4 coliving business ideas

Please go start these!

Request to our dearest readership: Does your community do something unique to help its residents bond? We’re collecting examples of traditions that have evolved in community houses. From initiation rituals to pranks, we’d love to hear about the things that make your community feel like, well, a community. Please email us at hi@gosupernuclear.com. 

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Ever thought about starting a business in coliving? We have some unsolicited advice for you.

Gillian and I love it when people reach out to us wanting to start companies in coliving. As two entrepreneurs with a coliving side hobby, we think there should be more people launching ventures in this space.

This post will share some ideas with the whole Supernuclear readership in the hopes it may spur some entrepreneurial thinking…

Idea #1: The co-buying broker/lender/attorney

What’s the business:

A property buying services shop specializing in groups co-buying together. There are three thing it could provide:

1. Agents who specialize in finding property suitable for groups

2. Mortgage brokers who specialize in obtaining loans for groups (and have relationship with banks willing to loan to groups)

3. Lawyers who specialize in legal documents for co-ownership

What need does it serve:

Buying “normal” property is hard. Buying coliving property with friends is a special kind of extra hard. How do we know? Hundreds of people attend Supernuclear webinars on this topic telling us about the challenges. And we’ve gone through it ourselves. It’s difficult!

There is a whole ecosystem of people that help you buy a single family home (real estate agents, mortgage brokers, etc). That same ecosystem doesn’t exist for people buying property together as a group.

Going to a normal brokers/lender/lawyer is like going to a general practitioner when you need a heart surgeon.

How does it make money:

The great part about this business is that there are already established ways to make money.

• Real estate agents already get paid ~3% of a property sale from the seller.

• Mortgage brokers already get paid 1-2% of the loan value as a commission from the bank

• People are used to and expect to pay lawyers for things.

Notice: The first two are “free” to the user because the cost is paid by other parties. You just need to charge them directly for legal fees.

You could start this business either a) with these functions in-house or b) as a platform that connects these providers to co-buyers.

A financial model to get you started

I thought about this one myself and even drew up a financial model to get you started. I think it could be a good business if you can find the right partners and figure out top-of-funnel. One idea for top-of-funnel: Real estate listing service that specifically caters to groups.

Idea #2: The coliving directory

What’s the business:

A directory of coliving spaces and people interested in coliving. Matchy, matchy.

Note: There are some existing attempts at this that are worth mentioning:

• IC.org keeps a directory of communities

• Haight St Commons keeps a list of openings in the Bay Area.

• Coliving.com has a directory mostly focused on for-profit coliving operators

But, as of now, there’s no comprehensive directory that captures even a fraction of the communities we’ve encountered. Someone needs to put in the work here.

What need does it serve:

Unless you are “in the know” it can often be hard to find a community in a given place. I see countless “does anyone know a community in X location” posts and requests on Facebook etc.

Likewise, communities spend a lot of time and energy on recruiting. Making it easier for people to express interest would make it easier to run a community (and lower risk of vacancy).

How does it make money:

I really want this one to exist. It’s also very challenging! You’ll need to do a lot of outreach. It’s not clear how you get paid. There’s a reason Craigslist is still kicking around after all of these years.

Some places you might start:

1. Charging communities to list themselves or receive messages

2. Charging participants to search for or message communities

3. Advertising (e.g. from service providers relevant to coliving … though I’m skeptical this would be sufficient).

Idea #3: Kickstarter for shared property

What’s the business:

Software and financial backend that helps groups aggregate interest and safely “go in on property” together.

What need does it serve:

Most communities we’ve seen handle these things informally and via trusted relationships. This is fine in a lot of cases, has a few downsides:

1. It’s hard to confidently involve people outside of a trusted group

2. It usually leaves one person “holding the bag” in case others flake. And that is a big deal when there’s a lot of money flying around.

Here are a couple use cases:

1. A group wants to buy land together. Everyone agrees they are committed as long as the group, as a whole, can raise $1m. The software might escrow “soft commitments” from people that turn into “hard commitments” once the $1m threshold is reached. If the threshold isn’t reached by X date, the money is returned.

2. Someone wants to start a land-based project. They describe the project and crowdfund money to see if there’s enough interest to move forward.

How does it make money:

You probably just take a % of the money escrowed or transferred.

Note: This could be a blockchain business. Yes, I said it. Blockchain.

Idea #4: Coliving for retirees

What’s the business:

Help empty nesters and retirees do self-managed coliving or cohousing, rather than commercially operated retirement communities.

What need does it serve:

I suspect empty nesters and retirees have the most to gain by coliving, but have the fewest opportunities available to them.

Existing retirement communities tend to cater to the rich, who can afford to pay for a resort-style experience with an extensive support staff. We know plenty of retirees who can’t afford that level of service and/or would rather participate in running their community.

There’s a loneliness epidemic in the US that is particularly acute amongst older Americans. Think: Widow(er)s, empty nesters. Older Americans suffer from a narrowing social support structure.

One example: Valery Navarette, in her excellent Life Without Us podcast, profiled Louise Bardswich, who teamed up with 3 other seniors to make a plan to age in place on their own terms. Their story is inspiring and could work for many more folks.

How does it make money:

This segment is more likely than millennials or Gen Z to have financial resources (or 1031 exchange gains to apply).

There are a few ways you could go about this:

1. The real estate development play: Develop purpose-built communities with coliving-minded retirees in mind. The wildly successful The Villages in Florida is an example that isn’t quite coliving, but points toward a direction.

2. Be a consultant/project manager: Help existing groups do this. Have them hire you to create their dream community alongside them.

3. Property management: Partner with existing real estate owners (think: retirement communities) to operate their existing property as coliving/cohousing. Help them with redesign and institute community principles.

Thinking about starting this (or any other business in this space)?

Hit us up. We might be able to help with investment, support, connections. hi@gosupernuclear.com