Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Right of First Refusal

[Mac Thomson (mac]

I'm not sure that rights of first refusal are all that common in  
cohousing.  Are they?

We didn't include one in our CC&R's.  My sense is that anyone buying  
a home here would be making the conscious choice to buy into the  
community.  Our neighborhood is VERY obviously community oriented --  
24 homes pretty tightly clustered on 360 acres.  Anyone wanting to  
live in rural southwest Colorado, but not wanting to live in  
community would certainly not buy a home at Heartwood.

Furthermore, our community has a policy of self selection.  So  
assuming anyone wanting to buy a home here is looking for community,  
we leave the choice to them to figure out if they think they'll be a  
good fit.  It seems to me that a right of first refusal is to some  
extent a contradiction to the principle of self selection.  I should  
note that although we do follow a policy of self selection, we do  
require all potential new members to complete a Prospective Member  
Checklist, which basically helps to ensure that they have carefully  
considered living at Heartwood by spending time here, reading our  
agreements, etc.  If you're curious, that checklist can be found at:
http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com/AGREEMENTS/MEMAP.html

So far I think the checklist has served us very well and I sure hope  
that we never end up regretting not having a right of first refusal.   
I don't think we will.

Cheers,
Mac

P.S.  Congratulations on your new community!

--
Mac Thomson

Heartwood Cohousing
Southwest Colorado
http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com


"We work to become, not to acquire."
          - Elbert Hubbard
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On May 6, 2006, at 4:10 PM, cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org wrote:

> Date: Sat, 6 May 2006 08:19:49 -0400
> From: "Kelly Devine" <hyghroad [at] gmail.com>
> Subject: [C-L]_ Right of First Refusal
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Message-ID:
>         <ad0ff430605060519q1c09d67ci3d38af0361782679 [at] mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Fellow Cohousers and others:
>
> Happy to announce that Champlain Valley Cohousing is about to sell  
> its first
> home and have its first residents. We couldn't be happier to have  
> finally
> reached this stage.
>
> One issue that seems to keep popping up as members get ready to  
> purchase
> their homes is our right of first refusal clause. CVC has included  
> a deeded
> right of first refusal to allow the HOA to buy homes at market  
> price from a
> community member who sells. I understand this is a common way in  
> cohousing
> to ensure some control over the membership in the community. We  
> recently
> learned that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prohibit right of first  
> refusal
> clauses.
>
> Can anyone relate their experience with this and perhaps offer  
> ideas on how
> they got around it.