cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/788222
(cross posting for more visibility)
Do to some really unfortunate shit my wife and I have to move however we really want to good with our place. Our first choice would be having a commune set up here in whatever form that takes, a place for our un-housed and unsafe comrades, a group of people who really want to do the self sufficient life style or even just anyone who needs a different life. The house is in a very rural area in Appalachians of western Maryland.
The house: 3 bedroom 2 ½ baths unfinished basement (which could be renovated into more bedrooms.)
The property: Almost 40 acres mix of fields and woods, a stream and several springs. As well as over 20 apple trees and more edible and medicinal plants then I can count. A large green house, barn (running water and electric), wood shed, chicken coop and bee hive (there is also a one room cabin but we plan on keeping that as a place for us when we come up to do work on the place).
Furnishings: We’re planing on leaving as much as we can, washer dryer and fridge, table and chairs, probably a bed or two, a workshop worth of tools and tons of other stuff. Also lots of out door equipment including a lawn tractor, brush mower, tiller, log splitter and more. Enough stuff that it’s already set up for whom ever comes.
The goat: We have a pet goat whose awesome but we can’t take him with us and he has a problem with his back legs so we’re worried if we gave him away he would become food. So the goat stays with the property and needs to be cared for.
Rights and responsibilities: There will be an official rental agreement so all the renter protection maryland offers. We will pay for all the repairs. Your only responsibilities would be basic yard maintenance (just the 3 fenced in acres) We’re completely open to the idea of of renovating the basement into bedrooms as well as the barn so more people can stay. Hell we’re even willing to talk about building another house/cabins. Basically for the most part as long as you ask first we’re willing to consider anything. We plan on moving back some day but that's at least a decade down the road and we have every intention of letting the commune continue to operate.
Rent: Unfortunately yes, we simply can’t afford both a mortgage and rent. However we’re obviously not looking to profit so the rent will be tied directly to our fixed rate mortgage, that puts the place over 1k below market value for the area and that's just considering the house not the property or the vast amount of stuff we’re leaving. As inflation continues goes up and the rent stays the same the value is even better. And once the mortgage is paid off no more rent. We’ve put 10 years of blood sweat and tears into this place as well as over 100k of improvements (brand new roof and high quality windows ect) We also plan to continue improving the place, solar panels a new fence for the garden and maybe a pond are all in the near future. We feel guilty about charging rent but its the only way we can make this work.
We've got about eight months to set this up. I’m happy to answer any general question here, any questions that might dox me send as a DM. Everyone here always says they want to live in commune now is the chance!
However we’re obviously not looking to profit so the rent will be tied directly to our fixed rate mortgage
equity is still profit if nothing incredibly cool happens to real estate values (unless you also make enough repairs and improvements to meet the price of rent, which you said you can't afford.)
a better thing to do is figure out some legally binding framework to sell shares in the property to the commune residents since you're not planning to kick people out when you move back, and have a way for people to get that equity back out after you stop owing the bank.
best of luck commune-ists.
Since it would be a rental we're responsible for all the repairs. And like i said I in the post we do plan on doing more improvements, once interest rates go down we're going to put full solar in so that will cut out the electric bill for whomever is staying there, and any savings we can get will get poured back into the place. We also have an ass ton of equity in place already, between ten years of paying the mortgage, all the home improvements we've done and the skyrocketing price of houses. But if we get a group that stays there for a long time shares of the property are a possibility particularly if people want to set up more housing.