Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: waiting lists

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

At RoseWind, all of our 24 home sites are owned, and all but a few are 
built and occupied.  One can only join via resale, and it's "open 
market". We have a strong interest in having pre-educated potential 
joiners. Learning enough to make an informed decision to join a 
particular community takes time -- visiting, coming to social, work, or 
business gatherings, asking questions-- and resales can go very quickly. 
So we do our best to respond hospitably and with information to those who 
inquire, and to help locals and local realtors have a good impression of 
what we are. It takes a lot of time and energy, and requires patience, 
while educating a lot of people who never will buy in. 

But this can pay off. We had a couple move and sell, and they never 
officially put their house on the market, because we had an interested 
family already "milling around". The new family had wanted to join, and 
couldn't afford the one house that was already for sale. 

We don't keep a waiting list, per se. People's situations are so fluid, 
when they are looking for housing, in terms of timing and price, that it 
would change too often. We do know who is actively interested, and have 
endeavored to tell such people first, if something becomes available. And 
I have the email addresses of those who have inquired, and can notify 
them of a resale. 

If you are talking about resales, keep in mind that whatever contract you 
might come up with would need to deal with the potential situation that 
the reseller is disinterested, or even hostile. We had that once, when an 
elderly member died and her estranged family had no interest or trust in 
us. They padlocked the house, and months later sold it overnight via a 
real estate broker, at an under-market-value price. They shunned our 
messages saying we had potentially interested buyers and wanted no 
commission. The buyer did not come from seeking community, and eventually 
sold again and moved elsewhere. 



Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com

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