The 4 phases of the project

1 - Exploratory Phase ($100)
2 – Purchase ($2900)
3 – Build-up (???)
4 – Maintenance and up-keep (???)

1. Exploratory Phase

$100 semi-refundable deposit per applicant.

These funds will be used towards the legal expenses for creating the LLC, researching the property title, and any other associated legal costs.

Should the project fail to go happen, for any reason, any unspent portion of this deposit will be returned. The costs will be evenly split among all applicants.

If an applicant isn't accepted into the initial 100 owners, then the entire deposit will be returned.

2. Purchase

All approved owners will be required to pay another $2900 after the property title has been deemed okay.

This money covers initial purchase price, but there will be excess and that will give us a couple of month buffer on the mortgage.

3. Build up

This section is obviously going to evolve as time goes on. And it will never be anything other than a range of values, as the costs will directly correspond to the standard of living someone choses, and how much labor they chose to do themselves rather than purchasing pre-made items.

a. flight

Flight prices are always subject to change. But at the moment, I see tickets as cheap as one-way tickets from San Francisco to Managua for $425 one-way in December, and for $510 round-trip.

www.taca.com/index.asp

b. accommodation

Anyone who does Burningman should have basic camping gear. That would be enough to start with on the island.

Other options for slightly more advanced and comfortable housing could include yurts, tipis, hexayurts and domes. These seem to range be in the price range of hundreds to several thousand dollars. Then of course would be the cost of shipping the materials down to Nicaragua.

Does someone want to research the costs of various housing options?

Does someone want to research the cost of sending a shipping container from San Francisco (Oakland actually has the big port) to Nicaragua?

The best option though, would be to research what's available in Nicaragua and see what we could build cheaply using local materials and local techniques. I'll start looking into that when I'm in Nicaragua.

c. Sustainable energy, batteries, and internet (satellite)?

I'll mail wisecat and see if he can help fill in this section for us.

Again, it might make sense to look into the shared cost of a shipping container to move this sort of material down to Nicaragua.

d. Common spaces

These are certainly optional, but I think that it would be nice to eventually have one large common space for hanging out or sleeping (dome? pyramid?), and one large common space for construction (modeled after an airplane hangar?).

Should we start on cost projections for these?

e. Grading, foundation, and runoff

Anyone want to make any guesses here? There doesn't seem to be any way to determine this until we spend some time on the island. Can we do everything that we need with shovels and a bit of concrete? Or will we need bigger tools, or a bit of dynamite.

f. Common tools, equipment

Would $1000 be enough? That could provide a bunch of basic tools for the project. And split between 100 owners it's $10 each.

4. Maintenance

a. Mortgage

$60 / mo / owner. This value assumes that we cannot negotiate a lower price for the island. The actual value should be lower. This also assumes that there are no guests - any guest fees will go first towards covering the owners costs. With 10 ticket holding guests arriving each month the mortgage is covered.

b. Misc. Org Fees (property taxes, boat upkeep, required infrastructure maintenance, legal, etc.)

$10 / mo / owner. That's a very rough guess, and hopefully should be on the high side.

c. Food, medical, etc.

This site gives a value of $80/person/mo.

www.nicaliving.com/node/1310

That might be a good starting estimate.