Buying the House Next Door Can Provide Room to Grow

There is nothing that we UUs seem to love more than buying an old house and fixing it up. Especially if it's next door to our church or fellowship. Of course, it's not really a house we're buying, it's a dream—a dream of room for all our programs and room to grow.

But if the purchase isn't entered into with care, the newly acquired property can turn into a time sink and a money pit, draining a congregation's physical and fiscal resources.

The Northlake UU Church, Kirkland, WA (107 members), bought the "house next door," a former Lutheran parsonage, several years ago. It's required a lot of work, said member Jim Mason. Recently the congregation had to take up a special collection to replace the water heater. And now the house needs a new roof.

A bad decision? Not at all, said Mason. "We'd do it all over again. The house has potential to us as we grow. But what we should have done differently is set aside a fund for maintaining the property."

Jon Durbin, manager of the UUA's new e-mail discussion group UU-MONEY, recommends that UU congregations think about the following points when considering purchase of a second property.

• Do the numbers. Prepare an income statement, similar to a treasurer's report, including anticipated income and expenses. Determine if you can afford the property by tallying up the resources that are available to buy it and to pay for repair and maintenance.
• Have a physical inspection done by an outside professional inspector. Don't put a member in this position.
• Keep members informed.
• Set up a maintenance/operating fund in advance or get a bank line of credit for an emergency fund.

Sometimes the "house" next door is a commercial building. Five years ago the First UU Society of Albany, NY (347), with an eye to expansion, bought a business building adjacent to its church building. There have been some bumps in the road, said Jon Newell, board chair. The building is rented to nonchurch tenants and some of them failed to pay and had to be evicted. Others trashed the place. There was a rash of maintenance expenses. The society then hired a professional manager, but, Newell notes, "We're still holding our breath. It's been a money sink and a maintenance nightmare. Some very dedicated members have spent many hours and much effort keeping this property functional."

The society recently received a major donation enabling it to pay most of the mortgage and now the congregation is considering buying a second building, next door to the first.

A congregation often has to take a long-range view. The First UU Church of Columbus, OH (485), bought the house next door about 1980. Through the years some members wanted to sell it, hoping to recoup the money, said Paul Vancouver, a former board chair. But in 1990 the property made it possible for the congregation to do a million-dollar renovation of its main building which included tearing down the house next door and using the property for new driveways. "The moral is to look ahead and keep your options open," said Vancouver.

The consensus seems to be that the purchase of a second building usually proves to be a good decision over the long term as long as the building fits into the church's vision and the congregation is solidly behind the purchase.