Re: peer to peer lending club for Cohousing?
From: Joel Rothschild (joelecovillagers.org)
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2015 07:55:37 -0700 (PDT)
Peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding approaches are emerging for community. Ownership structure makes a big difference. Shared-equity and community land trust-based communities are easier to crowdfund, because you're effectively funding an organization rather than individuals. For these communities, peer-to-peer financing can come through a "real estate investment co-op." The REIC is still a new animal, but groups in Minneapolis and NYC have already taken it up. If I'm not mistaken the REIC in Minneapolis (http://www.neic.coop/) did get an SEC "no action" letter--meaning it doesn't bear the expense of being regulated like a bank--and it has successful construction under its belt.

I have to plug the work I've been doing on this, too. It's exciting to hear there's interest! In a few months we are launching the Ecovillagers Cooperative, a peer-to-peer investment, development, membership, and professional services co-op for cohousing-inspired ecovillages. This might be the first REIC to reference cohousing explicitly it its mandate. Hopefully not the last.

For traditional condo- and HOA-based cohousing, I see a couple of paths: (1) Identify the most cohousing-supportive credit unions and get as many cohousers as possible to use them. Virtuous circle. (2) See if a community-minded bank can be persuaded to start a certificate of deposit program dedicated to cohousing, akin to the Equal Exchange CD (http://equalexchange.coop/eecd).

An REIC for traditional cohousing isn't impossible, either. It just requires a cohousing developer of good track record to sign on for the long term. Not every cohousing project is a money maker for the developer, so you'd need a bigger, ongoing operation to ensure ROI for the investors.

Joel

Joel Rothschild
Ecovillage Developer
Founder, Ecovillagers Cooperative
http://www.ecovillagers.org
+1 202 41 ROOTS (messages)
+1 206 383 7804 (mobile)


On 09/29/2015 06:16 AM, cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org wrote:
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2015 19:08:35 -0400
From: mira Danyel brisk<mirabepeace [at] gmail.com>
To:cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ peer to peer lending club for Cohousing?
Message-ID:
        <CAJ5KcwkQCwtocYQ07ScWh76r3=569jR=-ab2EiR3LUgMbnZkRw [at] 
mail.gmail.com>
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Wonderful discussion and suggestions.

Yes, how can such a community based bank for Cohousing projects be started?
On Sep 26, 2015 8:34 AM, "John Sechrest"<sechrest [at] gmail.com>  wrote:

It is an interesting idea.

One thought that I had was more focused on the Community Sourced Capital
idea.
https://www.communitysourcedcapital.com/

But they have a limit on amount of funds collected and have a business
model aimed at cashflow businesses.

It seems like it should be possible to set up financial mechanisms where
people interested in cohousing in a broader sense help diversify their
investments by investing in a broader range of other cohousing places.

A cohousing savings and loan or a cohousing credit union does not seem that
far out of place. The big question would be the commitment of people to
engage in building the engine.

We have local credit unions and banks that think that they are in this
business. I wonder if it is a matter of having a deeper relationship with
them.

Every time this conversation comes up on the list, the National Coop Bank
conversation should be part of the conversation. They seem to be working on
a national level to try to get into this market:

http://www.cohousing.org/finance-affordable

However, it does not take a bank or a credit union to do this. It is
possible to organize other mechanisms.

On Fri, Sep 25, 2015 at 5:04 AM, S. Kashdan<s_kashdan [at] hotmail.com>  wrote:

Hi all,

This is Sylvie Kashdan of Jackson Place Cohousing in Seattle, Washington.

I am wondering if there is any current news of people working on
developing
some sort of peer to peer lending or other kind of financing organization
specifically devoted to cohousing?

I recently read two articles in Consumer Reports on the topic of peer to
peer
lending and investing, and it seemed to me that it might be something
worth
thinking about for cohousing financing, if there were some people with
banking knowledge and abilities who could organize it. What do others
think?

What you need to know about Lending Club and Prosper
These new meeting places for borrowers and investors are giving
traditional
banks a run for their money
This article appeared in the February 2015 issue of Consumer Reports
magazine.

and

Investing in Lending Club and Prosper
Peer-to-peer lending can boost your income
This article appeared in the August 2014 issue of Consumer Reports Money
Adviser.


Cohousingly,
Sylvie

Sylvie Kashdan
Community Outreach Liaison
Jackson Place Cohousing
800 Hiawatha Place South
Seattle, WA 98144
www.seattlecohousing.org
info [at] jacksonplacecohousing.org


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