Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Sales/Resales

[Rob Sandelin (robsan]

 Judy BAXTER asked:
This raises an interesting question - those of you in existing groups who have
had sales and new members moving in - an insights on how to manage the process?



At Sharingwood we have had one completed home come up for sale.  The 
home never went on the real estate market, an associate member bought 
it.  We have a waiting list que for associate members and houses for 
sale first pass through the que.  This is totally as a courtesy, since 
the organization actually doesn't have any right of first refusal or 
any control on resale of homes.  However, It does make sense, the home 
seller can be assured that the person buying the home is into what we 
are doing and the buyer has pre-screened themselves.  We now have a 
waiting list of 12, several who are working on our second phase.  We 
also have a list of "friends" which is quite large and who get our 
newsletter.  I would think that between the associate members and 
friends we could sell any house we have. ( I have a standing offer on 
my house which gets renewed every time I see this person - they like my 
house and If I ever want to sell it, they really want to buy it - which 
is nice as I am considering selling and moving into phase 2 someday)

We hold an open house each summer, which gets widely publicized and 
attracts 200-300 people.  Some of these people then come out for 
meetings, become friends of Sharingwood and a very few end up as 
associate members.