Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Community size

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Sep 14, 2014, at 6:35 AM, R Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> wrote:

> Well, hold on:  Land and buildings together may value at $15mln, but that 
> doesn't make you a $15mln enterprise.  Your annual budget is surely in the 
> low six figures, and with very few employees, little tax complexity, and 
> mostly recurring costs like the annual insurance policy, it can't be a big 
> brain buster to manage.  Or shouldn't be.


I love it. Your whole message proves Ann's point. It isn't complex when you 
have enough money to hire a manager and then hire all the work done. Money 
always makes things simpler. Having someone else make decisions is also 
simpler. But then you have to live with them. That's why conventional condos 
are so offensively inoffensive in design. 

The money equation is based on the value of the real estate because that is 
what needs to be maintained--the investment. Otherwise we could just move in 
and let it fall apart. The complexity does increase with size and cost. 

As communities grow larger and larger and more people join who are not 
do-it-yourselfers and we end up with the same expenses as a regular condo. 
Except our expenses are higher because we have comparatively huge common 
facilities and we still want to have social programs. 

Without the do-it-yourselfers to do the work, we can't afford to live in the 
communities we have built. And the larger they get the more work they require 
because they have larger, more complex systems.

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