Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Being your own developer

[Glen Orcutt (gorcutt]

At Valley Oaks Village, we were our own developer.  We put together a
three-person Management Team that has coordinated all aspects of the project
and acted as a developer.  We had someone with extensive real estate
experience (myself), but no development experience.  One of the other
members of the MT is an accountant which has come in very handy.  To
compensate the management team for considerable extra time and effort put
in, they are paid a nominal $15 per hour.  Our group hired an outstanding
Contractor/Project manager who is getting 5% of construction costs.  He had
an excellent relationship with a local bank, so we were able to use that
bank for our construction financing (and for most of our take-out
mortgages).  We also hired our other "consultants," architect, landscape
architect, lawyer, etc.

It has worked out fantastic because we have saved a lot of money over what
it would have cost for a "developer," which we have been able to put into
additional ammenities and nicer building design.  The management team is
burned out, but not fried.  

I think that being your own developer can work, but it takes an
extraordinary commitment for a few extraordinary individuals and the group
has to be able to trust those individuals with their project.

Glen Orcutt
Valley Oaks Village
(12 out of 28 houses are framed and things are happening very fast)