I've read here and there over the years about alternative methods of property ownership, co-living, etc.
My family would eventually like to have "our own" house / living space that isn't beholden to a landlord, and I know there are ways to do it with mutual friends, extended families, etc.
If you know of any such alternatives like co-ops, co-living, pods of buildings, etc. I'd really like to know more. It's vague as hell, and google gives me way too much information, and it's difficult to separate the shit from the gold, so I thought I'd ask you all. I'm interested in the benefits and drawbacks, both social and legal.
Chad Miller
Aug 12, 20 2:23 pm
I think you need to define what 'co-living' is to you. I've seen it in roughly three types.
Type 1 - Dorm Life
You basically have private sleeping and office space - everything else is shared.
Type 2 - I want to bath alone
You have private sleeping, bathing, and maybe an office space. You may also have a kitchenette. Everything else is shared.
Type 3 - I like my friends but in limited doses.
Small homes with a shared larger community space that houses community kitchen / dining, rec spaces, utilities, ect.
SneakyPete
Aug 12, 20 2:26 pm
I'm thinking more along the lines of resilient communities that are created to mitigate risk from outside forces like landlords, mortgages, and covenants. I'm not looking for dorms or apartment style life at this point in my life journey.
bowling_ball
Aug 12, 20 10:48 pm
Pay cash for a house or condo? What am I missing here?
wurdan freo
Aug 17, 20 2:56 am
escape the evil profiteers... of course you'll never escape zoning and taxes... think you own your house... try not paying your taxes for a couple of years...
chris-chitect
Aug 12, 20 2:51 pm
Hmm, I've been thinking about this sort of thing myself lately. Especially as I'm working from home and getting used to it, I'm re-evaluating what I need.
Living out here in BC I'm really liking the idea of going in on an acreage an hour out of the city or a Gulf Island (saltspring etc..) with friends or family. I'm somewhat of an introvert, need my own space, but like the idea of a large property with one or two other homes to just get the cost of the property down and share the risk.
The idea of a shared workshop is appealing though, also the shared knowledge of like minded people to help out.
Where are you located SneakyPete?
SneakyPete
Aug 12, 20 3:04 pm
Northern California.
SneakyPete
Aug 12, 20 3:06 pm
I'm currently reading up on Community Land trusts. Anyone have any good links other than the ones google pulls up?
tduds
Aug 12, 20 3:11 pm
There's a small collective farm near me that publishes a lot of their own info online. Not sure if this is what you're looking for but it might be helpful / inspirational: http://tryonfarm.org/share/
I also have some books I can recommend. There isn't a whole lot on the internet, sadly
Donna Sink
Aug 12, 20 3:35 pm
I guess I don't really understand the concern about holding a mortgage, unless it's just that it can be unaffordable to own a home? Interest rates are *really* low right now, and you lock that rate in for 15-30 years/
I loved living in a rowhouse, which was a SFH but with shared party walls. No landlords, no covenants, the bank didn't bother us as long as we paid on time. Which can be hard, sometimes. That's why husband and I are downsizing right now.
This is my ideal:
Look how beautiful it is! Scale, material, density...Love it.
SneakyPete
Aug 12, 20 3:59 pm
When the down payment for a tear down is 20% of half a million, it's not so easy to get money together to start investing in something that costs more than rent per month.
tduds
Aug 12, 20 4:03 pm
That is a very pretty image, Donna.
randomised
Aug 12, 20 5:29 pm
And...no cars!
geezertect
Aug 16, 20 1:32 pm
Looks like something you'd find in North Korea, at least to me. Oh, well, no accounting for taste. LOL
Jaetten
Aug 13, 20 5:07 am
Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but there's the option of buying a plot and having a 'tiny' home or a large trailer, but that may be too small for your needs?
Not the most glamourous, I'll admit.
Or maybe self build?
ivanmillya
Aug 13, 20 9:07 am
Pretty sure most municipalities won't legally allow you to use a tiny house or a trailer home as a primary residence on standard residential-zoned lots. So you can only park one there if you already have a house on it to begin with.
Jaetten
Aug 16, 20 2:03 pm
That seems counter intuitive, given that lots of places are experiencing house prices out grow wages
archi_dude
Aug 13, 20 9:21 am
Sneaky, unfortunately you are in an area that is anti-development and therefore, lack of units=extremely high demand. I'd suggest either voting for officials ready to close loopholes in CEQA that NIMBYs use to block dense developments. Also officials ready to deregulate the scores of other fees and permits that add up to hundreds of thousands just to get approval. Or you can move, there are some great states with amazing cost of living, low taxes that many businesses are headed to, they are all red though. Might be a correlation.....
Peter Normand
Sep 10, 20 2:31 pm
Not all are red, look at Rockford IL for affordable housing, you can get a huge house for 120K and you are in a liberal city, in a liberal state.
b3tadine[sutures]
Aug 13, 20 9:57 am
Co-housing is a great way of doing this. Separate addresses, private living spaces, with shared communal spaces; kitchens, laundry, etc....
Coincidentally, since I'm packing up my books for our downsizing move, I found my original copy from 1989 of Cohousing: A Contemproary Approach To Housing Ourselves. It still holds up.
SneakyPete
Aug 14, 20 8:09 pm
Thank you all. This is great stuff.
liberty bell
Aug 14, 20 11:14 pm
Seriously, Sneaky Pete, I don’t know if you have kids or not, but if you don’t: the benefits of having a network of extended family or friends who are like family nearby when you have young children CANNOT be overstated. It seriously takes a village during the first decade of kids’ lives.
SneakyPete
Aug 15, 20 12:20 am
We don't but hope to soon. We have a great network on the east coast but the city is not somewhere we wanna raise kids.
mightyaa
Aug 17, 20 11:13 am
I have no idea how it worked financially, but basically until 4th grade, my family lived on a artist (hippie) commune in NM. If I were to guess, somehow they took over a summer camp type place (at least that’s what the layout felt like). Common stuff like shower facilities, community center & kitchen, and a church. What may have been dorms were converted to artist studios, smelters, pottery wheels and kilns, photography, recording studios, etc. Basically picture a hundred or so artistic hippies living together in the late 60’s/early 70’s. Housing was the variety; we lived in a couple tee-pees during the summer, a pit house in the winter. Some had cabins. Some had converted busses. I don’t think anyone had running water except at the common areas. No idea how it really worked as a business or with code, or with policing, etc. But they farmed, ranched, etc. as well. Everyone, including kids had daily assignments/duties; it was organized versus the ‘just show up’ type communes; I vaguely recall they had a couple art galleries in probably Taos and SantaFe to sell the art produced in the commune (I’d have to help load the van).
atelier nobody
Aug 17, 20 2:36 pm
Yay, I'm no longer the only commune kid I know!
mightyaa
Aug 17, 20 4:44 pm
:P
atelier nobody
Aug 17, 20 2:54 pm
You could just move to Slab City and build whatever the hell you want. Of course, the high temp this week should be about 114°F, you'd have to have your water trucked in, and you're a 4 hour drive from anywhere, but absolute creative freedom, free land with no property tax, and no building department.
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 8, 20 9:29 pm
I can't find it, but someone posted an awesome link to co-operative apartment ownership as a model for owning, can someone repost the link, or direct me to the thread?
Move somewhere affordable. There are plenty of places in the USA still where you can buy acreage for not much money and homestead.
b3tadine[sutures]
Sep 9, 20 3:35 pm
Why?
Jay1122
Sep 9, 20 5:07 pm
Architecture is probably the worst profession in that prospect. Around 90% of architecture jobs are in Major cities, and mostly NYC & CA. And the ones in small towns are usually for tiny residential or commercial projects. The only change possible while still working for large firms is probably between moving from super expensive cities like NYC,LA,SF to Cheaper mid western cities.
Howdy.
I've read here and there over the years about alternative methods of property ownership, co-living, etc.
My family would eventually like to have "our own" house / living space that isn't beholden to a landlord, and I know there are ways to do it with mutual friends, extended families, etc.
If you know of any such alternatives like co-ops, co-living, pods of buildings, etc. I'd really like to know more. It's vague as hell, and google gives me way too much information, and it's difficult to separate the shit from the gold, so I thought I'd ask you all. I'm interested in the benefits and drawbacks, both social and legal.
I think you need to define what 'co-living' is to you. I've seen it in roughly three types.
Type 1 - Dorm Life
You basically have private sleeping and office space - everything else is shared.
Type 2 - I want to bath alone
You have private sleeping, bathing, and maybe an office space. You may also have a kitchenette. Everything else is shared.
Type 3 - I like my friends but in limited doses.
Small homes with a shared larger community space that houses community kitchen / dining, rec spaces, utilities, ect.
I'm thinking more along the lines of resilient communities that are created to mitigate risk from outside forces like landlords, mortgages, and covenants. I'm not looking for dorms or apartment style life at this point in my life journey.
Pay cash for a house or condo? What am I missing here?
escape the evil profiteers... of course you'll never escape zoning and taxes... think you own your house... try not paying your taxes for a couple of years...
Hmm, I've been thinking about this sort of thing myself lately. Especially as I'm working from home and getting used to it, I'm re-evaluating what I need.
Living out here in BC I'm really liking the idea of going in on an acreage an hour out of the city or a Gulf Island (saltspring etc..) with friends or family. I'm somewhat of an introvert, need my own space, but like the idea of a large property with one or two other homes to just get the cost of the property down and share the risk.
The idea of a shared workshop is appealing though, also the shared knowledge of like minded people to help out.
Where are you located SneakyPete?
Northern California.
I'm currently reading up on Community Land trusts. Anyone have any good links other than the ones google pulls up?
There's a small collective farm near me that publishes a lot of their own info online. Not sure if this is what you're looking for but it might be helpful / inspirational: http://tryonfarm.org/share/
Here's a great summary from the Granby CLT, which is another excellent Assemble project: https://www.granby4streetsclt.co.uk/whats-a-clt
I also have some books I can recommend. There isn't a whole lot on the internet, sadly
I guess I don't really understand the concern about holding a mortgage, unless it's just that it can be unaffordable to own a home? Interest rates are *really* low right now, and you lock that rate in for 15-30 years/
I loved living in a rowhouse, which was a SFH but with shared party walls. No landlords, no covenants, the bank didn't bother us as long as we paid on time. Which can be hard, sometimes. That's why husband and I are downsizing right now.
This is my ideal:
Look how beautiful it is! Scale, material, density...Love it.
When the down payment for a tear down is 20% of half a million, it's not so easy to get money together to start investing in something that costs more than rent per month.
That is a very pretty image, Donna.
And...no cars!
Looks like something you'd find in North Korea, at least to me. Oh, well, no accounting for taste. LOL
Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but there's the option of buying a plot and having a 'tiny' home or a large trailer, but that may be too small for your needs?
Not the most glamourous, I'll admit.
Or maybe self build?
Pretty sure most municipalities won't legally allow you to use a tiny house or a trailer home as a primary residence on standard residential-zoned lots. So you can only park one there if you already have a house on it to begin with.
That seems counter intuitive, given that lots of places are experiencing house prices out grow wages
Sneaky, unfortunately you are in an area that is anti-development and therefore, lack of units=extremely high demand. I'd suggest either voting for officials ready to close loopholes in CEQA that NIMBYs use to block dense developments. Also officials ready to deregulate the scores of other fees and permits that add up to hundreds of thousands just to get approval. Or you can move, there are some great states with amazing cost of living, low taxes that many businesses are headed to, they are all red though. Might be a correlation.....
Not all are red, look at Rockford IL for affordable housing, you can get a huge house for 120K and you are in a liberal city, in a liberal state.
Co-housing is a great way of doing this. Separate addresses, private living spaces, with shared communal spaces; kitchens, laundry, etc....
There's always this approach: https://freegan.info/what-is-a...
This is a nice article about co-housing in the time of covid.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2020/08/05/designing-for-community-in-the-covid-city/
Coincidentally, since I'm packing up my books for our downsizing move, I found my original copy from 1989 of Cohousing: A Contemproary Approach To Housing Ourselves. It still holds up.
Thank you all. This is great stuff.
Seriously, Sneaky Pete, I don’t know if you have kids or not, but if you don’t: the benefits of having a network of extended family or friends who are like family nearby when you have young children CANNOT be overstated. It seriously takes a village during the first decade of kids’ lives.
We don't but hope to soon. We have a great network on the east coast but the city is not somewhere we wanna raise kids.
I have no idea how it worked financially, but basically until 4th grade, my family lived on a artist (hippie) commune in NM. If I were to guess, somehow they took over a summer camp type place (at least that’s what the layout felt like). Common stuff like shower facilities, community center & kitchen, and a church. What may have been dorms were converted to artist studios, smelters, pottery wheels and kilns, photography, recording studios, etc. Basically picture a hundred or so artistic hippies living together in the late 60’s/early 70’s. Housing was the variety; we lived in a couple tee-pees during the summer, a pit house in the winter. Some had cabins. Some had converted busses. I don’t think anyone had running water except at the common areas. No idea how it really worked as a business or with code, or with policing, etc. But they farmed, ranched, etc. as well. Everyone, including kids had daily assignments/duties; it was organized versus the ‘just show up’ type communes; I vaguely recall they had a couple art galleries in probably Taos and SantaFe to sell the art produced in the commune (I’d have to help load the van).
Yay, I'm no longer the only commune kid I know!
:P
You could just move to Slab City and build whatever the hell you want. Of course, the high temp this week should be about 114°F, you'd have to have your water trucked in, and you're a 4 hour drive from anywhere, but absolute creative freedom, free land with no property tax, and no building department.
I can't find it, but someone posted an awesome link to co-operative apartment ownership as a model for owning, can someone repost the link, or direct me to the thread?
https://www.amsterdamalternative.nl/articles/5981
Move somewhere affordable. There are plenty of places in the USA still where you can buy acreage for not much money and homestead.
Why?
Architecture is probably the worst profession in that prospect. Around 90% of architecture jobs are in Major cities, and mostly NYC & CA. And the ones in small towns are usually for tiny residential or commercial projects. The only change possible while still working for large firms is probably between moving from super expensive cities like NYC,LA,SF to Cheaper mid western cities.
came across this article today
https://www.mainebiz.biz/artic...