Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: When did members join your group?

[Anne Little (solianna]

Hi Kristen,

Our biggest bump in membership came after our project landed on the front
page of the Seattle Times Real Estate section. At the time there were 6 core
households. We then made the HUGE mistake of closing membership because we
were overwhelmed by the response - maybe 15 households put down cash in
about 2 weeks. (Be careful what you wish for.) After that people trickled in
(and out) and we had a hard time filling the last 2-3 units. There was still
one empty unit after everyone moved in.

At one time we hoped to have 30+ units with several one bedroom units. We
found that people who wanted 1Bs couldn't afford what they would cost to
build - kitchens & baths will be your biggest expense. We ended up with no
1Bs and 27 total units. We're urban.

Anne at Jackson Place Coho 
(where I've got a lovely, bright 2 bedroom townhouse FOR SALE)

-----Original Message-----
From: Kristen Simmons [mailto:simmonskristen [at] gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 6:19 AM
To: cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org
Subject: [C-L]_ When did members join your group?


I'm trying to research WHEN members join groups. I've heard anecdotally that
there are big bumps in membership after major milestones such as land
acquisition, permitting, and start of construction. Doe anyone have any hard
data for their community?

I'm most interested in these benchmarks:
Got site control- ________ members
Five months after site control, after completing programming - ______
members
Start of construction drawings- ________ members
Project permitted - ________ members
Start of construction - _________ members

How many units did you plan to have at the very beginning?
How many were actually designed and built?

Thank you!

Kristen
(from Boston, where it's a could time to acquire land!)
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