Cohousing-L Mailing List: Negotiating land deals

[Fred H. Olson (fholson]

Eris Weaver   Sonoma County Cohousing    eris [at] wco.com
is the author of the message below but due to a problem it was posted
by the Fred the list manager: owner-cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------

Greetings, all!

Our group is in the site search phase, and we are all feeling a bit insecure
about the practicalities of actually negotiating a purchase of this size --
how to negotiate, how to figure out what to offer, how to get a good deal,
etc.  We have not been using a realtor, we've been doing a lot of scouting
on our own -- and we've been getting responses from owners much more quickly
than we'd anticipated.  (For example, two weeks ago we sent out 15 letters
to owners of property we like, and got FIVE responses already!?!?!)

My question is this -- how have other groups handled this scary phase?  We
have been discussing hiring a real estate lawyer or realtor just to handle
this aspect of things -- and of course have to figure out what that's worth
in $$.  I'd really to hear what others have gone through.  Thanks in advance
for any advice/words of caution !

*****************************************************************
Eris Weaver
Sonoma County Cohousing
eris [at] wco.com
http://www.wco.com/~eris/socoho.html