Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Involvement in Closing of Home Sales

[Bob Leigh (bobleigh]

It's not enough to expect the seller or real estate agent to educate the buyer. 
At Cornerstone, we found out the hard way when an agent told a buyer that all 
the landscape work was handled by the HoA. The buyer found out _after_ buying, 
what that meant was all of us pitch in to do it.

Bob Leigh
Cornerstone Village Cohousing
Cambridge MA

On Jun 14, 2017, 7:39 AM -0400, Ann Zabaldo <zabaldo [at] earthlink.net>, wrote:
>
> Hi Julie!
>
> Thanks for this additional information. It’s very helpful.
>
> See below.
>
>
>
> > On Jun 12, 2017, at 12:32 PM, Julie Gallagher <jgall63 [at] gmail.com> 
> > wrote:
> >
> >
> > Hi Ann,
> >
> > Cantine's Island is organized as a homeowners' association, with fee simple
> > ownership of individual homes. The sale agreements for the homes contain
> > the following language:
> >
> > "Purchaser acknowledges that Purchaser has received and reviewed
> > a copy of Offering materials consisting of the Declaration and By-Laws of
> > Cantine’s Island Homeowner’s Association prior to the execution of this
> > Agreement. Purchaser understands and agrees that Purchaser shall
> > automatically become a member of the Association and be bound by the
> > Declaration and By-Laws, Exhibits and other provisions herein contained in
> > the Offering materials, all of which are incorporated herein by reference
> > and that Seller has made no representations with regard thereto.”
>
> All of this is standard fare in buying into a condo or an HoA. I’m not sure 
> about a co-op.
>
> By law, the purchaser has to receive the Condo Docs which includes the 
> Declaration and the By-laws. They must also receive information on the 
> financial health of the community including the reserves, the budget, 
> policies, etc. So this is nothing unusual. The seller is required by law to 
> provide this. And all the information you are quoting above will be in the 
> Declaration and By-laws.
>
> >
> > Of course, our Declaration and By-Laws also state that anyone purchasing a
> > home automatically becomes a member of the HOA, but it seems helpful to
> > also have this language in the sale contract, which is the only thing the
> > purchaser signs.
>
> This is totally fine but not necessary since the By-laws will have this 
> included. And, of course, the seller is providing the By-laws to the buyer.
>
> This leads me to wonder … do you perhpas have a reason to include this 
> language in the sales contract?
>
> Have you had problems w/ people buying in to your community who do not 
> realize they are buying into an HoA? If so, then maybe it’s not the sales 
> contract that needs improvement but your marketing, outreach and resales 
> process. Getting to the sales contract without the buyer understanding that 
> he/she is buying into an HoA is pretty late in the process. And doubly so if 
> they don’t understand what it means to buy into a COHOUSING condo/HoA.
>
> > I'm surprised that you see no reason for the sale contract to have language
> > about joining the community. Doesn't the home sale always include a share
> > of ownership of the common property, and an obligation to follow the rules
> > of the HOA or condo association? That's why it seems to me it should be
> > included in the sale contract.
> >
> > Julie
>
> The reason is because this is what buying into a condominium or HoA IS: you 
> own your home and a share of the rest of the property according to some 
> formula which is described either in the Declaration or the By-laws. Have you 
> had buyers get to settlement who don’t realize this?
>
> What I’m not understanding is what problem you are trying to solve? Have you 
> had problems w/ people buying at Cantine’s Island who were surprised learning 
> they were members of an HoA? Or that they owned a partial share of the common 
> property? Or that there are condo/HoA rules and obligations?
>
> In our Resale and Rental procedures here at TVC we cover all this information 
> early on through our Tour Presentations (2 hour presentation about living at 
> TVC) in which we invite prospects to attend. We do this four times a year 
> whether we have homes to sell or not. Our purpose is to constantly educate an 
> ever evolving pool of prospective buyers. All our documents are on line 
> available for everyone to read any time.
>
> Actually, what I think is more important is providing information to a 
> prospective buyer on what it means to live in a COHOUSING condo/HoA and in 
> particular what it means to live at ________Cohousing. What are your 
> expectations? What expectations do you have of people to participate in work 
> share, meals, events, governance? Here at TVC we ask people to attend a 
> membership meeting or a team meeting, a dinner, a social event and if 
> possible, a work day. We’ve actually had prospective buyers realize cohousing 
> is not for them once they attend a meeting or a work day. On the other hand … 
> for people who do attend these various activities … we end up with really 
> well educated prospects who buy when a unit is available.
>
> Just last night I heard about a person who bought into a cohousing community 
> that has no resale team or process. The new buyer is lovely, nice, friendly 
> etc. He came to his first meeting and at the end said: “Thank you for 
> inviting me to this meeting. This was very interesting and I have no interest 
> in participating or being part of this community.” And while he remains a 
> nice, friendly neighbor he’s not a contributor to the community. He lives in 
> a nice neighborhood with other people doing all the work. This is what can 
> happen if you have no resale process for educating buyers.
>
> If you are having problems with people buying into your community who are not 
> aware of what they are buying into, then a robust Resale and Rental program 
> is the answer along with a similarly robust orientation program when they 
> move in.
>
> I’ve presented on this topic at the last two national cohousing conferences 
> 2015 and 2017. Maybe if some of the attendees at my workshop are on this list 
> they might contribute a line or two about what they learned. And if they’ve 
> instituted something … cool! Let’s hear it!
>
> I believe having a resales and orientation process is one of the great needs 
> in cohousing.
>
> O. BTW … our Resale and Rental pod (team) has raised $45,000 for our 
> community. Why? Because we provide educated buyers for the sellers so their 
> sales are For Sale By Owner (no real estate agent) saving the seller 6% of 
> the sale or an average of $20,000 per sale. Sellers are more than delighted 
> to make a contribution to the community for its active involvement in 
> educating prospective buyers.
>
> More than my 2 cents …
>
> :-)
>
>
> Best --
>
> Ann Zabaldo
> Takoma Village Cohousing
> Washington, DC
> Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
> Falls Church, VA
> 202.546.4654
>
> As long as you have two or fewer … your ducks are always in a row. The Covert 
> Comic
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>
>