radhousing

What You Need To Know

Page history last edited by Laila Davis 9 mos ago

Who We Are

Welcome to What You Need To Know to purchase a home, brought you by the Cooperative Autonomous Homes Network (CAHN), a new grassroots Twin Cities project working to stop renting and start owning, to create long-term, inexpensive, community-controlled homes, working together to support each other and to build a network of homes and people dedicated to creating a better world through eliminating rent and fighting gentrification.

We are working to do this by 1) giving people the information they need to purchase a house and 2) creating a mutual aid network to build community and support between existing homes and their allies, including things like collectively buying food or transportation, setting up daycare services, potlucks, and a community timebank. Membership, which is open to anyone, will be $10 a month, a small increase in rent to end the need for renting! (NOTE: this is in the planning stages and we are not at a stage where we are looking for members or offering formal services...however if you'd like to work on this project we'd love your involvement: contact us!).

We are still in the process of figuring out the best way of doing this, and are putting in extensive work to figure out what will work best for all sorts of people, based in their resources and personal visions for the future. This wiki is a mutable information source, so please check back frequently for updates.

We suggest that those of you who take advantage of our work and want to be part of the network send us a Statement of Intent, indicating your committment to the above vision, that is to eventually create a cooperative, whatever the best way of actually purchasing your house. To do so, please send us your Names, emails, phone numbers, and once you purchase a house, your new address! Lastly, we would love folks like you to help us build this network, so if you would like to start organizing let us know! (cahn.mpls@gmail.com).

Why Purchase A House?

Purchasing a house seems daunting, and it is a little more challenging than finding and signing a lease...but not too much harder! Besides, that is why we are here. Moreover, the houses we purchase with the above vision will be an anchor of permanant, inexpensive, and self-managed housing in the Twin Cities which means that being involved in such a house is an investment in reducing your rent and increasing your quality of life, fighting gentrification by keeping cost of living and property sane, ideally cheap, and lastly, depending on the model, transforming the rent you pay from dollars wasted to dollars saved.

How To Buy A House! Different Plans For Different People

Want to know the ways to buy a house today? Look below and behold! All of these ideas are based on cooperative living models that fit the above vision. As such, regardless of the plan you will want to first get together with a group of people (however large or small) who are interested in living together and buying a house. You need not all plan on living in the home forever, or even for a long period of time, one of the benefits of a cooperative approach to housing.

WE ARE STILL IN THE PROCESS OF FIGURING OUT THE BEST MODEL TO MAKE REAL OUR VISION. HOWEVER, WE HAVE LEARNED A LOT ALREADY AND PLEASE BEGIN YOURSELF! Currently the biggest problem to setting up cooperatives is that most of the best home buyer and purchase rehabilitation options are only designed for individuals, not cooperatives (be they corporations or nonprofits).

Plan 1: The Buy It Together Plan (Tennancy in Common to Limited Equity Cooperative)

Plan 2: The Good Credit Plan (Transfer to Cooperative)

Plan 3: The No Loan Plan (Contract For Deed)

Plan 4: The Land Trust Plan

Plan 5: The Rich Grandmother Plan

Plan 6: The Non-proft Plan (NASCO or RLL models)

A general overview of City of Minneapolis programs for individuals and groups/developers:

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/CPED/housing_resource_guide.pdf

Specific resources for incorporated entities that can therefore sometimes qualify as businesses:

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cped/capital_acquisition.asp

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cped/two_percent.asp

Specific resources for individuals (buying collectively but not through an organization) include:

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cped/city_living.asp

The Nehemiah Corporation (I heard as of October 2008 that Nehemian and other programs which offered no money down loans are no longer in effect.)

The Minneapolis Advantage Loan Program offers a $10,000 interest-free forgivable loan that can be used towards a downpayment. It is not available on contract for deed, but is available for those with a mortgage or paying cash. It's administered by the Housing Resource Center. Call (612) 588-3033 for info. This year there are 200 available and the qualification is more strict, so they aren't going as fast. Those who have FHA financing may not be elligible. You need a purchase agreement and mortgage before you can apply. For info on qualifying, go to: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cped/minneapolisadvantage_home.asp For the actual application, go to: http://www.gmhchousing.org/loan_apps.htm

Other resources on housing:

http://www.northsidenhs.org/Services.html

http://housingresourcecenter.org/contact_us.htm

http://www.minnesotahousing.com/consumers/home-buyers/loans/MHFA_000445.aspx

University District Partnership Alliance: Includes a homebuyer assistance program that provides financial incentives of up to $15,000 in the form of forgivable loans to promote owner-occupied homeownership, availableto new homebuyers anywhere in the District. Also funding up to $500,000 to provide rehabilitation gap financing to houses that will be bought as owner-occupied homes. Only includes neighborhoods of Southeast Como, Marcy-Holmes, Prospect Park, University, and Cedar-Riverside.

Hennepin Country Property Map with sales values and ownership:

http://gis.co.hennepin.mn.us/HCPropertyMap/Default.aspx?PID=3502924420024

Hennepin County Sheriff's Sales:

(Houses that are in the 6-month redemption period before foreclosure. You can sometimes make the owner an offer that will allow them to pay off the remaining mortgage and get a bit of money back, and you could save the house from demolition. From the page below, go to the righthand search, click "Show All" and enter the dates you want to look at. You'll get a list of addresses and owners' names.)

http://www4.co.hennepin.mn.us/webforeclosure/

City of Minneapolis homebuying resources:

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cped/seeking_home_ownership.asp

Specific resources for people of color:

http://www.minnesotahousing.com/consumers/home-buyers/loans/MHFA_000469.aspx (single household heads, people of color, preference to latin@s)

http://www.minnesotahousing.com/consumers/home-buyers/loans/MHFA_000461.aspx (specifically for Urban Indian's--their language)

Possibles:

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cped/Home-Ownership-Program.asp

For those seeking to keep their homes livable! (also some of the above)

http://www.mncee.org/programs/

For those who are threatened with foreclosure and are fighting to keep their homes:

http://www.hocmn.org/ForeclosurePrevention.cfm