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

[dana, tammy and sophia (hillside]

Hi Glen-

Where is Valley Oaks Village?
What's the per square foot construction costs, excluding the land cost,
consultants, management team and general contractor's 5%?
Do you have a web page?

My wife and I have a home with an adjoining lot and the possibility of
adding two adjoining properties in the future.  We're trying to figure out
what development to do ourselves and what to contract out, and what
realistic construction costs are these days.

We live in El Sobrante, in the eastern part of the San Francisco Bay Area.

>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)