Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Developers' and Architects' fees

[Legal-All Lawyers (Salley]

It looks as if Cambridge Cohousing has found a viable site.  Consequently, 
we have to sign an agreement with the developers very soon!   We would very 
much appreciate hearing from other groups about the fee arrangements they 
have reached - percentage rate of overall developer's fee, whether the 
architectural fee was included in total cost,  whether the group had a 
separate contract with the architects, etc., etc.   We would especially like 
to hear from others about those situations where the developer/architect was 
also a member of the group.

We are struggling with, on the one hand,  the need to keep costs down in a 
very expensive area for housing, especially given our desire to have an 
affordable component, and on the other to be fair to our very hardworking 
members/professionals who have already put in massive number of hours.  It 
would be helpful to at least know what the "going rate" is.

Rowena

 ----------
From: cohousing-l
Date: Tuesday, August 29, 1995 12:03PM

I received this message privately, but I will post it for  the benefit of
the list.

>I'm sending this to you since you are the listed e-mail person for Valley
>Oaks Village.  Please forward to Glen Orcutt or I'm sure you can answer
>just as well as he could.

>Glen Orcutt wrote:
>>
>>  Rowena Conkling asked if any coho project incorporated.
>>
>> Valley Oaks Village incorporated as a non-profit corporation set up
>> specifically to develop our project.  We got advice from a good attorney
>and
>> went with it.  It has worked out quite well for us and we had no trouble
>> getting a construction loan.
>>
>> Hope this helps.
>>
>> Glen Orcutt
>> Valley Oaks Village
>> Chico, CA
>>
>To be a non-profit, don't you have to show somehow that you're
>benefitting the community around you.  How did you do this?  Was it very
>expensive to incorporate as a non-profit (one lawyer I talked to
>indicated that it cost a lot more to do the paperwork for a non-profit).
>
>I think I've e-mailed you before about legal situations. We're trying to
>get all the information we can so that we can form the appropriate sort
>of group to do our development and then to segue into some kind of
>homeowners association.
>
>Will you change legal structures after you're
>finished building?
>
>Thanks!
>Congratulations on getting the building part started!  :)
>
>Ginger W. Long
>Mimosa Grove Cohousing (MoGo CoHo)
>Chapel Hill/Durham, N.C.
>gpye_Long [at] ncsu.edu
>
>"No matter where you go, there you are."
>                                -- Buckaroo Banzai


In California, we have a corporate form called "Mutual Benefit Non-Profit
Corporation."
That means that we are not out to benefit the public (in their eyes anyway)
 -- but we are not out to profit either (ain't that the truth).

Our corporation will transform into our homeowners association -- another
mutual benefit non-profit which is exempt from the $800/year fee somehow.

Good luck.

Glen Orcutt
Valley Oaks Village
Chico, CA