Cohousing-L Mailing List: Do Marketing Models Fit the Market? ... was recognizing time versus financial investment in early days

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

Hello all —

Taking a leaf from Sharon Villines’s “Keep Subject Lines Meaningful and Tidy” 
book … I’d like to launch a new Subject Line on Marketing.  Because in the end 
… it’s all about sales.  You can be ultra green, you can be super affordable, 
you can be cool, cool techy, you can have all kinds of bells and whistles but 
in the end … if you can’t sell it you will not have a community.  This is for 
ALL real estate not just cohousing.

You have to know your market.  All marketing like all construction and all 
politics is LOCAL.  Is the market rising or falling?  Lot of vacant houses?  
Competition for housing driving out buyers?  What size communities sell where 
you live?  Do people in your municipality want to live in single family 
detached households or do they prefer condos?

Are you wedded to new construction or is there a lot of vacant housing stock 
waiting for rehab?  Is your market so hot you can’t buy a square foot of dirt?  
Does it makes sense to “retro fit” your community by buying up houses on a 
block or in a condominium?

Washington DC is a HOT HOT HOT market.  We have the problem of too many buyers 
and not enough units to sell.  That’s in cohousing and in the market place in 
general.   

Here’s the issue I’d like to engage:  the cohousing development model.

The model CoHousing Solutions and Wonderland Hill Development Co. use is a 
model in which future residents have to put up a significant amount of money 
just to get to construction.  Up to 30% of the cost of development if I 
remember correctly.  (Katie, feel free to adjust my memory.)

I think this is a very hard hoop to jump through.

In contrast, Don Tucker of EcoHousing Corp., used a straight developer model 
for both Takoma Village in DC and Eastern Village in Maryland:  he took 99% of 
the risk asking for minimal contributions from the potential members.  This 
made cohousing accessible to a larger market of people who could afford a 
mortgage but did not have a lot of cash.

Now there are pluses and minuses to both models.  We can debate these later.  
But what I”m seeing in the market here in DC is that people don’t want to “work 
that hard” to build the community and they don’t want to risk their money.   
They want some input on some aspects of the design but they don’t want a second 
full time job during development.  They prefer to move into a built community.  
Additionally, I no longer see “burning souls” emerging who can lead a group.   
It’s almost like with the two communities we built here in DC we skimmed off 
the cream of the DIY cohousers.

So what I want to open up for discussion is   …   is it that we’re not engaged 
in enough of a  robust marketing effort or is it that the models don’t fit the 
market?  I don’t know.  I’m asking.  Don Tucker has another shot at a property 
in the DC area that he wants to build as Senior Cohousing.  If he gets this 
property, I’m wondering what challenges he will see in the marketing and 
outreach.  We have a hot market w/ folks who want an easier entry into living 
in cohousing than being in meetings …

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



> On Jun 13, 2017, at 12:48 PM, Kathryn McCamant <kmccamant [at] 
> cohousing-solutions.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> RE: Marketing
> 
> With all due respect, Sharon, I think you’re experience in marketing 
> cohousing was at a different time in the very strong Washington DC market. I 
> too had the experience of thinking it was easy to market cohousing, selling 
> out numerous projects before construction with relatively little effort. But 
> that was not the experience in much of the rest of the country. Jim Leach in 
> Colorado always told me the biggest issue with cohousing was marketing, how 
> deep is the cohousing market really? Then the country suffered the housing 
> bust of 2008-9, and I have found it to be much more challenging to find our 
> committed buyers ever since, especially getting buyers to commit $$ to a 
> project in the early stages. Add to that the fact that younger generations 
> seek their housing in different ways than we did, much more digitally than 
> flyers on bulletin boards. In fact, I think us “old timers” talking about how 
> easy it was to market our communities has been a real disservice to new 
> groups who feel like they are failing because people aren’t flocking to join 
> them. 
> 
> I think this is one of the issues for the cohousing market. We expect people 
> to “get it” with very little effort our on part. For an example, Shelly Parks 
> who is a student in my 500 Communities class, says in her old job marketing 
> more traditional senior housing developments she had a staff of 5 that was 
> expected to make 20 “voice contacts” EVERY DAY! Following up with people.  I 
> agree with you that personal networks are a great place to start, but most 
> groups quickly run thru those and then need to really market their projects.  
> I think there is an ever evolving need to study what are the best practices 
> for marketing cohousing and where should a group spend their marketing money 
> (and yes, they need to spend money!), to get the biggest impact for their 
> dollars. Different approaches make sense at different times in the 
> development of the project, and different markets react differently. We’ve 
> found placing spots on public radio to be pricy, but very effective. 
> 
> If we are going to grow the cohousing market, we need to mature our approach 
> and be willing to spend money on marketing like the rest of the housing 
> market does. Otherwise, we have a very limited market of “hard core 
> communitarians.”  And yes, I think it is important to grow the cohousing 
> market because it is one of the ways we can “save the world” with great 
> environmental and social sustainability.  Heaven knows, people living alone 
> in their single family homes and apartments watching TV news isn’t going to 
> take us in a healthier direction…..
> 
> Respectfully, 
> 
> Katie 
> -- 
> Kathryn McCamant, President
> CoHousing Solutions
> 
> 241B Commercial Street 
> 
> Nevada City, CA 95959
> 
> T.530.478.1970  C.916.798.4755
> 
> www.cohousing-solutions.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 6/12/17, 9:14 PM, "Cohousing-L on behalf of Sharon Villines" 
> <cohousing-l-bounces+kmccamant=cohousing-solutions.com [at] cohousing.org on 
> behalf of sharon [at] sharonvillines.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On Jun 12, 2017, at 11:05 AM, Michelle Keiserman <msmakman1 [at] gmail.com> 
>> wrote:
>> 
>> We are a group of five enthusiastic households who want to bring cohousing
>> to Nevada.  Four of us are investing both the time and money ($2500 each so
>> far) for initial marketing to attract more members.  
> 
>    The first concern is spending money on marketing. I think few cohousing 
> communities will say that marketing in the traditional sense placing ads or 
> hiring consultants was profitable. One group, for example, bought an ad in 
> the Utne Reader because a marketing consultant said that magazine’s profile 
> matched the characteristics of cohousers. They got hundreds of responses and 
> not one taker. It was a waste of time to just respond.
> 
>    Personal contact, flyers in health food stores, chiropractor’s offices, 
> Unitarian Churches, Reform Synagogues, etc. have been much more productive. 
> An ad on CohoUSA is different because that is your target market.
> 
>> One individual has
>> invested that amount but does not have the time to dig in and help us get
>> the work done.  While we recognize the value each of us brings to this
>> effort, we are wondering if other communities have accounted in some way
>> for the time/effort invested in the early days. We are familiar with the
>> benefits of making an early financial commitment, but what if you've made
>> both and some other members cannot?
> 
>    I think most communities don’t and they should. Start out with levels of 
> promise to households who are engaged and those who are not engaged. 
> “Engaged” needn’t be measured, but if a household says from the beginning we 
> have money but no time, clearly they are in a different level of commitment 
> than those who are contributing both financially and working as well. Make 
> room for everyone but balance the levels of privilege given to each.
> 
>    Begin accounting from the beginning. If the first households are investing 
> $2,500, later joiners should contribute equal amounts or the first 
> contributors receive greater discounts on their homes. One way or another, 
> things need to feel balanced when you move in. And people who join later 
> should recognize the importance of the contributions of the first members.
> 
>    Build a priority list of first to choose a house/unit based on 
> commitments. This encourages people to join early on rather than sitting 
> aside and watching.
> 
>    And: Everyone has 24 hours in a day. No one has more than anyone else. The 
> issue is how each person prioritizes their time. There are temporary periods 
> of overload with a new baby or caring for an aging parent, but people have to 
> make room for building community now just as you will need them to build 
> community after you move in. It won’t appear full blown when the last box is 
> unpacked.
> 
>    Sharon
>    ----
>    Sharon Villines
>    Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
>    http://www.takomavillage.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
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