Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Unprogrammed Suites

[Randy Sailer (randy.sailer]

In our community of twenty eight homes (2 standalone and the rest duplexes) we 
have several different rental arrangements going on. 

1. Full home rented.
2. Full floor rented, shared kitchen
3. Extra room rented, shared kitchen
4. Basement accessory apartment. Separate kitchen and bath.

All seem to work pretty well (normal ups and downs with residents). Most 
tenants participate in community life at some level and that adds to the 
community. 

The accessory apartment was designed into the original home and meant to be an 
apartment for one of the owners older mother. These types of apartments are 
permitted in our city (Northampton, MA). It is pretty small, but cozy and has 
never been occupied by the mother.

One key rule for our community is that all construction and use must follow 
local building codes and permitting requirements. Basement apartments require 
several means of egress including a window with window well in a bedroom that 
would allow someone to climb out. In reality, it was only those homes located 
on the side of a hill that could even consider this.

So if the apartment has a kitchen and people sleep there, some fairly pricey 
code requirements come into play.

The community receives (generally) good tenants who generally do participate. 
Since we base our condo fees on adjusted square footage for finished space, a 
finished basement (apartment or not) brings in more money to the community. 

Depending on the situation you may have to figure out parking and parking 
spaces as well as mailboxes. 

My sense is that most owners are happy not renting a space and the few that do 
are supported in affording to live in the community by the rental income. I am 
pretty sure we will never approach 56 units (a rental unit in each existing 
unit). 

Finally, the number of people in the community regularly fluctuates as kids get 
older and go on to college and new folks (babies, renters, families) come in. 
The renters just add to the mix.

Randy

On Oct 24, 2012, at 6:16 AM, cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org wrote:

> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 23:02:54 -0700
> From: Beverly Jones Redekop <beverly.jones.redekop [at] gmail.com>
> Subject: [C-L]_ Unprogrammed suites
> To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Message-ID:
>    <CAEAcb0Fev+=XaFgVvRp0A2ZPMPA1Pzqt49bPm_Jx170i78YNcQ [at] mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> 
> Hi Cohousing-L,
> 
> We programmed our community for 33 households; 15 homes are built with 18
> more to be built early in the new year.  In the home prices, approximately
> $75,000 to $125,000 is for the unit's share of infrastructure (similar to
> what would be a lot price in a subdivision).  We have duplexes,
> three-plexes, four-plexes, and five-plexes with a mixture of townhouses and
> stacked flats.
> 
> It seems that one owner may be proceeding with a basement suite in his
> townhouse. The suite's entrance would be through the home's backyard (20'
> deep backyards).
> 
> 
> ********************************************