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Urban CoHousing vs buying an individual luxury unit in a giant building 1. There are pretty much tied when it comes to individual apt features. You're probably not gonna get everything you want from an individual unit in cohousing but you're probably not gonna get everything you want in an individual unit in a luxury building either cohousing units usually run a bit smaller but it's made up for with the common house 2. Amenities You can get ALOT of amenities in a luxury bui

Condo vs Co op i THINK both are possible with cohousing but I will say it depends on what your city allows and what your goals are " A condominium, usually shortened to simply “condo,” is a privately owned, individual residential unit within a community of other units. In general, the owner usually owns the interior of their unit and the structural components of exterior walls. Condo owners jointly own shared common areas within the community, such as lobbies, pools, parking

Good faith debate From my understanding good faith is the ability to present your arguments honestly and the ability to hear somebody else's arguments fully and honestly. It goes under many different names but it's principle of good listening. When your engaging with someone who is also in good faith it's one of the healthiest forms of communication. To be good faith requires constant attention and everyobe will have moments of bad faith from time to time. We're all human wi

Sharing food In my experience, living with someone and sharing everything is impossible. Diets vary, moods vary, and the cost savings will be offset by frustration over not having a good you want when you want it . Just assume you won't be able to share stuff in the beginning and keep things separate. Over time you might find out you use some of the same food items as the other person and you can start introducing the idea of taking turns buying a bigger size of the item. Th

Is there a monetary incentive to joining a cohousing group ? No You shouldn't think of buying a home as a financial investment. And you shouldn't think of buying a home in cohousing as a financial investment. Same way sneakers , labubus , and individual stocks have been bought and sold for a profit from time to time but you shouldn't buy them for the purpose of making money You can end up saving money by staying put in the same house for long periods of time ( close to 20

Will I be trapped in cohousing forever? That's the goal but no not legally lol you should set up fair exit strategies with your group before you start building so nobody feels like they have to hide or run away if they decide to move. Think of something fair that respects the commitment of people that got in earlier but also respects the life circumstances that would warrant a move. You don't want someone to default on a mortgage and have to be forced out of their place becau

How far do you have to invest socially in your neighbors? You are starting an intentional community and there will probably be an expectation to socialize but how much is mandatory? Technically/ legally none at all but i will say you should try to be in the common house as much you can to maybe get some organic conversations going. And I'll also say you should establish some type of indirect ( or direct if you're community is built for it ) way of communicating your level

How much real estate / construction knowledge do you need going in ? Every bit helps but you don't need to be an expert in anything. Every little bit goes a long way over time. You don't want to assume you know better than an expert but you want to have enough confidence to question them on important things and get the full pros and cons. Types of questions to ask are " what are the longest lasting Xs ? Why ? " " If we do X how will that affect Y ? " " Can we do this ourse

Intentional community experience It is VERY nice to have experience. Ngl. Especially if the intentional community was Cohousing. They can more easily adapt to the cohousing communication style and they will already understand connection requires work to become effortless. Depending on what type of community , you do have to make it clear that 99.99 % of time there is no work for stay option in cohousing . That's about it Find us on NJCohousing for more info on our Cohou

How is urban CoHousing good for the environment There are certifications you can go for to give you a clear indicator that you're on the right path There is the LEED certification you could aim for if your unsure but it's definitely not the end all be all. It stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and it's a green building certification program used worldwide. But in general you can spend a little bit more money to be environmentally friendly. If y

Why hire a consultant for cohousing when I could just do it myself? I'm a lawyer , real estate agent , developer , architect etc... Sure, as an individual you could get into real estate with a group of friends/ family and it can be successful. But Cohousing is not just custom housing. You're also building an intentional community and there are specific challenges that come withdoing both at the same time. You have to make sure your group process is conducive to both asp

How much do you sell cohousing? If your reading this, the algorithm probably thinks you would like cohousing already but obviously the majority of people your surrounded by probably have no idea what it is. Most people don't. So pressure do you put on them to get into it ? My intuition tells me you should only nudge people in the direction of more information. You shouldn't hard close people into joining a community. Not because it's ineffective but because almost all of the

How much theory do you need to read to start cohousing? At least one book front to back with notes There is tons of info out there but each project will be uniquely challenging. Unless youre in a city that has established cohousing this will be a weird thing at first . Theory is good but you also have to put in lots of work. Its better to pick up stuff as you go than get too worried about starting too soon. Hiring a cohousing consultant early ASAP can set you up for success

What about coliving ? Coliving can be an intentional community . CoHousing can be an intentional community . CoHousing tends to be an intentional community more often while coliving is moreso done for profit. CoHousing can be for profit but it's rare. With cohousing everybody intends to be neighborly and wants to work together because of the nature of the building process. CoHousing also has a more refined communication process because yourw going to be dealing with the same

What size house / apt can you expect? This is very difficult to navigate . You want to set people's expectations up correctly but people can / will compromise with the group once they get to know the people. And it's possible that you manage to save enough money that's it's below market rate. But you don't want to bring in people that are just looking for a cheap place to live. The balance I personally like is telling people that they will pay about market rate for about an

How expensive are the apts gonna be ? It sounds dismissive but it really depends. As a general rule the bigger the apts are the more expensive they'll be . And you are going to be limited by lot space if you're urban. If you want chic state of the art micro apts with custom furniture that might cost just as much as a bigger apt. But if someone has a pet / kid maybe they need that extra bit of space and are willing to pay for it. For apts the cheapest build will always be a

Tiny homes Im a big fan of them. I think Alot of families can do just fine in them for a an extended amount of years . I'm thinking of 2 parents and 2 kids. There are people that raise kids in apts so a tiny home is probably ok ish amount of space. The tiny home would have to have at least 2 bedrooms 1 to accommodate mom/ dad and 1 for the 2 kids . If you really want to ensure longevity up to 30 years you can get a 3 bedroom tiny home. That would support a master suite , k

Guest policy I think there are a few scenarios you want to avoid First is simply illegal behavior in the building . It creates a VERY bad look on your community if police show up to your building and you don't want your town questioning what you're doing. There are TONS of tricky scenarios with people which I am sympathetic to but the general rule i have is if police are called somebody's gotta move out / sell pretty quickly. There shouldn't be a scenario where the victim o

Micro apts Also a fan but it's definitely not for the unintentional. You have to want to live in one ,plan to live in one and most importantly you have to have stuff to do outside of your apt. ( This is where the common house comes in handy 🫡) Micro in Jersey city is weird but for the sake of the post. Lets just say 300 sq ft studio 400 sq ft 1 bed 550 sq ft 2 bed 700 sq ft 3 bed And 900 sq ft 4 bed are all micro apts There are drawings below to help some drawings below to h

Aesthetic The least important part of cohousing imo But if you have the budget do what you feel . You can go for really unconventional designs because you're not maximizing for resale value. Id try to avoid aesthetics that compromise the function of the buildings tho. You can have a partially roofless common house but you probably don't want that for the entire place. You also wouldn't want anything roofless if your winters get really cold. A fountain is cool but you gotta