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Call 800-259-7595Rental-to-condo conversion
The Hutton Group
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For shareholders

Your shares become a deed to the home you already live in.

Since 1992 we have converted more than 5,000 cooperative units into condominiums, nationwide, and we do the work from beginning to end. If a conversion has been raised in your building, the questions that matter first are about your own unit, and this letter answers them.

Written by Jack Boyajian, President, The Hutton GroupUpdated September 2026
Cooperative units converted
5,000+
Value appreciation for shareholders
$550M+
Of shareholder-approved conversions completed
100%
Converting co-ops nationwide since
1992
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Berkley Arms, Hackensack, NJ

Converted

Berkley Arms, Hackensack, NJ

120 units

Your situation

What you own today is shares in a corporation and a proprietary lease on the unit you live in. Those shares are not real property, which is why your financing runs through co-op lending guidelines and a short list of lenders. Almost every cooperative carries one underlying mortgage for the whole building, and you pay your share of it inside your maintenance. A co-op lender lends against your shares rather than against real property, and the lenders who will do that are few. A conversion changes the form of ownership and nothing else, and you exchange your shares for a deed to the unit you already occupy. Nothing happens to your unit unless the shareholders vote for it.

What it means for you

You receive a deed to your own unit, in your own name, and you hold real property rather than shares. You can sell it, rent it, mortgage it and leave it to your heirs, which a share certificate does not let you do. Across the conversions we have completed, unit values have appreciated by more than $550 million. Reverse mortgages are very uncommon for co-op shareholders today, and we can arrange access through the conversion, often at the closing itself. The building's underlying mortgage is paid off at the conversion, and your share of it becomes a loan in your own name. The equity that is trapped in your share becomes real property, and what you do with it is your decision.

What it costs you

You pay nothing before the closing, and if the conversion does not happen you owe us nothing at all. We are paid one fixed fee per unit, by each owner at closing, and only when the deed to that unit is delivered. That fee covers every cost of the conversion: legal, architectural and engineering, title, recording, document preparation and administration. Other than normal financing and closing costs, and only where those apply, you have no other expense. Most owners finance their conversion obligation rather than pay cash, through the All-in-Plan, the Group Fund, or a lender of their own choosing.

Your vote

You vote at a special meeting of the shareholders, called as your governing documents and your state's statutes require. You receive a voting package before that meeting, with the corporate resolution and the ballot, so nobody is asked to decide in the room. We provide proxy and absentee ballots, and electronic signature where it suits the community, so a shareholder who cannot attend still counts. Under most governing documents and state statutes, two-thirds of the shares must approve the plan, and an abstention counts as a vote against. The decision is the shareholders' rather than your board's, and your own vote carries the shares that come with your unit.

If you do not want to convert, or cannot close

We have never had a conversion where someone has been forced out of their home. A shareholder who does not close with the majority of owners is what we call a deferred participant. Their share of the underlying mortgage, or of any other cooperative obligation, is funded by a new mortgage, and they receive their deed. They keep the right to sell the unit as a condominium, or to convert at a later date at a slightly higher cost. Owners who are retired or on a fixed income and need a loan can be financed too, and our primary lenders have provided those mortgages for many years.

“It is a very positive thing for the community. As a Co-op it was very difficult to sell. Units would sit on the market for months. Now, as a Condo they sell in a matter of days - if not hours. There is nothing negative to say about the results of converting.”
Betty Garcia, Former Board MemberBerkley Arms, Hackensack, New Jersey

What happens next

Come to the meetings we hold in your building, and ask us for your own Individual Unit Analysis before you vote. Please call us at 800-259-7595, or write to info@huttonfirm.com, and we will answer your questions about your own unit.

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Questions shareholders ask

What happens to my share loan?

It is wrapped into the new mortgage on your unit, so that you are left with one loan in your own name. In a conversion you take on your share of the cooperative's underlying mortgage, if there is one, along with the conversion fee and closing costs. All of that can be financed as one new condominium mortgage, through our lead lender or through a lender of your own choosing. You are not required to refinance a loan you already hold, where your lender will reaffirm your unit as its collateral. Your lender is a third party and we cannot promise its answer, so a conversion plan carries arrangements that work either way. If you owe nothing on your shares, you still hold a piece of the building's underlying mortgage, and this consolidates it.

Do my property taxes change?

Today your cooperative receives one tax bill for the whole property, and your share of it sits inside your maintenance. Afterward you receive and pay the tax bill for your own unit, which your assessor assesses individually as a condominium. What that assessment comes to is your assessor's to set and not ours, and you will see the figure for your own unit. The tax questions have been addressed in the conversion of thousands of units, and they have not been an impediment. We advise you to obtain separate and independent advice from your own accountant or tax adviser before you vote.

Tax implications

Can I keep renting my unit out?

Yes. You can keep your unit as an investment, and a deed gives you more freedom to sell or rent than a proprietary lease does. Your community can still make rules about renting, and most of the communities we convert choose to make some. Fannie Mae approval is lost if the share of rented units in a community ever exceeds half. That approval is what opens your building to the widest range of lenders, so we normally recommend a cap below it. Those rules are adopted by your own community in its new governing documents, and they are not ours to write.

I am retired and on a fixed income. Can I afford to convert?

You can. If you take a mortgage, our primary lenders will want to see that you have been paying your housing costs and other obligations on time. They will want your income to cover them, and on that showing you should qualify. If you would rather not apply for a loan at all, the Group Fund asks for no application, no credit check and no income requirement. You then pay your share of it through a monthly assessment alongside your condominium fee. What that comes to for your own unit is one of the figures we put in front of you before you vote.

What is the Individual Unit Analysis?

It is the report we prepare for your unit and yours alone, before the vote. It compares your unit's value, your monthly costs and your financing options before the conversion and after it. What you are voting on is then your own household's arithmetic rather than a general case. Every owner receives one. We go through it with you in a one-on-one session, held privately and separately from the group meetings. You can bring your own adviser to that session and ask about your own circumstances. If a vote is called before you have had one, ask us: we have put a vote back rather than rush a community.

Can I pay in cash instead of borrowing?

You can, and some owners do. How much of your conversion obligation to finance, and how much to pay in cash, is your own decision. A cooperative does not let you make it, because your share of the building's debt is carried on the building's terms. Owners paying cash receive a settlement statement before the closing that breaks down what is owed, and they usually close first. Others borrow a little more than they need, to pay off a car loan or a credit card, or to renovate. Others again pay part of the obligation in cash, to hold their monthly outlay down. As a condominium owner you choose for yourself the level of debt you are comfortable with.

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