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

[R Philip Dowds (rphilipdowds]

My views are pretty similar to Alan’s … although I may have a different take on 
the significance of the founding role.  Because it’s not scalable into the 
future.

Today, cohousing in America is still a micro-cult activity: Only a tiny 
fraction of USA residents live in cohousing, or can even find cohousing nearby. 
 But I like to picture a future where most small towns have several cohousing 
communities, and cities have dozens or hundreds.  Yes, some candidate cohousers 
will always choose to find each other, to learn how to be real estate 
developers, and to create their own brand of brand new community.  But many 
others will simply shop around, and select an existing community that best 
serves their lifestyle.  These existing communities will be 30, 40 or 50+ years 
old, and the majority of founders will be long gone.  For better or worse, the 
character and culture of these long-established communities will be, of 
necessity, self-perpetuating and/or self-redefining.

After more than 25 years, only eleven of our 32 Cornerstone units are occupied 
by founders who were active in the development phase — and of those founders, a 
few have substantially decreased their participation over time.  The culture 
and practices dominant when my wife and I bought in 18 years ago have changed 
significantly — usually with the encouragement and approval of some founders, 
and despite the resistance of other founders.  We continue to evolve, and we’ll 
never be a cohousing mausoleum.  I hope.  In this context, I share Alan’s 
preference for a “transparent” process that familiarizes and educates potential 
buyers before they commit to joining (and shaping) a living, evolving culture.

———————————
Thanks,
Philip Dowds
Cornerstone Cohousing
Cambridge, MA

> On Jul 21, 2025, at 6:45 AM, Alan O'Hashi via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> Cohousers - At my place, the HOA requires buyers to take a tour and have an 
> orientation session about cohousing, community participation, etc. Buyers 
> attend a team or communit rmeeting, and attend a dinner. We have an interest 
> list, but it’s not a great source of qualified potential buyers. We assign a 
> community member or two to liaison among the HOA, seller, and buyer to set up 
> visits and meetings. Ultimately, it’s up to the seller to pick a buyer. So 
> far, our transparent process has worked pretty well. Others can chime in 
> here, but generally, my observation is that no community has 100 percent 
> ideal cohousers. The only group that can self-select is the founding group. 
> Rather than worrying too much about future owners. I think it’s most 
> important to correctly pick the initial members.
> 
> Thx,
> 
> alan o
> 
> 
> Alan O'Hashi - Cyber Office
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