Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohesiveness of community after a sale?

[Bob Leigh (bobleigh]

Phil:  you and I need to talk privately.  Our ROFR has indeed been used in the 
past; I'll look up the precise transactions if you want.  Also, how it works is 
different:  Cornerstone can assign a sale to someone from our waiting list as 
soon as the seller notifies us that they want to sell and at what price -- not 
just after the seller has a P&S in hand.

All:  Phil has described some of the possible issues (seller's "freedom", fair 
housing, lenders).   However, his conclusion (delete the ROFR) is by no means 
universal at Cornerstone.

Bob Leigh
Cornerstone Village Cohousing
Cambridge MA

On Sun, Jul 20, 2025, at 8:53 AM, R Philip Dowds via Cohousing-L wrote:
> Great question(s).  At Cornerstone Cohousing, we’re still working on 
> this (we’ll probably always be working on this), and don’t pretend to 
> have all the answers.  But I’ll share some of our experience and 
> thinking to date:
>
>       (1) We have ROFR built into our master deed from the year 2000.  
> The idea is that (a) Cornerstone can insist that sellers present the 
> association with a (partially redacted) purchase and sale offer, and 
> then (b) Cornerstone can “take over” this offer by transferring it to 
> some other buyer we “like better”.  Cornerstone itself never buys or 
> owns a unit, even transitionally.  But historically, we've NEVER USED 
> ROFR.  First, we tend to feel it’s intrusive on the “private” 
> transaction of a valued friend and neighbor who wants to sell; and 
> second, we worry about stumbling on some prohibition of fair housing 
> law.  Meanwhile, we’re told that ROFR inteferes with reverse mortgages, 
> which potentially allow some of our older members to afford staying at 
> Cornerstone after they retire.  So:  We are currently looking at 
> removing ROFR from our master deed.
>
>       (2) Many communities seem to maintain a successful and useful 
> waiting list.  On the other hand, cohousing units do not turn over with 
> the same regularity as do “ordinary” HOA units, so maintaining a viable 
> and relevant waiting list can be a lot of work, and in the end, 
> irrelevant.  My personal view is that if you want a relevant “waiting 
> list”, you should try to invest it with more value.  This could mean 
> (a) insist on an annual registration fee ($50???); (b) consistently 
> invite waiting list members to your community events (e.g., special 
> meals, lectures, game day, whatever); and (c) encourage list members to 
> show up for work contributions, like a spring yard clean-up.
>
>       (3) The association “approves” a buyer?  ???  I’ll hasten past 
> all the ins and outs of fair housing law, but if you engage in 
> “approving” one buyer over another, you may inviting a discrimination 
> law suit.  Personally, I’d stay far away from anything that looks like 
> the association “approving” one  candidate, and “rejecting” another.
>
> So: What do we do at Cornerstone?  We confess that we’ve heavily and 
> shamelessly plagiarized from Ann Zabaldo at Takoma Village — and we’ve 
> established a “marketing team” that “helps” all of our willing sellers 
> to sell their units.  Some of the activities of this team include …
> Helping to advertise availability.
> Helping to “show” the unit.
> Meeting with candidate buyers.
> Explaining participation expectations.  More specifically, emphasing 
> that sustaining relatively low monthly dues is supported when community 
> “members” invest time in management and chores.
> Explaining social expectations.  More specifically, emphasizing that we 
> value household-to-household reciprocity of helping out.  And getting 
> to know (and respect) the backstories everyone brings with them.
> Helping candidates find the professionals — vendor sources — that can 
> assist with the burdens of moving, and setting up a new residence.
> … And so on.  All of which, (1) attracts households with communitarian 
> instincts.  And (2), scares off households without.  We are NOT real 
> estate attorneys or real estate brokers, and we don’t imply that we 
> are.  But sometimes or often our “help” is substantial, and grateful 
> sellers may make a voluntary cash contribution (typically four figures, 
> but one time, five) back to Cornerstone.
>
> ———————————
> Thanks,
> Philip Dowds
> Cornerstone Cohousing
> Cambridge, MA
>
>> On Jul 19, 2025, at 2:55 PM, Christine Cook Mania <christine.d.cook [at] 
>> gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> We're forming a new cohousing community and we are thinking about how to
>> maintain the cohesiveness of the community when someone sells their unit.
>> We want to ensure the new buyer is committed to being an active participant
>> of the community and would like some review of the prospective buyer before
>> the sale is completed. We have come up with three different options:
>> 
>>   1. One of the ideas we are considering is for our community to have the
>>   "right of first refusal" to buy the unit. For any community that does
>>   establish a "right of first refusal" on the sale of a unit, what do you do
>>   to actually exercise it?
>>   2. Another way is to maintain a waiting list of qualified buyers.
>>   3. And another way is to add something to our by-laws requiring the
>>   approval of the "condo association" of the buyer.
>> 
>> We are curious to know what existing communities are doing?
>> 
>> Warmly,
>> Christine
>> 
>> 
>> ___________________________________
>> Christine Cook Mania, MA, RYT-200
>> Check out my new book, *Vegan Minded: Becoming a Steward for Animals,
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>> Learn more about my work at christinecookmania.com.
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