Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Membership fees & "pioneer discount"

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

In the early years of our project, we were paying for everything out of 
pocket, and just keeping track of how much each person had "in", with the 
intention that this was a downpayment on the eventual full buy-in amount 
(for a lot- we each pay for our own construction) . 

Once we had a purchase contract on the land, we went to a $10,000 minimum 
"associate membership" with a contract that basically said this was 
applicable to your eventual buy-in, and that anyone who wanted to leave 
after paying this $10,000 couldn't get their money back till someone else 
bought in to replace them. And still we had more expenses, and 
individuals increased their equity amounts as they were able, to keep us 
going. No one was promised any interest or return on their money, just 
face value towards their purchase. 

When we did get our Planned Unit Development contract with the City, and 
our cohousing home sites became legal entities that could be bought and 
sold, we then determined lot prices, and bought our individual lots, with 
credit for the money previously advanced to the project. 

We realized that the thousands of volunteer hours that the first 5 
families had put in, to this entirely self-developed project, were a 
unique contribution, in addition to the fact that they had had money at 
risk, and at no interest,  during those years as well. To acknowledge 
this, in setting our lot prices, we figured what we called a Pioneer 
Discount, reducing the "fair" lot price by a thousand dollars for every 
year that the household had participated. The grand total of lot purchase 
money was matched to our total projected development budget. A few 
thousand dollars wasn't a huge discount, but at that point we were able 
to afford it, and it felt fair and appropriate.

One glitch was that one family suggested that they should get twice as 
much, since there were two of them who had helped: other two-member 
families disagreed, and a working single parent like me thought it had 
been harder for me than for someone who had a spouse to switch off with. 
Finally, we compromised and offered the complaining family a little more. 
But other than that, there were no other repercussions, or later grouses, 
about having given this break to the "pioneers".

Lynn Nadeau
RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend WA
all 24 lots now owned; 16 built; common house well on the way: let me 
know if you want to know of resales: there are a couple that could come 
up this year.
 See RoseWind at www.olypen.com/sstowell/rosewind