Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Vacancy management & turnover rates

[Chris ScottHanson (chris]

Rob,

Are you doing individual private unit ownership cohousing, or are you 
doing a housing cooperative of renters in a cooperatively owned 
building?  HUGE difference effecting whether you can use ownership 
cohousing as a measure of your potential vacancy rates.  If you are a 
planning on the latter, you should be looking into housing co-ops (not 
cohousing) and their vacancy experiences.  Start at www.coophousing.org

Chris

On Aug 5, 2004, at 8:26 AM, rob [at] v2b.org wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I just subscribed to this list, which I should have done some time ago.
> We're in the process of forming a housing co-op, and pretty far along -
> we're looking to lease a building for 16 people, many of which are 
> already
> committed to the project, and we even have an investor who plans to buy
> and redevelop to our needs. All of this is great.
>
> We're currently researching issues for the investor's due process, one 
> of
> which deals with turnover rates and vacancy management in comparable
> communities. I'm looking for a couple of things from anyone who'd be
> willing to share their experience:
>
> 1. What vacancy rate have you experienced at your housing cooperatives?
> I'm looking for success stories and crash-and-burn stories, if 
> possible,
> and hopefully a little context for each.
>
> 2. How do you manage turnover? Details are definitely welcome, like how
> large a vacancy reserve your co-op maintains, but I'm also interested 
> in
> the 'theory', things like how the bylaws address turnover, how the
> community views changes to the group composition, how (in broad terms) 
> you
> market openings, and whether or not you feel your community is 
> successful
> in dealing with turnover.
>
> 3. Are you familiar with any studies or papers written on the topic? Do
> you by any chance have something you can share?
>
> Thanks for considering these questions. If you have the time and
> motivation to answer, you'll have a very appreciative audience.
>
> BTW, we're forming in Milwaukee as an urban housing cooperative, if 
> anyone
> is interested we have vacancies!
>
> Rob Martin
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