Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: What SHOULD I be worried about?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Jun 20, 2014, at 4:41 PM, David Heimann <heimann [at] theworld.com> wrote:

>       Another thing to make sure about is having strong reserve funds for 
> eventually replacing major property items such as the roof, heating and hot 
> water, kitchen equipment, walkways, asphalts, siding, etc.  This includes 
> strongly funding the reserves to begin with (even though it may make for 
> higher unit prices) and strongly replenishing the reserves each year (even 
> though it may make for higher condo fees).

To add to what David said, keep track of how much things cost. This will be the 
foundation of the reserve study. The study will be based on Cost / UsefulYears 
* projected construction inflation - expected earnings on savings = amounts to 
be saved each year for that item.

Some companies add all the yearly cost of all items and do projections based on 
that total. Others do projections on each item. I'm not sure it makes a 
difference. The shorter lived items will appear several times in a 50-100 year 
projection.

The developer should build into the budget a deposit to start the reserve fund. 
I don't know what percentage of the construction costs this should be. Does 
anyone? Do the California Condo regs say anything about this?

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Sociocracy: A Deeper Democracy
http://www.sociocracy.info