Cohousing-L Mailing List: Financing for Alternative Building Technologies

[Mac Thomson (ganesh]

We just had a mortgage banker speak to our group about getting a home 
mortgage in a cohousing community.  He felt that a loan for a home in 
cohousing should present no special problems.  But then we got into the 
issue of financing homes built using alternative technologies. (:-<)

When he asked who in the group was considering alternative building 
technologies, everyone raised their hands.  He then went on to explain 
that receiving financing for a house incorporating alternative building 
technologies would be very difficult.  The problem is that loans are 
made based on the appraised value of a home and appraisals are based on 
recent sales in the area of comparable homes.  And since there are 
almost no sales of comparable homes, they can¹t give a loan for 
non-conventional housing.

What have any of you done to creatively finance "experimental" building 
methods?  THis could be a real sticking point for a number of households 
in our group.

-- 
           Mac Thomson                   San Juan Cohousing
           ganesh [at] rmi.net                Durango, Colorado


"If war is the violent resolution of conflict,
  then peace is not the absence of conflict, 
  but rather,
  the ability to resolve conflict without violence."
                         - C.T. Lawrence Butler