Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Non-bank financed communities?

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

RoseWind Cohousing has been built without bank financing on any common 
developments, and in fact, many of our individual homes are also 
independently funded.

1) We bought our land on a purchase-option contract, which involved our 
purchasing the nine acres over time. The owner did not want a big lump 
sum capital gain. We needed to initiate purchase of another acre every so 
many months (6?) for $5000 down, and monthly payments on it from then on. 
We also paid the (minimal) taxes on the whole piece of land while this 
was going on. So we just ponied up what we could, individually, when it 
was needed, and kept track of how much we had in on our equity. When we 
actually got to buy "our" lot, we already had X amount to our credit. 

2) We did virtually everything ourselves, in crafting our Plannued Unit 
Development proposal for the City , except for a few things that had to 
have a professional's "stamp". (We did many documents on traffic, 
parking, fire engine access, road standands, environmental impact, 
covenants etc, utility layouts, drainage documentation, plus lots of 
prose on why they should let us do this, including vacating street rights 
of way, having home occupations outside our homes, having narrower 
streets, etc) 
Some paid legal advice, a bit of engineering. It took a long time, 
because we were doing the work of a professional development corporation 
in five people's "spare" time, while working full time and raising 
children. Basically that meant that most was done after ten pm. And our 
weekends were spent in meetings. 

3) We handled the infrastructure-installation costs (roads, sewer, water, 
power, phone, drainage, parking, paving) also out of buy-in money. I 
forget if we had to wait till enough more people had bought in, but 
that's possible. (Each buy-in brought us from $30-38,000.)

4) Home construction has been up to the individual families. Some sold 
real estate they had bought long ago, which had appreciated. My funds 
were a gift from my father. Another home was funded by an inheritance. 
Some have done a lot of the building work themselves. Some have taken out 
bank mortgages.

5) Our common house has also been designed mostly in-house, and we expect 
to do a lot of volunteer labor in helping it get built this coming year. 
We had to wait till enough more families bought in, to be able to fund 
the common house. 

We have in most of these cases "paid" in TIME-- the process was 
lengthened considerably by not having a Wonderland or Cohousing Company 
or such to make it happen quickly. Was it worth it? Well, it was the only 
way we were able to realize it, and it has been abundantly worthwhile to 
have our community exist today. There have been trade-offs for sure: the 
little kids who will use the common house's child space will not include 
those of the founders, because our little kids are teens now. We have 
built a lot of community in doing so much work side by side for years. 

On the matter of being away all the time earning money. Some of us are 
retired-- about 10 out of 20 are either retired, or about to retire, or 
planning to retire before they move here and build their house. Most of 
those are busily out and about most of the time, if not chained to a 
9-to-5. They consult, or volunteer, or work occasionally, or travel. 
Those who are working, work at a variety of work, some from home, some 
not. Carpentry, construction, counselling, waitressing, small business, 
computer work --- are some of what we do. So we aren't all away all the 
time, but neither are we sitting at home watching TV... We also have the 
advantage that we are not a "bedroom" suburb, but a town of 8000, so 
going off to work doesn't entail hours of commuting: most of us can come 
home for lunch even if we are "at work."

I don't particularly recommend the do-it-yourself no matter how long it 
takes, approach. But if, like us, your group does not have the means to 
do it otherwise, take heart--- we are happy proof that it can be done and 
can eventually lead to a satisfying neighborhood community, dedicated to 
living togetherand learning together long term.

Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA
where our community gardens have been expanding and are bursting with 
young vegetable plants, and the deer haven't figured out how to get 
through the new fence