Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Retrofit in desirable area

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

Shelley Demao asked:
How do I research properties if they are not on the market?

Advertise for your target property. Instead of reacting to ads, place a
proactive ad, or actually a whole series of them, something which explains
your goals enough so people will see you are not just another developer.
Sometime people who own very choice family property can not afford to keep
it, but do not want it sold off to "scumbag" developers who only care about
profits. They may contact you once they find out what you are doing. I
average about two calls a month like this.

Contact the planning department folks and make a cohousing pitch to them. If
they get excited about it, there may be opportunities to bid on municipal
properties. Seattle Cohousing got its site from the City of Seattle, land
that was not on the market per se.

Hold lots of cohousing meetings in your target area. Sometimes a person who
comes to one may have an uncle who owns the XYZ complex that he said he
wanted to sell at the last Thanksgiving family gathering.

Find out who is developing multifamly dwellings in your area. Go make a
cohousing pitch to them. If get excited, they may find something, its their
business to do so anyway and partnering with a local developer is not a bad
strategy at any rate.

Find out who the lenders are for the developers of multi-family dwellings in
your area and make a cohousing pitch to them. They sometimes get notice of
real estate for sale and pass this off their developer contacts.

Rob Sandelin
Northwest Intentional Communties Association
Building a better society, one neighborhood at a time