Cohousing-L Mailing List: Selling a Unit [was: Cohousing difference or premium in unit appraisals]

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

I left in the whole quote below because some may have not read the  
message since it was tagged as "appraisals."

I heard something recently on Charlie Rose that reinforces the  
importance of the information Jessie laid out to sell her unit.

In the new book "The Survivors Club," Ben Sherwood cites the statistic  
that in an emergency, 10% of people will take leadership, 80% will  
wait to be told what to do, and 10% will do something to make the  
situation worse. While selling a home may not seem like an emergency  
to anyone not selling it, I think this is useful information. What  
Jessie did was tell people what to do, in this instance what to say  
when telling people about her unit. She also gave them an easy,  
timesaving way to provide the information, something busy people don't  
do.

In a separate conversation about a minor but frightening crime on a  
subway, a victim was upset that no one did anything and it was an  
almost full car. The advice from a community activist was "Tell them  
what to do." Say, "Call 911." Several people would automatically do it.

Telling other residents to "Talk to all your friends and show them  
this book" is more necessary than one would think.

Whether an assessor will take this into account will vary with  
assessor -- some are in and out in 3 minutes -- but the most common  
source of buyers, I think, is still friends and friends of friends of  
current residents. I think only three out of twelve units resold here  
(some resold twice) were sold to people who had no previous connection  
with a resident or with cohousing.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing,Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org

On Feb 21, 2009, at 7:54 AM, Jessie Kome wrote:

> When we sold our unit in Eno Commons, I set up a marketing book (3
> ring binder) with information on the unit and on the common
> facilities.  I also prepared an audio presentation for the features of
> the house and another for the features of the community, set up as a
> walking tour (hand-held unit and headphones).  Our realtor (paid for
> by my employer) loved the gear and said that everyone with him looked
> at the book and most took the tour.
>
> In the marketing book, I put a small version of the house plans, a
> description of the geothermal heat pump and a chart with the last 12
> months worth of power charges, a page showing the fiscal status of the
> HOA very simply (reserves, capital improvements, operating costs) and
> including the community policy to avoid special assessments by
> adequately funding the reserves, a couple of articles about the
> community including one from Fine Homebuilding, and the narrative from
> the house tour audio detailing the features of the home and the common
> facilities, including the quality construction and the green elements.
>
> I happened to be present when the appraiser came.  She definitely read
> through the book and was especially interested in the items indicating
> the very low running costs of the house and the HOA fiscal policies.
> After she looked through the house, she asked me to walk her through
> the common areas, very quickly.  She asked some questions about
> whether the HOA always funded insurance for the common areas, then
> left.  Reading through the appraisal afterwards (I pestered my realtor
> to get it), I saw that she definitely considered the high quality of
> the materials and construction in the house and she recommended as the
> best comparable a recently sold home in a nearby golf course community
> rather than a home nearer to us that did not have any access to
> community facilities.
>
> If you make it easy for an appraiser to get information about what
> comes with the purchase of your home, I think they will try to take it
> into account.
>
> Jessie Handforth Kome
> Eastern Village Cohousing
> Silver Spring, Maryland
> "Where we have a new Common Grounds cafe in the common house. Coffee,
> tea and snacks at all hours!"