Ideas

This could be a good idea, but I'm not sure if there will be many people intrested in it...

I would have thrown the idea up into the air of possibilities until I started getting involved with social networking for local communities. The strongest response was always from the Realtors. It seems as if they're always looking for a unique angel to make money from a home.

What I'm a little bit concerned about cRitter is how you can trust the people. If someone says he is a painter and does a lousy job, just to get a share of a house, what do you do?

And what If I want to cash in and my fellow owners don’t want to sell?

Besides that: do I have to pay rent to the other owners if I live there?

Finally: how does this effect you taxes (In most of Europe you pay taxes if you have a house, I’m not familiar with the American laws).
Tommy

I like the idea. And yes with every such kind of idea's it's always the way you give points to the value everybody offers and indeed how and when are the exit options? Maybe a solution for this, is to be able to sale the share's, but when can you make coins of the share is the issue. But still like the idea!

I'm not a lawyer, but I think there are existing ways to handle this. Something like a lien would allow you to give a person a partial claim on the house without making them an "owner" in terms of taxes or decision making as to when to cash out. A typical lien would be for a fixed amount of money rather than a percentage of equity, but you could probably structure some contract that would give another person some percentage while addressing all the issues Tommy brings up.

If there was a way to guarantee that someone would do the best job possible I'd certainly say include it! Aside from that, I believe that people do a better job when they're able to "create" as opposed to simply working to pay the bills.

The Build-a-Share scenario would reinforce the idea that the better painting job you do, the more money you earn on the final sale of the home. If you do an average job the home will sell for an average price, and you (as the painter) will essentially rob yourself in the end.

cool idea! i'm into it since i've wanted to buy my own home for a long time but unable to muster the resources to clear the initial 'bump' on my own.

there's definitely a lot of legal crap to be sorted out, but that's to be expected. maybe a good place to look for info, guidance, inspiration would be the co-op movement, much more prevalent in the 60's & 70's, but still out there.

maybe the gov't would force it to be a real-estate investment corp. of some sort, since that's basically what it would be. but it would be cool if there was a website that facilitated the formation (& proper dissolution) of small co-ops for this purpose.

I like this definition of a co-op: "An arrangement in which a corporation made up of residents owns a building. The buyer owns a proprietary lease, rather than real property, and a corresponding number of shares in the corporation." The only problem I see is the right for others to live in the residents, when the Build-a-Share owner is simply looking to improve his residents.

I would also like to point out that Build-a-Share would work to improve the living conditions of more than co-op owners. As stated in the initial concept, the BaC could benefit the millions affected by the housing crisis in the United States. It could also help out those affected by Hurricane Katrina, where many groups are currently donating their time to improve the living conditions of New Orleans residents.