On-line reviews vs. personal recommendations

A marketing specialist I work with recently told me that people trust online reviews and much as personal recommendations.    This blew my mind, as I am a bit of a cynic when it comes to online reviews.  Oh, I read them, but always with a grain of salt.

This graphic from Bright Local shows trust in reviews, broken down by age group.

To me, personal recommendations, on the other hand, really matter.  And knowing who they come from affects the power I give the recommendation.    With online reviews, I usually have no idea who the reviewer is, which in itself, makes the review/recommemndatio less valuable, to me.

Generational generalizations are risky but...the above chart really does show generational differences.      Certainly, the 18-34 year olds have grown up with more of their lives online. Heck, I've been in business as long, or longer than they have been alive.

My business is primarily referral based.  That is, the majority of my clients come to me through personal recommendations.   I assume, once recommended, folks go look for me on-line, and that's where reviews come in to play.  I suppose its not personal recommendations vs. on-line reviews, but personal recommendations and on-line reviews.

How do you weigh personal recommendations vs. on-line reviews?  Does it bother you to be asked for a review?

Thinking about co-housing

The co-housing movement has been around quite awhile, having some relation to communes and other intentional communities.

Some co-housing communities are conceived of, and started by a group of people looking for some efficiencies in housing combined with a sense of community, and maybe a commonality such as religious belief, dietary choices or age based. Communal gathering areas, reservable guest quarters and community gardens can be some of the shared amenities.

This project started as retirement/ senior housing.

PDX Commons

Other co-housing communities are developed and built for the general public, with the developer obtaining the contraction financing ring, and bearing the financial risk.  Buyers then, get a conventional loan for the property they are buying (and buy-in to the community).

There are a few projects in the Portland area that have been built inconjunction  with Proud Ground, a local land trust.  Some of the homes are sold at market rate prices, while others are sold under the land trust model, whereby Proud Ground owns the land and builds affordable units.  Buyers then are only paying to buy the structure, not the land.  These projects have both affordable and market rate housing.  I love this model.

Here are a few of those:

Cully Grove

Cully Green

Some other projects:

Daybreak Co-housing in the Overlook neighborhood.

Adams Creek in Hood River  (still in development)

Cascadia Commons one of the areas older co-housing communities.

Financing and development guidelines have proved challenging over the years.   Who pays for the underlying land?  Do future owners get their own construction financing chiming?  How are common elements financed? Are these condominiums?  Private ownership?

I get the desire to live with like minded people, or folks with whom you have a common bond or passion.  It seems though that "like minded people" can also be code for excluding "undesirables"from the community.   There isn't a long jump to "whites only" or "wealthy people only", or "no kids", or "you must have kids."

That being said, some of my friends dream of intentional co-housing; animal rescue folks who want to live and care for animals together,  Reed College Alumni wanting multi-generational housing and engaging academic interaction etc.

Do you think about pooling resources with other folk to live a more efficient and intentional lifestyle?  Would the loss of a small amount of privacy and control bother you?

Some resources:
Co-Housing Association of America
BusinesInsiderArticle