Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: self-development vs. partnering with an outside developer

[Mac & Sandy Thomson (ganesh]

Timothy Clark wrote:
> What we intend to do is this:  If we attract people with developer
> skills we will do ourselves which means about 15% cheaper.

I wouldn't necessarily count on this kind of savings.  The developer may
charge 10% - 15% for their work and risk taken, but if they're doing a
good job, they could easily save you 10%, 20%, or more in the costs of
mistakes that first time developers will make.

The main reasons to hire developers are to get their expertise, thier
work, and their financial backing.  At Heartwood, because of strong
membership recruitment (all sold out before applying for bank loan) we
decided that we didn't need Wonderland's financial backing because the
bank would give us our loan based on a fully sold out project and our
internal loans we got from members. We therefore decided to hire
Wonderland on a consulting basis.  It worked great for us.  We were able
to get Wonderland's expertise when needed, but we didn't have to share
profits with them.

Our project did take longer than planned to develop (7 years rather than
the 3 years we'd naively hoped for).

I'd strongly recommend Wonderland.  Unless your group has LOTS of real
estate develpment experience, I would guess that developing it
yourselves will require lots more work, take more time, and cost more
money (from misakes made).

- Mac
-- 
           Mac & Sandy Thomson           Heartwood Cohousing
           ganesh [at] rmi.net                Durango, Colorado
        Web Site:   http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com


"When we remember that we're all mad, the mysteries disolve and life
stands explained."
            - Mark Twain
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