Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: financial snooping

[CSchmidt (usf-6198-08]

This question couldn't be more timely!  I am part of group forming in
Minnesota that plans to begin similar financial discussions this Wednesday
evening.  Any replies on this issue will be much appreciated!

Cynthia
----- Original Message -----
From: "Leah" <drsweetie [at] yahoo.com>
To: <cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2006 7:33 PM
Subject: [C-L]_ financial snooping


Hi! I am part of the finance committee at Fordyce street cohousing. I am
wondering how deep other groups delved into each other's finances during
development. When we started, we made a requirement of a mortgage
pre-authorization and a simple form asking where they plan to get the down
payment, etc. I soon learned that it takes little more than a pulse to get a
pre-auth. When it came closer to taking out a construction loan we started
to put together people's financial forms, etc. There was one or 2 members
where we thought "gosh, their income seems really low to afford this house"
and we asked them for more info and they mapped out their plans for living
on ramen noodles for the rest of their lives, etc. Actually their plans
seemed kind of reasonable and we figured they were adults that could make
their own decisions about finances. We are less than a month from breaking
ground, and recently, one of the "close to the financial edge" families
thought about dropping out due
 to affordability issues. Their dropping out would have put us in
significant financial distress and probably delayed our loan and our
project. They decided in the end that they couldn't do that to the group and
stayed in, but now other members are saying that we should have looked
closer at their finances.
  How far did others go, and does anyone have ideas about drawing the line
between nosiness and assurances that people can make it?


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