I plan on buying a co-op and live there for 2-3 years. Listing agent had previously said that after living for 2 years, then the sub-letting(renting) option is available. When I received the co-op document, the document says there is a re-occupancy requirement after subletting ever 3 years where it's required to be occupied by owner again for two years to be eligible for renting it again.

My agent says this is written but not enforced at all and there have been people renting the same apartment for 10+ years. Is there risks just for me as a new buyer for me if my intent is to rent it out after first 3 years of occupancy? Down the lane will there be problems for me alone as a new buyer? I do not mind if everyone else in the building face this problem as there would be sufficient people who would be impacted, but I do not want to be the only one against whom the rules are enforced.

Re-occupancy or Vacancy Requirement: After a sublease period of up to 3 years, you will need to either reoccupy the apartment yourself or keep it vacant for a cumulative total of 2 years before being eligible to sublease it again. This means that once your initial lease ends, there would be a two-year waiting period to re-rent it, which might pose challenges for continuous rental income.

This was cool. It's from a Northeast Iowa cooperative that I think has consolidated with some other cooperatives You have the fuel co-op and then you also have the food co-op and it's a featured all on one cup here. I got this at a garage sale for a quarter. It doesn't have a lid 😞

This thread is part of an attempt by the moderators to create a series of monthly repeating posts to help aggregate certain kinds of content into single threads.

If you have any basic questions about Cooperatives, feel free to ask them here. Please also remember to visit this thread even if you consider yourself a cooperative veteran so that you can help others!

Note that this thread will be posted on the first and will run throughout the month.

How do Co-ops handle loans, leases, and other financing that require personal guarantees?

I live in a mobile home park co-op. I'm wondering if there are any tax tricks that possibly allow individual members to claim tax benefits from expenses incurred by the corporation. Any leads would be appreciated.

Hi! I've recently started in the marketing industry and am looking to learn more/grow my skills in marketing small business co ops. Does anyone have any resources? I typically only find resources on marketing co-ops rather than marketing for co-ops. Would love to hear from any professionals as well, like I said I'm new to the industry!

I want to learn more about staring a coop store, any non-fiction book recs? I work in a children’s toy store and have been daydreaming of starting my own :)

all business books I find are very VERY how to grow grow grow. I don’t care about GROWING, I care about SUSTAINING.

My goal is to contribute to a local economy, build a joyful space for childhood memories, and generate business to give myself and my coworkers a good quality of life.

Any book recommendations to explore to idea? Thank you🌲🐞💛✨☀️🌟

I am a university student in India. I want to be an entrepreneur and have decided on co-op to be my startups' business model. I have some experience in event management because I was in a team managing a university event. Recently, I came up with an idea that I should try and start a co-op which makes food for clients at their offices, houses, events, etc. at contractual basis with local chefs and workers. I came up with this idea because my and I am sure pretty much every university in India has food in their dorms/hostels made by people working for a company which has done contract with the university. Here is what I want your help in:

1. Resources to study and learn from about how to build and maintain such co-op.
2. Please redirect if such questions have already been asked.
3. Any insights that you think might be helpful to me.

Especially if you can jump in DMs to explain...

But can someone explain how this works? Esp the tax piece of it. And whether you have to wait the whole year to split dividends or if you could do quarterly or even monthly.

I keep trying to find info about this online and their website's co-op section seems really barren. I know there were a lot of hardships over the last few years. Anyone know anything about this?

Please feel free to create a new discussion topic at anytime. This is a safe space for all members.

I work for a coop that shares the profits with its shareholders/members. Can the company call themselves a coop if the workers do not have a share of the profits (eg fixed rate workers)?

Does anyone happen to know if there is a local social set up in Toronto for the conference in November?

Hey everyone! I’ve been thinking a lot about how broken our food system is, especially when it comes to who can afford good, nutritious food and who can’t. The wealthy get the best, while others are left struggling with cheaper, unhealthy options. But what if we could change this?

I’ve been exploring a model that lowers food prices drastically with zero-profit business model and volunteer-driven operations. The idea is that if food becomes cheap, really cheap enough then there could be distribution problems due to shortages (Just like we saw in Covid times) because now more & more people can afford good food. A zero-profit store would have to resort to rationing (take 2 per person, take 1 per person etc , just like during covid). When food is so cheap, yet people are restricted due to rationing (As rationing is the only way to distribute when profit making is not an option) , it could lead to a rethinking of our whole relationship with money, work, and consumption.

Here’s the core idea:

1. Lower food prices so much that it’s affordable for everyone—this can be done through community-run innovative zero-profit model stores that rely on volunteer work.
2. Demand for good food rises due to lower prices. Its only logical for a zero-profit store to use rationing as a distribution mechanish because earlier for-profit stores used "High Prices" to manage distribution and profited out of it but a zero-profit store doesn't want to make profit and so cannot increase prices.
3. As this model spreads, it would lead people to question their work and consumption habits. If food is so cheap and I have lots of money and yet I am restricted in getting food, what are we working in our jobs for? We can't just throw money to get the most basic need covered ? What is the problem ? Maybe then people begin to volunteer at a farm, supermarket etc to get more food and also fix the problem in the community.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this! How feasible is it? What challenges might we face in making this happen? Let’s brainstorm!

Hello my names Alonzo I'm from California. Like my title says I want to start building cooperative homes as well as build them with a coop of workers. Ideally we would like to go Into residential if contracted for it as well but mainly for housing coops. Looking to see if anyone has had any experience doing this sort of thing and if it would work, in my head it's all worked out and it seems perfectly doable but financing would be trouble, so if anyone had any advice on that end I would be appreciative lol I have a va loan from my work in the military so I was thinking about getting a 4 plex and then turning it into a coop after a year( condition on using va loan is it's up to fourplex and I must live in it for a year), and having the renters pay into the corporation, and possibly pulling equity from after a while but yeah not really sure. I know grants are available but om unsure where to look, any advice is helpful as well as links to sources. If i have my head in the clouds ill take those comments as well as long as theyre constructive. Thank you everybody have a good day:)

Someone messaged me about this but I cant find the thread. Had anyone heard of a music licensing co-op that's similar to musicbed.com?

If there is anyone in the group with a legal background who is familiar with California laws around cooperatives? I have an urgent question.

Last year when our cooperative was getting set up, the lawyer we worked with had us register as a California General Cooperative and told us that it was a for-profit cooperative structure and federally we'd count as a C-corp.

Last night, as I went to the Secretary of State website to file a required update form, I noticed the website lists us as a Nonprofit. Calling the SoS office this morning they said that a California General Cooperative is a type of Nonprofit. As you can imagine, I'm freaking out.

Do we need to re-file as some other type of cooperative? Our intention has always been to be a for-profit company. And what does this mean for the grants we've already won, our tax id's, and so on?

I'd be happy to pay for a consultation, but I need to talk to someone ASAP who is familiar with the 2022 California law establishing Cooperatives as a distinct type of corporate entity who can give me a factual answer and help me get this sorted in the next week. I have a major grant due on the 18th and our eligibility hinges on this question.

Edit: I just got a response back from the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) and they said that a general Cooperative is, in fact, a for profit organization type but that the state lumps it under nonprofits because of an artifact of how the original law was written. Leaving this post and the answer up so it's searchable for anyone in the future having the same panic-inducing experience I had. Thanks all for the feedback and ideas!

Hi all, I'm currently researching co-operative housing and trying to understand what are the blockers in popularising it more. If any of you have experienced living in a coop I would love to hear your experiences. I've also put down some questions I'm interested in answering:

1. How did you discover co-op living? Was there a particular situation that led you to look into it?

2. What were the early stages of applying to a co-op like? What doubts did you have and what pushed you to apply?

3. Overall, how has the experience been (positives and negatives). What could be improved?

4. What do you think are the main challenges co-ops face in general? Why do you think more people haven't heard of them or don't apply?

5. What benefits do you think co-op living could bring to wider society?

This thread is part of an attempt by the moderators to create a series of monthly repeating posts to help aggregate certain kinds of content into single threads.

If you have any basic questions about Cooperatives, feel free to ask them here. Please also remember to visit this thread even if you consider yourself a cooperative veteran so that you can help others!

Note that this thread will be posted on the first and will run throughout the month.

I'm thinking that the marketing/HR/IT/etc. struggles that our new grocery co-op is experiencing must be quite similar to what others experience, so is there a non-competitive peer group or mailing list of grocery co-op general managers where we can bounce ideas to learn from each other and maybe even best practices?

I am thinking of doing a collage essay on overconsumption, is their any co-ops out their to reduce consumption/stop planned obsolescence?

1-3 company's can do me but if you have more that would be great too, hope you can help 😌

NASCO is holding its annual Institute this November! It's a conference primarily put on for Housing Co-opers and we'll have some content on other sectors in the co-op ecosystem. We also have a comprehensive course track on how to develop a housing co-op.
Find out more, share with a friend, and register here: https://www.nasco.coop/institute

A little more information:
This year’s theme is Mobilizing the Co-op Ecosystem. At Institute, co-opers will be exploring how cooperatives are an organizing tool and an effective alternative housing model. We’ll engage with how co-ops can foster an ecosystem that meets the needs of large student housing co-ops, start up co-ops, and everyone in between. How do we share the value that living cooperatively can offer to those who need it? We know that being plugged into community in the home is a profound solution to housing instability and creating connectedness. Let’s strategize with each other to grow our movement and increase the resources we can all share.

Every year at Institute, co-opers are connected to each other across houses, state, and country lines. This year, we’ll explore how networks can support our co-op ecosystem and the systematic opportunities we can advocate for to foster thriving cooperative communities.