Re: Development Phase- early participants paying less
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com)
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:01:19 -0700 (PDT)
On 21 Sep 2011, at 9:56 PM, Muriel Kranowski wrote:

> Potential buyers didn't seem to appreciate that they were also getting 
> 1/33rd of all the amenities, the common house, the acres of woods and open 
> space, and of course the community, which came along with the small house 
> or duplex unit - they focussed on the purchase price of their house-and-lot.

I wonder if people should be shown the CH first and even have a meal there or 
something before seeing the house. When friends move in that's how they do it. 
They decide they want to live in cohousing and have experienced the community 
before a unit even becomes available.

> We built-and-sold for almost 4 years from the first move-ins to the last, 
> but I would guess that similar pressure to sell all the units would hold 
> for a project where everyone moves in at the same time, or in two 
> stages.

From what i've read on the list over the last 15 years is that most people are 
in this situation. But I also think they should build into the first budget, 
the lower prices for early organizers. People are often so idealistic at this 
stage that they don't know how much time and work developing a community will 
take, and they are idealistic about everyone being equal — wanting everyone to 
be equal. Believing everyone will work as hard as they are working. And 
believing, this is not about money, it's about community. 

It's both money and community, but when one person is working so much on the 
community and another is working so much at a job, getting paid, that isn't 
equal. There is some reward from working in the community to develop those 
aspects that are important to you but does that make it equal? I find that 
those who do more work also spend more money on the community, buying things 
and donating things that they don't get reimbursed for because it isn't in the 
budget or team didn't approve it or it just takes too long to make a case for 
it.

Being more realistic at very beginning, I think, would minimize the inequality 
rather than believing standard home prices makes everyone equal.

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





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