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

[David Heimann (heimann]

Hello Julie and everyone,

	We (JP Cohousing) have a procedure called "clearness" (similar to the 
Quaker meaning of the term), which takes place when a prospective buyer is 
serious considering making the commitment to buy.  In clearness, a committee of 
three or so residents meets with the buyer(s) to go over the following 
questions:

	1. Do you have any questions about read the Community Values and do you 
accept them?

	2. Do you understand the Condo Documents, including the Prospective 
Living Here Guide? Do you have any questions? Will you abide by JPC policies?

	3. Do you understand and agree to abide by and use the Consensus 
Process?

	4. Do all the adult members of your household understand that Cohousing 
is a participatory process which included attending general meetings, joining a 
committee and performing 4 hours/month of work tasks related to JP Cohousing?

	5. Living in JP Cohousing means making community a priority in your 
life. Is this something you are willing and able to do?

	6. We would like to share some examples of how we operate as a 
community, and ask for relevant examples from your current life.

        7. What do you have to offer the JP Cohousing community?

        8. What are you prepared to give up to live in community?

        9. Do you have any other questions that we can answer at this time?


	This includes acknowledging and agreeing to the condo documents, but 
also goes much further into establishing that the buyer understands and accepts 
(or better yet looks forward to) what they are getting into.

	While clearness is not a process that approves or disapproves a 
purchase, it is a process that makes sure that everyone, particularly the 
buyer(s), goes into the purchase and moving in with all eyes open.

Regards,
David Heimann
Jamaica Plain Cohousing


Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2017 10:30:30 -0700
From: drmaryann49 [at] mac.com
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Involvement in Closing of Home Sales
Message-ID: <B03A1EFB-1DCE-4C46-9D10-586FEBDBE993 [at] mac.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=utf-8

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.

We have a very active Marketing Committee who introduces potential members to 
the community, talks about living here, often shows available units, etc. So 
these documents are not the first time purchasers should have heard about these 
items which are also required by state law.

Mary Ann
Manzanita Village, Prescott, AZ

?
?Energy creates energy.  It is by spending myself that I become rich? - Sarah 
Bernhardt

Mary Ann Clark 
drmaryann49 [at] mac.com
Check out DrMaryAnn's Academy at http://drmaryann.wordpress.com/




> On Jun 15, 2017, at 2:18 PM, Julie Gallagher <jgall63 [at] gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> My thought about putting it into the sale contract wasn't so much to
> educate the buyer as to have the buyer affirmatively sign something saying
> they agree to be governed by the By-Laws and the policies adopted by the
> HOA. Then, if later down the road, the buyer is refusing to comply with a
> significant community requirement, there would be something to point to to
> say, "you signed this, agreeing to follow the rules." (Not that it would
> have much in the way of teeth to enforce, but enforcement is a different
> issue.) To me, that's stronger than saying, "we have a Declaration and
> By-Laws saying residents have to comply with the rules, which you may or
> may not have read."
>
> We haven't had a problem yet that this is trying to solve. You may have
> guessed that I'm an attorney, so I'm kind of hung up on legal documents and
> whether people are obligated to follow them. I fully agree, Ann, that it's
> critical to educate buyers in advance, which is something we don't have a
> formal process for. Our immediate situation is that a resident has listed
> her home with a realtor, after two years of "sort of" marketing it through
> the cohousing website and our community website. (Our houses are difficult
> to sell because of our location.) The first potential buyers the realtor
> showed it to were an elderly couple who looked rather frail. Since then,
> she has come to a potluck and hopefully become more familiar with the
> community. But she has also taken a group of other realtors through the
> house to encourage them to show it to their clients. The owner doesn't want
> community members to come on too strong about cohousing and possibly scare
> buyers away.
>
> Julie