Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Your post in choosing - l

[Mac Thomson (macthomson]

We haven’t begun construction yet so we haven’t actually secured our 
construction loan, but based on an anticipated 100% pre-sales (fingers 
crossed), in my interviews with potential banks this spring, I was told that 
they could loan 80% of total cost. So, yes, it does seem that 65% is skimpy.

BTW, we just opened up our Phase 2 Homebuyers Commitment, which means it’s time 
for our Associate Members (only a $1000 refundable deposit; no real skin in the 
game) to decide whether they are ready to commit to buying a Phase 2 home 
($12,000 non-refundable deposit and signed contract; significant commitment and 
skin in the game). The deadline is Aug 31 for Associate Members to make their 
decision so we’ll soon know how many pre-sales we have. The skyrocketing 
construction costs are obviously not helpful (but hopefully coming down soon).

If anyone out there has been thinking about joining a close-knit rural 
cohousing community in sunny Colorado, the train may soon be leaving the 
station here at Heartwood Cohousing Phase 2. We anticipate pre-selling all 14 
spots, but it’s not too late yet. Check out: 
https://www.heartwoodcohousing.com/about-phase-2.html

-- 
Mac Thomson

Heartwood Cohousing
Phase 2 Project Manager
http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com <http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com/>

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> On Aug 6, 2021, at 7:48 PM, Jim Bronson <jimbronsonashland [at] gmail.com 
> <mailto:jimbronsonashland [at] gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
> Thanks for your thoughtful reflection, Mac.  River Song is at 24 out of 28 
> sold.  Hoping our bank is sufficiently impressed with that and the equity 
> investments of about $850 in addition to our 20% of our unit cost.  The are 
> offering us 65% loan to construction cost, which seems skimpy to me in view 
> of the 75% we could have gotten 1.5 years ago.  Just for the fun of it, what 
> was your construction loan to cost?
> 
> Wishing you very well on your Phase 2 project.   
> 
> Jim Bronson
> River Song Design Team
> 
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2021 12:25:13 -0600
> From: Mac Thomson <macthomson [at] me.com <mailto:macthomson [at] me.com>>
> To: Coho-L-postings <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org <mailto:cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org>>
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ members responses to the question about cohousing
>         communities that have not made it
> Message-ID: <7097A759-19F4-49E2-BD23-EB102D514C03 [at] me.com 
> <mailto:7097A759-19F4-49E2-BD23-EB102D514C03 [at] me.com>>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=utf-8
> 
> Back in 1999 when we developed Phase 1 of Heartwood Cohousing, we had planned 
> to partner with Jim Leach so that banks would recognize Jim as a successful 
> developer with a strong balance sheet and therefore offer us a construction 
> loan. As it turned out, we were 100% pre-sold before obtaining our 
> construction loan. That was good enough for the bank so we no longer needed 
> to partner with Jim. Jim very graciously agreed to be our development 
> consultant, but not our partner. That meant we paid him an hourly rate for 
> his help, but didn?t end up sharing the risk or splitting the profits with 
> him. The net result was that the community ended up with an extra $100K.
> 
> Two takeaways here:
> Banks get very excited about a project being 100% pre-sold. Get there if you 
> can. But of course that means that the pre-buyers need to have entered a 
> legal agreement to buy a home and put enough money into the project to 
> demonstrate they?re not going to walk away.
> Jim is a great guy. Cohousing wouldn?t be as successful as it is today 
> without Jim, Katie, Chuck, and many others who have given so selflessly.
> 
> -- 
> Mac Thomson
> 
> Heartwood Cohousing
> Phase 2 Project Manager
> http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com <http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com/>