Re: "Like Minded People" & Resales
From: Ann Zabaldo (zabaldoearthlink.net)
Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2000 10:05:07 -0600 (MDT)
Thank you Liz!  I was getting pretty frustrated by that thread.  For the
life of me I couldn't figure out what some writers were writing about -- a
little esoteric for me.  I kept getting lost in the metaphors.  Best I could
tell was that "like minded people" were responding and all writing about
"it" whatever "it" is.

Nice to have you back on the list, Liz.

Ann Zabaldo

Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC. -- America's
Hometown!

"Looking inward from the street, the eye is drawn to the lone power cable
stretched between the North and South Wings.  Festooned with !!!!Warning!!!!
yellow tape, it evokes, briefly, streamer and laundry-criscrossed courtyards
in out-of-the-way Mediterranean villages."   From our resident poet laureate
and bon vivant, Ron Murray.
----- Original Message -----
From: <lilbert [at] earthlink.net>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2000 12:33 PM
Subject: Re: "Like Minded People" & Resales


> This is all very interesting, but I think it would be more helpful to
> actually answer questions that people have asked to the list. Isn't that
> what this list is for? Hello?
>
> Nobody has written a word about resales. I was going to, but thought it
> might not be very helpful, since we've had great luck with very little
> effort on our collective parts. But since everyone else seems to be
> cloistered in their ivory towers...
>
> We have no hard and fast rule about who our members can sell to. We don't
> really have a legal leg to stand on anyway. What we have done is let
people
> sell to whomever they wish, with the understanding that the group will
help
> with sales. This has evolved to be more helpful than it was years ago. We
> now have a membership committee, and we didn't used to. We had abandoned
it
> after we moved in, for lack of energy and interest on anybody's part. But
we
> felt the need to start it up again, because there were a few families who
> were selling at the same time, and there was a certain amount of tension
> around that. The committee is a sort of adjunct to the website. The way it
> has been working is that people contact me and I refer them to the
committee
> (of which my husband is a member, so there isn't a whole lot of
bureaucracy
> involved here!), and they answer any questions about our community and our
> units for sale. If they are interested, they can set up a tour. Really,
> since we got the website up and running, we've had no shortage of
interested
> buyers. Often, however, their unit size needs don't happen to be what we
> have available. What has happened is that the homes we have sold have
either
> gone to another member already living in the community or one of the
> "hangers on" that we already know. There used to be another group trying
to
> build cohousing downtown, and it fell apart for complicated reasons. We
have
> been cannibalizing those members, and have just sold a third house to one
of
> the former members of that group.
>
> The committee also is in charge of orienting new members and finding a
buddy
> for them. The buddy helps with any questions the newbie might have and is
a
> sort of cultural informant so that they get up to speed on our history and
> customs. It helps to have someone who they can go to, so that they don't
> feel stupid for asking everybody alot of questions.
>
> Another task before the committee is outreach. They haven't done alot with
> this yet,(as I said, we've been a little slack because it has been so easy
> to sell units so far) but will eventually be coordinating efforts with
> another coho group that is located out in the suburbs in terms of
marketing.
> The hope is that a coordinated effort will yield more members for both
> groups, since those not interested in city life will be referred to the
> other group and vice versa.
>
> My suggestions would be these: a website really gets alot of response, and
I
> think every group should have one. You should have either a person or a
> committee in charge of membership and marketing so that sellers feel
> supported in their endeavor. That way they are much less likely to sell to
> just anybody out of desperation. There also needs to be an understanding
> from the start that people will do their best to find good cohousers for
the
> homes should they sell. (Perhaps one of the questions you might ask
> prospective members before they are allowed to join?)
>
> One thing I forgot. A former member, who was never quite clear on the
whole
> thing, tried to sell with a realtor with disastrous consequences. She
ended
> up selling for far less than the house was worth, and not to anybody her
> real estate agent found. It was another member of the defunct group.
>
> --
> Liz Stevenson
> Southside Park Cohousing
> Sacramento, California
> ----------
> >From: "Hans Tilstra" <tilstra [at] smartchat.net.au>
> >To: Multiple recipients of list <cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org>
> >Subject: Re: "Like Minded People"
> >Date: Sun, Jul 16, 2000, 1:18 PM
> >
>
> > Gary Yontef (Gestalt theory) once pointed out that language is
inherently
> > inexact, contrasting it with what people do. It's good communication
> > practice to check out with the actual person using the term what they
mean
> > by it. Interesting conversations are often closer to the "vaguely
> > significant" rather than the "specifically irrelevant".
> >
> > ;-) Hans
> >
> >
>

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