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

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Jul 15, 2017, at 1:30 PM, drmaryann49 [at] mac.com wrote:
> 
> We have a list of documents that we provide to the title company to share 
> with the buyer, including previous year-end financial statements, current 
> year budget, Bylaws, CC&Rs, reserve fund summary, policy and procedure manual 
> (Villagers Guide) and a letter acknowledging receipt of these. 

I would suggest having someone go through these documents with the buyer, 
particularly the bylaws. I do a lot of policy work. We are now clearing up some 
oddities in our LCE designations and financing that has revealed the long 
standing provisions that have been previously discussed are unknown to people 
who have lived here for 17 years and were members before move in when the 
bylaws were being written.

We don’t do this but after the last membership meeting, I’m going to suggest it 
to our resale team.

And for extra credit — if I had known this 50 years ago my life would have been 
less stressful:

1. Some people (like me) read and follow what is written, or are conscious that 
they aren’t. They also live under the cloud that if the rules aren’t followed, 
it will come back to bite us all. Often fruitless attempts to enforce.

2. Some people never read because they know that what people actually do is 
more relevant. All that written stuff is irrelevant and just takes a lot of 
time to wade through. And if anyone tries to enforce the rules, there will be 
ample warnings and grace periods. Or the rules will be changed. Happy campers.

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