6 Mistakes Every Co-Living Investor Makes... & How to Avoid Them

[Grant Shipman]

6 Mistakes Every Co-Living Investor Makes & How to Avoid Them

1. Ineffective or Absent Conflict Resolution Process

Every successful group of people needs an effective conflict resolution process characterized by:

• simplicity to understand and remember;
• quickness to start and complete;
• a clear vocabulary.

My company, Livingsmith uses and recommends the 5-on-5 Process for conflict resolution in co-living homes.

2. Poor or No Communication Platforms

Effective co-living communication platforms are characterized by:

• 1) usability
• 2) accessibility
• 3) commitment of involvement

This can be done through house email lists, whiteboard, group texts, etc. If someone needs everyone in the house to know something, they have a usable and accessible way to do that along with the confidence others in the house will see the message.

3. Low or No House Identity

People want to take pride in where they live. If you give your co-living home a name and vision statement, then tenants will take pride in their house and prospective tenants will be able to self-filter.

4. Wrong Property Management Approach

It doesn’t matter how good the people who are doing the property management are, if they are not using a property management approach designed for co-living, everyone loses.  The wrong property management approach will lead to the dreaded three:

• 1) high drama,
• 2) high turnover,
• 3) high property damage.

Use Household-led Property Management (HPM) developed and perfected for co-living.

5. Not Understanding “Household”

Household means “the individuals living together and how they live together.” There’s two components of household:

1. 1) the “who”
2. 2) the “how”

“Who” is living together is easy: that’s the tenants. “How” they live together is more involved. Every household has a “how”, whether written, spoken, or unspoken. Sharing understandings and rules on guests, cleanliness, chores, pets, drinking, drugs, boundaries, house identity, conflict resolution, communication platforms, etc. If a tenant doesn’t like both the “who” and the “how” of the household they live in, they will not live there long. If a tenant does like both the “who” and the “how”, they will live there for years.

6. No Complete Household System

A complete household system is all about “the how” of a household. You want the “how” to be complete, reasonable, consistent, and flexible. Surprisingly, the “how” beats the “who” any day.

• -The right “who” will be lucky if they finally figure out the right “how” before parting ways in frustration.
• -The right “how” will attract the right “who” and discourage and weed out the wrong “who”.

Me and my property management team developed the a 40-Point Complete Household System to not leave the “how” to chance. Use a good “how” and you’ll get the best “who” every time.