Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: California "Cohousing friendly" condominiums lenders?

[John Faust (wjfaust]

Catya,

Thanks for the response.

I don't speak for Coho/US, but from my point of view as webmaster, this
> seems like a great volunteer job.
>

Actually, I *was* volunteering to do that. I was also suggesting a way in
which it might be facilitated. My suggestion that it appear in the directory
is that those that have the information are the already-built communities in
that directory and what they need is simply a convenient place to record the
information. From my perspective, the natural place to do that is in their
own directory entry. I assume all of the other classes of information
(demographics) have their own editing form for entry. (I guess I should just
create my own directory entry to find out. :^) Another editing form for
lender data could be added *which is what I offered to do*. It would have
entries for all the relevant data (e.g., construction lender name, relevant
dates, state, city, contact info, legal entity formed under, lender
receptivity, problems encountered, overall evaluation of experience, ... ).
[Others more experienced in cohousing or development could provide a better
set of categories than I could.] If the data entered needed to be stuck in
some server-side database (relational or xml), I would do that as well.

As for being able to put it all in one place, I agree. That could be done by
either 1) offering specialized (dynamic) directory listings (e.g., by
community goals, by age distribution, by state of development, ... )
including one for lenders, or 2) generating a static list on a separate page
directly from the database data. Having the entry point for the data in the
directory just provides communities with a natural place to enter their
community-specific data.

The reason for suggesting this approach is that I would be reluctant to take
the time to solicit the information from separate communities, tabulate the
results and then deliver it to Coho/US. It would be inconsistent, labor
intensive and communities might be reluctant to participate. It would also
be better if others with more knowledge than I have about the
lending/development process were to critique the data being collected. If it
were part of the Coho/US site, these would not be problems and the
connection with the larger community of communities would be evident.

It might be easier to discuss it off line. We can also pursue this at the
conference in Seattle.

Regards,

John


On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 9:01 AM, Catya Belfer-Shevett <catya [at] 
homeport.org>wrote:

>
> Hi John,
>
> Sorry for the delay in response.
>
> My take is that as a beneficiary, you, or someone like you, are the one
> motivated to collect the information, and then i'll be happy to publish
> it :)  I don't speak for Coho/US, but from my point of view as
> webmaster, this seems like a great volunteer job.
>
> I don't think the directory is the right place for this - you want a
> useful list all in one place.
>
>        - catya
>
> John Faust wrote:
> > Catya,
> >
> > If I could, I would. I am with a forming group in Southeastern Arizona
> > (Desert Mosaic Cohousing) where (with the exception of Tucson) most
> lenders
> > probably can't spell cohousing. My response is predicated on having seen
> (on
> > this list or at the CohoUS website) *mentions of and references to*
> lenders
> > who think cohousing is a solid, low-risk investment. It would be useful
> if
> > those who know of such lenders had a place to record them. I think of
> myself
> > as a *beneficiary* of such a list.
> >
> > Maybe this would be useful information that could be added to each of the
> > sites in the Directory. Useful information, besides lender name and
> generic
> > contact info, is a specific individual worked with and maybe some loan
> > specifics. Others more knowledgable about those issues could come up with
> a
> > better description.
> >
> > No new page is required -- just one more <div> on the existing page and
> one
> > more <form> on the editing page. I would be glad to help with the client
> or
> > server-side changes needed if you have a sandbox site where such things
> > happen.
> >
> > John
>
>