Intentional communities

[Michaela G.]

How many of you have ever created intentional communites, with the intent of either selling or renting and what has your experience been?

I'm in the middle of my first project of having started a creative/artist community and it has changed the playing field for me. 

This is in a so-called D neighborhood, where I've been investing since the market crashed. Most investors didn't want to touch properties here. Crime, vandalism during vacancies, low-income etc. But location is absolutely key. 

Anyway, so, I was able to collect adjoining properties and got another investor involved, who also bought a few, so, now we have almost the whole block. Everything's fenced and we have added a gate. 

The people we attract are not the ones normally living in this area. We are getting people from all over, who are drawn to the creative aspect and the community part. They want to interact with other creatives. Most aren't scared of the neighborhood (but probably wouldn't rent a single family home here by themselves) and aren't even thinking about this being a D neighborhood. They're so drawn to the value we've added by making this an intentional community and having everything feced, and thus safe, that that doesn't come into play. 

We get higher rents than what the surrounding neighborhood offers, but they're lower than in other, perceived as safer, neighborhoods. Because everything's fenced and everyone knows each other, we hopefully don't have to worry about people walking in and stealing everything they can. We can change the neighborhood's stigma from being dangerous to being cool. And those artists living here will bring friends in, who might also start renting or buying around our block. 

I really love the way this is working out, that I'm actually going to renovate the last unit of this property for myself, because we're attracting so many awesome people that I want to be part of this community as well.