Re: Rental Cohousing?
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com)
Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2008 10:57:35 -0800 (PST)

On Jan 13, 2008, at 1:35 PM, Rob Sandelin wrote:

A community is not made of houses.

Do you know a cohousing community that did not form around housing and the need for housing? Not understanding real estate, prevents a community from forming as quickly as the group can if it understands that it is formed and facilitated by the need for housing.

Yes, some people do move out of housing to move into cohousing, but the initiation process is understanding how to build the housing that facilitates the community.

Skipping over or coming late to the realization that you need to develop real estate, impedes and tests the process of forming relationships and community. As the money required to move into cohousing attests.

The need to manage that real estate once you develop it, is an ongoing requirement, particularly in attached units with shared utilities and infra-structere.

I know I'm advocating a heretical position but I wish someone had pointed this out before I got involved. I would have made different decisions about design and made fewer mistakes in shopping for a community. Not that I would have ended up in any other community than the one I now live in but I would have saved myself a lot of financial risk and time invested, and I would have been more aware of decisions the developer was making that would cost the community a few thousand of dollars every year as long as we all live here.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing,Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org


Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.