Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Lessons from a Austin Cohousing that disbanded

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

NOT USING A DEVELOPER. Cohousing groups, I think, have failed much less 
frequently since there are developers who are interested AND cohousers are more 
willing to use developers. The "Yankee Do" impulse was very strong until about 
2000. Real estate development is a major, multi-facted activity not amenable to 
overnight mastery. Not even 2 or 3 year mastery. With no experience, groups 
make a lot of costly mistakes. $30-40,000 for construction drawings that have 
to be redone. $10,000 for a public relations or marketing firm that produces 
nothing.

EXPECTING TO HOLD YOUR BREATH TOO LONG: One problem with delay, which Philip 
mentioned, is that most people can only be involved in a  project other than 
their job and their personal life for 2 years. That's as long as they can hold 
their breath and keep swimming. I base this on 25 years of teaching adults at 
the university level. The vast majority had families (children or parents or 
both) and full time jobs. As their mentor I knew I had to help them plan to 
finish in 2 years or they wouldn't. When it is stretched out too far it rarely 
happens.

HAVING AN INTERNAL DEVELOPER OR DESIGNER: Peer to peer, intergroup conflict and 
distrust is very difficult. Conflict is inevitable in such a big projects. When 
the professional is also part of the group they either hold enormous power or 
compromise their professional opinion to do what the group wants. Let  your 
professional members work with external professionals and perhaps complete some 
discreet tasks, but don't use an internal person to save money.

TOO LIBERAL WITH CUSTOMIZATIONS: Any customization costs money. Check the 
archives for reasons why. One that people don't think of is the construction 
workers. They do what they have always done, and then it has to be done over. 
Or they have to stop and read instructions for each unit and educate coworkers. 
Time is money. A lot of money. 

It's interest on your construction loan of millions of dollars for one thing. 
6% interest on a $3 million loan is somewhere in the neighborhood of $180,000 
in the first year. With 240 working days in a year, that is $750 a day. With a 
8 hour work day that is ~$94 an hour, just for interest on the loan. And you 
won't have that many days because of rain, delays in permits, discovery of 
endangered worms in the soil, stop work orders, etc. (Please correct those 
figures if you know better ones. I'm ball parking it.)

FALSE EXPECTATIONS ABOUT WORKSHARE: From the beginning everyone has to help. 
They can't sit on the sidelines until the building is finished. If they don't 
want to know anything about construction, they can arrange pot lucks or call 
people in the waiting list. If they are too busy to do that, they are too busy 
to live in cohousing. Find that out before you move it.

Everyone has 24 hours in a day and chooses how to spend it.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines, Historic Takoma Park, Washington DC 
Where all roads lead to Casablanca