Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Financing

[Rob Sandelin (robsan]

Another low rent financing story. Excerpted from Issue #3 Of The 
Northwest Intentional Communities Newsletter:

A group of friends got together and over time decided they wanted to do 
the "get back to the land" commune thing on a farm somewhere.  They 
started trying to get it together but even though all of them had 
reasonable paying jobs, they really couldn't get any significant money 
ahead. They started comparing notes one evening on what they paid in 
house costs, etc. Someone suggested they all move in together and pool 
the savings.  The idea took off and soon 16 people - 5 couples with 6 
kids were moving into a large runtown old house.  The garage was 
converted into a bunkhouse toyroom for the kids. They created a simple 
legal agreement which placed the money saved by living together into a 
common account. They were able to put $2,000 a month towards their 
goal, and later when they got smarter about buying in bulk and heating 
with wood they were able to put $2,500 a month into a saving account!

They had 11 cars and realized they could get by without so many so they 
sold several of their cars and a separate trust account was credited 
for donations towards the goal.  Two years later, one couple moved out, 
another moved in and they had $75,000 in the bank.  They realized that 
they didn't really want to live on a farm after all so they bought a 
larger house at the edge of town, fixed it up really nice and paid off 
the mortgage in five years.  They bought an adjacent acre lot and 
converted an old shack into an art/shop space/guest space.

They discovered that living cooperatively is way cheaper, and a lot of 
fun as long as you work out the edges. This model wouldn't work for 
everyone but shows that trust, faith and commitment can take you where 
ever you need to go, even if its not where you thought you were heading 
when you started the journey.