Try not to talk too much and to keep your answers friendly and polite, but also short and to the point. There’s no need to ramble on and reveal unnecessary information to the board that might damage your chances of approval. Remember, they’ve already conditionally approved you by agreeing to interview you after reviewing your coop board package. There’s no need to voluntarily spout new information about yourself that may be harmful to your brand.
Don’t ask questions, even if the co-op board asks you if you have questions. That’s often a trick question by many co-op boards to test whether the applicant has researched how to conduct themselves during a coop board interview. Remember, this is not the time to ask about your renovation plans or to ask other tough questions of the board. You are the one being interviewed here, not them. So don’t drag the interview on any longer than necessary and simply say that you can’t think of any questions at the moment, but you’ll be sure to check in with the board on anything important that you can’t figure out yourself once you’re a shareholder.
Do not mention your renovation plans. The co-op board interview is the absolute worst time to ask about your renovation plans. In fact, it’s rather presumptuous to assume that the board will approve you by asking them about renovation plans during the interview. Remember that approving renovations takes a lot of work and can be a bit of a headache for board members, so why would you bring up the fact that you plan on giving them more work before you’ve even been approved? Wouldn’t that give them reason to reject your application, if nothing else but because you would cause them more work? Plus, it shows truly poor judgement to demand answers from the board on your renovation plans before they’ve even decided whether you can buy in the building!
