Cohousing-L Mailing List: co-housing and real-estate investments

[BILL ZAHAVI, PERF. EXPERTISE CENTER (DTN: 227-3182) (zahavi]

        My wife and I are currently involved with a co-housing group
        which is in the process of making an offer for a piece of
        property.  We started to get involved with the group only
        recently and feel that things are moving at a fairly quick pace
        relative to what we were told originally and relative to what I
        generally hear on the network.

        The rapid pace requires that financial commitments are also made
        equally fast.  As a result, many questions begin to rise.  I am
        going to try to use this forum as a way to try to list my
        questions and concerns with the hope that they match those of
        others who are considering co-housing as an alternative
        lifestyle.  I would very much encourage conversation on these
        issues either publicly over the listserver or privately via
        E-mail.

        The obvious first attraction to co-housing was (and still is)
        the social aspect of the lifestyle.  We were attracted to the
        concept of living in a small community where one knew everyone
        else, interacted with them socially and cooperated jointly on
        common facilities and activities.  A shared set of values was
        assumed to exist and would serve as the common glue for the
        group.  These values would be 'discovered' during the many
        planning meetings and would also serve as a deterrent to those
        who did not hold these same values.
        
        So, while my social self is naturally drawn toward the
        co-housing model my survivor/business self has many questions.

        Having digested the information we've been exposed to up till now
        I realized that in the final analysis my wife and I are
        considering investing in a real-estate venture.  This particular
        venture is one where ALL decisions are made by the whole group
        (unlike other ventures where a completed plan is presented and
        one makes a decision based on their opinion of the plan).
        
        A little background.  My wife and I are in our late 40's.  We
        have one grown daughter who, while we hope will visit often,
        will most likely not be living with us in the co-housing
        community.  A big chunk of our estate is our house and we will
        be selling it in order to buy a unit in the co-housing
        community.  It is natural for us to want to preserve the value
        of this investment, thus all the questions.

        As the move towards the purchase of land proceeds, a general
        business-plan/development-plan is presented by the professional
        consultants which begins to translate overall costs into
        individual unit prices and therefore the individual investment
        amounts.  My general concerns are as follows:

        - The plan as presented, does not yet have concrete unit
        designs since the group has not had enough time (and maybe not
        yet enough members) to come up with a design.  This leaves unit
        construction as a 'variable' item.

        - Land costs, common house costs, land improvements, legal,
        administrative and management costs are all estimated by the
        professional consultants and therefore, from my perspective,
        (the buyer?) all look like fixed costs.

        - Estimated unit prices are then based on 'whatever it will
        cost' to meet the budgets of the members.  This implies that we
        begin to design based on whatever money is left from the
        potential 'revenues' (unit-price x number-of-units-built) after
        we deduct the fixed costs.

        - The preservation of capital investment, I believe, falls into
        the category of a 'value'.   If the group believes that this is
        important then steps will be taken all along the way to insure
        that this value is maintained.  Doing this includes:

                - Design consistent with the town/region/area.

                - Price consistent with other like units in the area.

                - Bylaws of the group that insure that resale of
                  units is relatively easy with capital gain/loss
                  consistent with the economic conditions of the
                  region.
        
        Interestingly enough, I believe that we would very much want to
        associate with a group of people who agree with the above issues
        as being important.  I also believe that we would most likely
        not invest until the community design was much further along and
        we felt that we were 'buying' something that was viewed valuable
        by outsiders as well as group members.

        Having said all that one would ask; so what's the question?  Well,
        I guess I am opening up a thread that addresses the thought 
        of bringing co-housing concepts into the mainstream.  I would 
        love to find out if we are relatively unique in thinking this
        way (in which case maybe we don't belong), or are there other
        people out there contemplating similar issues?

        Bill Zahavi

        (E-mail: zahavi [at] tpsys.enet.dec.com)