FAQ's: Why do we need a Developer?
Unlike buying or building your own home, developing a residential project of 15-45+ homes and common amenities in collaboration with many other households, is a time-intensive and complex process that requires a broad range of skills, knowledge, and experience to manage the process as well as legal and financial risks and responsibilities.
The work of developing residential real estate is a full-time business involving teams of people who work in tight coordination. In order to survive in this business where things can go wrong and do go wrong, they have to know
- what their doing
- how to solve the problem
- analyze the consequences
- make thousands of decisions
- get it done and done quickly
The consequences of not knowing the how, what ,why, and when can be devastating on many levels.
DO-IT-YOURSELF vs JOINT VENTURE COLLABORATION
Consider the VALUE of your time & energy and the risk involved. It takes many years to accumulate the diverse knowledge, skills, and experience required to carry a multi-million dollar development project to successful completion. Ask yourself
- Do you have the resources (time, money, & know-how) to carry the developer's many roles & responsibilities?
- How much time, effort, and money will it take figure out how to do it yourself?
- Can you commit to this as a full-time career?
- Is that how you want to spend your time & energy?
- Should you be focused on growing & fostering community?
COLLABORATION and/or CONSULTATION
One of the primary roles of a cohousing developer is to coordinate and manage a very complex team process in a single cohesive collaborative effort to maximize efficiency and minimize risk. In a joint venture relationship, the in-house skills within a community group may be dovetailed with those of the project management team, per agreement among the project joint venture partners.
USING In-House MEMBER PROFESSIONALS
Work provided by community member(s) in a professional consulting capacity is usually compensated by the project entity, as is the work of any other consulting professional involved in the project whether the group pursues a self-develop approach or a joint venture approach.
ACCESS to DEVELOPMENT FINANCING
Experienced developers generally have access to financial resources and strategies not available to an individual homebuyer or group with no prior history in the development business.
OVERCOMING RISK ADVERSITY
Potential members are often reluctant to risk financial committment, and rightly so, because of the many 'unknowns' and uncertainties of developing real estate, particularly early in the development process. Developers know how to manage risk. Having an experienced and capable developer partner can help bridge uncertainty and provide the basis of knowledge required to MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS.
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