(2024-03-03) Benn Neighborhood Update11 The Village Retreat Treehouse And Cohousing

Jason Benn: Neighborhood Update #11: the Village Retreat, Treehouse, and Cohousing. ...a one-square mile community of communities in SF that aims to recapture the vibes of a university campus, but for all generations. We’re part of a movement composed of coliving (one big rented house), cohousing (multiple adjacent owned houses), third spaces (community centers), and good vibes (I bump into friends once every 40 minutes around Alamo Square and Hayes Valley)

In 2023, we learned how to organize real communities. We went from haphazard meetups in 2022 that didn’t really add up to anything, to hosting 3 large unconferences in 2023, one of which turned into a new coliving house. This post is mostly about what I learned.

2024 is about adding real estate and building cohousing. Cohousing is when you have multiple adjacent owned houses that are part of a single community, and they’re much better for raising families because you have your own private space.

(I think) we’ve got the prerequisites in place: a community-building strategy, a platform, aligned real estate professionals, and housing supply.

The 80/20 of cohousing is having friends live within Baby Monitor Distance. Phil and Kristen put their infant to bed at 7pm. If they want to go out, they can message the groupchat, volunteers offer to sit with the baby monitor while they do whatever they were going to do anyway, and now Phil and Kristen get to have normal social lives without finding babysitters.

Folks say they’re down to lead.

However, that hasn’t exactly translated to action.

What I learned from launching Treehouse (April through September)

Meanwhile, I learned about what it takes to launch a single great coliving community. Treehouse emerged from Califlorence Climate, our first unconference back in March.

It wasn’t easy. After the event, myself and a core group met every week for nearly five months, often for 3+ hours, to make arrangements and recruit other housemates. None of us suspected it would take nearly so long, which caused morale to ebb and flow like the tides

Community formation revolves around a 1-3 burning souls. They’re usually extraverted, energetic, optimistic, and well-connected.

Coliving groups should start small (5-10) and grow gradually.

All of this would’ve been so much easier with a consistent recruiting pipeline.

Throughout 2023 I was excited about repeatedly building rented homes and monetizing through property management, which is where the owner of an investment property pays someone like me 10% of rents to find people to sign master leases

However: Groups of 5-10 prefer to find their own housing. Ultimately, Treehouse was able to find a 10BR that they were happy with, even though it took them 4 months.

Simple renovations can transform a generic house into a phenomenal coliving house

But it’s crucial to partner with trustworthy real estate professionals. In this case, the owner neglected to get the proper permits for renovations

My biggest mistake of the year: canceling the Aligned AGI community for lack of a big house.

Working in public has been an unmitigated blessing for me. It’s how I got my Schmidt Futures grant, and it’s how my Brian Elbogen found me.

To help, we’ve been starting groupchats where your group, Brian, and myself can evaluate opportunities together. Usually these happen on the Neighborhood Slack

As for our business model, it’ll be some combination of these:

Real estate development.

Real estate agents.

Property management.

ADUs

Over time, these cohousing communities will expand into nearby properties within half a block or ideally next door. We’ll knock down the fences, remodel shared backyards into gorgeous communal parks fit for frolicking with little libraries, winding footpaths, footbridges over water features, bandstands, hammocks and hot tubs, or whatever else.