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The Island _might_ be sold / other properties

topic posted Tue, March 4, 2008 - 12:27 AM by 
I called up the realtor to talk to him about the property title. I was hoping that he'd give me the owner's name so that our lawyer could check the property title.

When I get ahold of him, he has news for me. Someone else is interesting in buying the property. They have put a small deposit on it, to put a hold on it for the next 3 months. After that he said, if it's not sold, we can talk again about checking the property title.

So, it's not definite at all. But it's possible that the island wil be sold very soon.

We probably should start looking at other properties.

In some ways, this might actually be good for us. Trying to _start_ by creating a community of 100 people is indeed extremely ambitious. It might be better if we first buy a cheaper property (that still meets our goal of 'inspiring the imagination'), and then after we prove that this project will be a success, look for bigger more expensive properties.

And, searching today I might have found one:

www.nicaraguarealty.com/listin...4/1/112

I think that this is a link to it on google maps:

maps.google.com/maps

I didn't make it to Poneloya when I was in Nicaragua, but neighboring Leon is nice. And it's an extremely interesting region full of volcanoes.

The nature of the project would certainly change a bit if we were closer to civilization, with a bit less privacy, but that's both good and bad for us.

Thoughts?
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  • Trae
    Trae
    offline 48

    Re: The Island _might_ be sold / other properties

    Tue, March 4, 2008 - 11:26 AM
    that would suck.

    lets look at more properties, but i think we should still plan on the lake nica island until we know for sure.

    i dont think the one your looking at is good though. you concerned with the size of the nica island, at 24 acres, esspecially with the amount of people involved. the one you posted is 4 acres, which would give us about 15 people at our current density, less if you still think that is too crowded. i couldnt find a price, but is ten or fifteen percent of that still fall within our other guidelines (namely, that it be affordable to just about anyone that cares to try). i dont think 15 people is enough to make the project work, 100 is about as small as i would want to see it. one reason for this is that if 5 of those people are flakes, thats only a 5% difference to make up... with 15 thats 33%, and we are talking (tens of) thousands of dollars here. if we need to look for another property, 20 acres or so is about the smallest i would be comfortable with, at 100 people. i would rather go larger then smaller. maybe we are back at the other end, where we are looking at boats more then islands (a couple barges cemented to a reef? would that even work?), cause if we could find a small cheap island, people could provide their own group boat, and live on that, all of us centered around the island.
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    • harold
      harold
      offline 20

      Re: The Island _might_ be sold / other properties

      Tue, March 4, 2008 - 2:49 PM
      ill put my vote in for the "have faith"-crowd...

      it would suck to have the island sold out from under you - but heck, they might be trying to do it to make some money from a perceived-investment... im assuming that 3 mos is not enough time to generate the 100 independent folks youve been wanting for initial startup anyways... my guess is that this island would still be/re-become available (altho maybe not at that price) when the whole group coalesces.

      theres a very interesting tradeoff here. the reality/realty (and details) that need to be planned. and the vision (and marketing) that also need to coalesce. theres definitely a social difference between 15 people and 100 - altho it trades off with proximity as well.

      adam - i think that more than anything this might be a test of your leadership (or co-leadership with trae? others?) and faith in the project... i believe (and asume that eventually science will locate) that there is a fundamental part of the human brain that requires "faith" to allow us to "suffer thru" things that seem insurmountable.

      following this messianic-metaphor is a little too tempting. i was watching tv and caught the first couple of episodes of saving-grace yesterday. a really interesting show.

      anyways, thosere my thoughts from the peanut gallery... i believe trae has the right sentiment in his second sentence - altho the clause "until we know for sure" is going to apply to any number of issues besides the actual piece of real estate.

      good luck and hugs, h.
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      • Re: The Island _might_ be sold / other properties

        Tue, March 4, 2008 - 9:01 PM
        Granada Island that we've been looking at was only 21 acres. This new island is 4.3 acres. The listed price is $55,000 vs. $540,000.

        So, it's a 1/5 the size and 1/10 the price.

        We could dramatically reduce the number of owners, the share price could remain the same, and we could purchase the island outright rather than having to deal with a mortgage.

        Trae, you speak of 5 people probably being flakes; that's less of an issue if we don't have a mortgage. Not having a mortgage could really simplify this project!

        What are the goals of this project, and does this new island fit them?

        Near water :: yes.

        Inspires the imagination :: it's hard to tell from the photos. But from other photos of poneloya, it looks like we'd at least be adjacent to some really nice beaches.

        www.manfut.org/leon/poneloya.html

        Remote, but not too remote :: Well, I think that Granada island probably a bit too far and hard to get to. This new island is close to a small town, but has a bit of water giving us privacy. Too close? We have spoken recently about better integrating Nicaraguans. Being close to a town could help us with that.

        According to our old estimates we could fit 20 people on this small island. But I think we could revisit that estimate based on other factors. The more remote an island is, the more stir crazy people will go. When it's very easy to escape from the island, and head to town or down to the beach, then should be okay for the island to be more densely packed. At festival camping density, we could fit 140 people.

        And of course you're right. We could expand the space by having people living on barges or houseboats. Overall, with a new, more accessible island, I think the nature of the project would change a bit with fewer owners building houses and more guests living in tents.

        As a big plus, this new island seems to have easy access to the sea, which would be great for surfers, windsurfers, and sailors.

        Overall, someone (me?) needs to see this island before we proceed at all with it. But if it looks nice, I think we should very seriously consider it. Instead of being 10% of the way to having 100 people, we'd be almost halfway there.

        Harold, I think that our biggest question of leadership is actually getting things done. Will we be able to turn this project into a reality? And going for the more obtainable goal of raising $55,000 vs. $270,000 might be the way to go. _If_ this island turns out to be nice, I'd be fine with it. I might actually be happier being close to the sea.

        Trae, why do you think that we need a minimum of 100 people?
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