RE: Projected Costs vs Real Costs
From: Rob Sandelin (robsanmicrosoft.com)
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 95 11:19 CST
Bill Paiss wrote:

 >Early estimates are just estimates...but time and time
>again when people hear that the preliminary estimated price of their home
>will be between $90,000 and $140,000 they hear, "$90,000,  great I can afford
>that."

This is the crux of the issue and very well stated.  It would seem to 
be something to think about in terms of pre-qualifying members.  If the 
range is 90 - 140K, then maybe, just maybe, you could ask that members 
financially qualify for the middle or slightly above, such as 120K.  
Then if costs are on the low scale, then you are doing OK, and if costs 
are on the high end it is less of a shock.

Last weekend was a gathering of the local cohousing groups and I had a 
conversation with a very unhappy and bitter person who felt she had 
been mis-led about the pricing of units. I am pretty sure in fact, she 
was exactly what Bill described.  She heard the low end estimate and 
said, great I can (barely)_ afford that.  Then when prices later became 
real she had to abandon the dream.

Now maybe if anybody knew what they were really getting into they would 
never do cohousing to start with, but in terms of financing stuff, 
maybe a little pessimism might be a good thing?  At the gathering I 
heard several people talking about affordability, and I hope that they 
succeed, but I also found that many of those talking affordability were 
idealists who have no experience in such matters and only the vaguest 
of notions about the whole process.  I will be interested to watch 
these projects and see how far they go and will pass along what ever 
successes they have, and will also try and detail their failures.

Rob Sandelin
Puget Sound Cohousing Network

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