the last unit we listed... This man had his interview 2 weeks ago and we still haven't heard back from the board. The seller just had a baby and they purchasing a home that is contingent on the sale of their co-op unit.. So everyone's panicking. If this guy gets rejected I have no idea what we'll do. We can't even get in touch with the board because they receive only mail, and it has to go through the management company first, and this company is horrible. I don't even think they have anyone working there as we've never got an email, call, or mail back from them.. So this just sucks.

I'm curious how others would approach this situation.

Regards,

Dan