The future of cohousing support? (was Cohousing success documentation for banks as we begin the loan search)
From: Craig Ragland (craigraglandgmail.com)
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 14:36:25 -0800 (PST)
I'm sure it is obvious to a lot of folks on Coho-L that it would be REALLY
good if collecting and sharing this type of information was an established
Coho/US role... that is, such key information was available on cohousing.org
.

Same thing with sample docs of various types, etc.

I wanted to share that this idea is not lost to the Coho/US board. I'm
afraid that to date, it has been just another thing that we have needed more
energy to address given our established, legacy practices and priorities.

Assuming we are able to marshal more resources... and we are about to, you
will see this type of resource in the future. I know, believe me, that this
type of "coming soon" message seems lame when you have an immediate need...

So, I ask for your continued patience, encouragement, and support for
Coho/US.

The following is primarily for those who, like me, remember how things used
to be...

I've lived at Songaia since 1992. I was part of the Songaia self-development
project from 1992-2000.

During much of this time, which was not too long ago, those of us who wanted
to live in cohousing really had very few choices. We essentially had to
self-develop our communities - on our own. We had almost no National shared
resources. Almost none of the cohousing professionals actually used email.
Very few cohousers actively shared much useful information (Except Rob
Sandelin, who has been HERE since the dawn of time). We relied on books,
word-of-mouth, MANY small meetings, occasional visits to our markets from a
few professionals, a few pioneers in our regions, and we spent and invested
LOTS of energy trying to figure out everything, for ourselves, re-inventing
lots and lots of wheels.

And a great MANY groups failed in their efforts.

Today, things are better for us. We have the highly functional Cohousing
Directory that is a great source of new members. We have the Cohousing
MarketPlace - a really cheap way to buy/sell a cohousing home without real
estate listing fees. We now have many wonderful cohousing professionals who
contribute to the movement and industry in so many ways. We have the ability
to ask and receive helpful information VERY QUICKLY via this well-used list.
We have Cohousing Magazine - which presents well researched, useful articles
and columns available for FREE, just by signing up here:

http://cohousing.org/subscribe.aspx

Tomorrow, things will be even better still.

One reason that I'm excited about tomorrow is that the Coho/US Board is
aligning interests to step up to some new opportunities that will
fundamentally change things. I really hope that those of you who now engage
on the National Movement or Industry level will also be excited when we
start revealing our plans and achievements publicly in the coming weeks.

In community,
Craig

On Dec 7, 2007 1:39 PM, <balaji [at] ouraynet.com> wrote:

> Please, anyone who responds to this, do send the same information to us at
> the UTAH VALLEY COHOUSING COMMUNITY.  We could use it.  Thanks!  Charles
> Nuckolls.


> > we are now preparing to approach banks
> > for
> > development-related financing.  Along with all the normal supporting
> docs,
> > I
> > am looking for any documentation that shows cohousing houses selling as
> > good
> > if not better than regular subdivisions, and anything that demonstrates
> > the
> > imperviousness of cohousing development to the current housing downturn.
>

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