Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 14:47:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: Cyndi Norwitz cnorman@best.com
To: blaklion@best.com, cnorman@best.com, constancejbarker@home.com
Bcc: 26 email addresses
Subject: MCS Community in Sonoma County
You are receiving this email because you wrote me and asked for information on the MCS community in Sonona County. You may have written more than a year ago, but I saved everyone's emails. If you're not interested, don't worry, I will only write you again if you respond asking to be kept on the list.
It's finally happening! I am so sorry it took so long to get back to everyone. Our plans got put on hold because of life getting in the way and because our plans changed. But we're in the process of looking at properties right now. You didn't miss any meetings because there weren't any. We're just scouting out the possibilities now.
If you are interested (or think you might be) in joining us in this project, you MUST reply to this email or phone me. If I don't hear from you I will assume you aren't interested and take you off the list. There are 28 emails on the list now but I expect very few will ask to continue. I've written up all the information and put it on a website. Please go there for all the details.
http://www.immuneweb.org/community/
Thanks!
Cyndi
Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2001 10:56:07 -0800 (PST)
From: Cyndi Norwitz cnorman@best.com
To: immune@immuneweb.org
Subject: [IMMUNE] MCS Housing in Sonoma County, California
You've heard me talk about it for ages, but now is the time. We're seeing a possible property this week and have been looking at others as well. If you're interested in buying a piece of a property with other MCSers, let me know ASAP.
If you're not interested, hit delete now.
This is not a "project," it's just a group of friends buying together so we can have a mini MCS community. So we know our neighbors (each other) will be safe. By buying together we can get a much bigger and much nicer property than any of us could afford alone. No one is making a profit here...we will share all costs and decisions equally, except that we will pay more or less depending on the size and features of our indivdual homes.
We're looking in the Guerneville area of Sonoma County. It's clean, friendly, fun, and did I mention clean air?--it's west of "wine country." Sonoma County is expensive but we decided we wanted to pay more to live closer to the Bay Area. Guerneville is a 20-30 minute drive to Santa Rosa (depending on traffic). Santa Rosa is a 1 to 1.5 hr drive to Oakland (depending on traffic). About the same to San Francisco I'm guessing, though I've never driven it.
One property we are looking at this week sounds on the surface like it would be perfect. I have seen the outside of it and the neighborhood is awesome. The air smells nice. The property is gorgeous and very well maintained, with homes built in 1941. Quiet and peaceful and clean, but only a mile from the center of Guerneville (away from the river...a couple miles in the other direction is Armstrong State Park). It's on 2.2 acres, which is a lot more than most of the properties, unless you get into the $3-500k per family unit range.
This is an expensive property...a whopping one million dollars for the asking price...but it has six (yes, 6) houses on it, and a pool, spa, fruit trees, and a completely usable flat sunny lot. One big house, the others small to medium. I want the big one (which would include my office) and will pay a disproportionate amount of the money for it. What this means is that you could own your own house and share ownership of over 2 acres of land, in a fantastic location in Sonoma County, for as little as $125k (the bigger units might be as much as $200k...we have to actually see them and decide how to divide up the costs...if my SO and I pay $250k for the big house, the other 5 units would only cost an average of $150k each).
What could you get on your own in this area for $125k? There are ads for a couple properties in this price range (I've only seen the ads, not the homes). You could get a studio or maybe a one-bedroom cottage, on a lot not much bigger than the house, either right on a main road or in a bad flood zone. Most single family homes are $175k or more for a one-bedroom and $275k or more for 3+ bedrooms. If you want more than 1/10 to 1/4 of an acre of land, it will cost more.
To give you a sense of the alternatives, there is a small 3-bedroom house with a garage turned into a 1-bedroom apartment on an acre of mostly usable land with a tiny pool and hot tub. Asking price $370k. It sold a few hours before we went to see it yesterday. This was in the same neighborhood as the other property and it was one of the most affordable.
We don't know yet if this particular 6-home property is what we want, but it's an example of the possibilities. There really aren't a lot of properties with this many homes on them though (except for apartment buildings in Santa Rosa, and we're avoiding those).
Some of the properties we're looking at would be great for renters to join us. This one requires buyers only. No money for a down payment? doesn't matter; our total down payment is plenty big already. We don't care if you finance all, part, or none of your share. Assume a $100k loan will run you about $1000/month for mortgage, insurance, property tax.
If this interests you, let me know ASAP. Even if it's just to say you're thinking about it. Email me at cnorman@best.com and I will send you the private webpage address that has all the details. You can also phone me at 510-531-5464.
Please do not post this letter to other mailing lists or websites. You may forward it to people you know personally. You may mention the basics and my email address on other lists.
Cyndi
For more information, contact Cyndi Norwitz at cyndi@tikvah.com - Page last modified 10/31/01