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

[fertilezone (fertilezone]

On May 21, Rob Sandelin Wrote:

>..8 people, pooling their lives can accomplish a lot, especially, if 
like Applegate Coop, the money saved by living together goes 
towards the community.  
> Most cohousers spend 5 years just talking about their future 
community. Might be better off, moving in together in a rental and 
saving their money. In addition to gathering up money, you would 
learn a great deal about living in community.  
--------------------------

I remember looking over the Communities directory with you, during 
a brief Sharringwood visit last year, and never imagined that most 
of these communities listed were not bank financed.

OK, my first glimpse of a mortgage-amortization table was 
disbelief.  Why people willingly made 15 years of mortgage 
payments just for interest on the loan boggled my nieve mind, but I 
eventually came to realize, without cash, the renting alternative is 
worse, with no ownership, no equity, and no tax write off.

Thanks to you and Lynn for your non-bank financed community 
examples.  This has been a paradigm shift for me, and a delightful 
experience to read. 

However, of the last 2 yrs. reading traffic on Coho-L, I've never 
noticed a practical discussion for building a Non-bank financed 
community. 

Surely, having a guide for where & how to prospect the right Land 
Easements, Non-Profit Exemptions, available Grants, or various 
County, State, Federal, & Utility subsidies could go much further 
toward Non-bank financing, if thoroughly combined with a case 
study of the most successful sweat equity and downshifting 
strategies.

My family has saved a lot with professional do-it yourself guides, 
such as "How to win your case in small claims court", and "How to 
successfully evict a tenant."  The guide, "Fight Your Ticket ...and 
Win!", just saved me $200 in fines and $2400.00 a year in 
increased auto-insurance premiums.  Granted guide books may 
require hard study, but this one paid off for me and nolo.com 
provided a help forum on line.

If there is no practical guide to Non-bank financing for small or 
larger scale land developments, I don't understand why there has 
been no collaboration to write one. Surely, there would be 
substantial demand for such a guide book.