Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Early Stage Financing for Cohousing

[Hyghroad (Hyghroad]

Dear Tom:
 
Our Co-Ho community in the Burlington, VT area is in the construction phase  
now (we expect 7 families to move in in April) and financing all along has 
been  our biggest challenge.
 
Our land purchase, which was significantly cheaper than the numbers you  gave 
was financing half by loans from partners and half by a conventional bank  
mortgage.
 
Our construction is being funded by a commercial bank loan.
 
I would not hesitate to tap into conventional funding sources (banks, etc.)  
to fund your project. A land purchase is easy for a bank to understand since 
the  collateral (the land) can be so easily appraised. We have tried to make 
our  project look as much like a typical real estate development as possible 
when  working with banks. When you start to talk co-housing, at least in this 
area,  they get nervous.
 
At this point, it seems like most Co-Ho communities that want to form need  
the advantage of a partner with deep pockets and I'm not sure there is an  
umlimited supply of those that want to move into co-housing. The alternative is 
 
as Zev suggested, use a real estate developer, who of course will want to make  
money on the deal.
 
Good luck,
 
Kelly Devine
Financial Chair
Common Pastures Co-Housing
Charlotte, VT
802-862-1542
hyghroad [at] aol.com