Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re:Buying Land

[Merlin Porter-Borden (merlpb]

> > NKaten947 [at] aol.com wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> > I didn't get much response to my last inquiry, so I would like to ask 
> > again. Our group is talking to land owners about buying a piece of 
> > property.  At this time there are only six households involved and we are 
> > looking at a piece for 27 homes.
> > Have other groups bought land with this few families?? How has it gone?....
 
 
@ Liberty Village, 12 miles fm Frederick, MD (50K pop.), 40 mi fm
Baltimore, in 1995, Five Veteran cohousing seekers (5 years at that
time), after nearly a year of wrangling, put a $5000 nonrefundable
deposit (if we defaulted) on 27 acres of farmland ($425K). 

We created a series of four $2K "Equity Dividends" to award new partners
joining before milestones (Purchase, Rezoning, Preliminary Plan
Approval, & Start of Construction (sewer, water)). We went to 9 partners
before the first dividend; 13 before the second, 19 before the third (35
homes).

The incentive helped, and it will be paid by an increase in lot price
for those joining after we start constuction/close the partnership
(which is a month away). The dividend served as a reward for the higher
risk takers, and drew people in early.
 
Obviously, the dividend creates a bubble for the end-buyers, but that is
mitigated, in our case, by having 3 out-lots and a lot with a 4000sf
"Manor" house to sell (buyers may buy into cohousing).

I have written several paragraphs here, and erased them. Too much. When
you sign on the line for purchase, look around, those are your burning
souls, and, probably, they won't all be there at move in time. 
Community, though, is a-building already!
 
 Merlin

PS to NKaten: The lack of response is probably due to the "Vets" having
10,000 things to tell you and not wanting to start.  Read, train,
recruit, publish, meet, read, train, publish, recruit, meet, meet, meet,
meet.........'til hell freezes over and then do it again!