Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Has anyone encountered this type of co-buy arrangement?

[Linda Hobbet (coho]

This was not a cohousing situation but in the early 70's I bought a 
house in Berkeley, CA with two friends. I was working and able to get a 
loan. They were students, so it was in my name. From a legal standpoint, 
I was the owner and I rented to them, but we always thought of it as 
co-buying and we shared the responsibilities that way.  We did it all 
wrong, though not with intent. The three of us had a verbal agreement, 
nothing was ever written down (we were very young). It truly boggled the 
mind of an accountant I talked to when I went to sell the house 15 years 
later. The house had 4 bedrooms so we usually had other housemates as 
well. For us, it worked out in spite of graduations, marriages, divorce, 
sabbaticals, and all of life's complications. Years later, I ran into 
the agent who sold us the house. She told me ours was the first of many 
co-buying arrangements she worked with and the only one she knew of that 
had not turned into a disaster. Possibly because we had a very simple 
handshake agreement and we all stuck to it, even with all the ups and 
downs in our lives. Also, the value of the house increased a lot before 
it was sold so we all came out ahead.

A few thoughts. There are so many things that could force one buyer to 
leave - job changes, disagreements between the co-buyers, cohousing 
didn't turn out to be a good fit for one party, etc. If the owner who 
wants to stay can't afford to buy the other out, they are probably out 
of luck. Finding a replacement co-buyer is iffy. (I eventually bought 
out my co-buyers).

IMO, one person buying the house and having a housemate or renter in an 
ADU, is much more feasible.

Linda Hobbet

On 7/19/2026 11:55 AM, Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L wrote:
> > On Jul 16, 2026, at 11:06 AM, Doug Hanvey via Cohousing-L<cohousing-l [at] 
> > cohousing.org> wrote:
> > Two unrelated households jointly purchase a property. One household lives
> > in the primary dwelling, while the other lives in an ADU (or other
> > secondary dwelling), with ownership and responsibilities defined by
> > agreement between the parties.
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