We have started selling fractional interests in vaction homes. After a lot of research we found it common place. Colorado for ski resorts, the Marriot is the leader in this. We recently had a training session with one of the former "top guns" of sales at the mariot turned consultant. I was in awe of the depth of the sales presentation they do.
here is some data I found. This is not for everyone but... could be a tool in the bag.
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http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/23/real_estate/fractionals_are_coming/index.htm
Million-dollar homes ... for a fraction of the price Fractional-ownership is a fast-growing segment of the vacation-home segment. Is it for you? By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer June 23, 2006: 11:57 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - How would you like a big, luxurious vacation home in a beautiful resort for just a tenth of the going rate? Sounds good, right?
The catch is that you only get to use it a fraction of the time.
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Here is the guy who did our training, he is staying on thru the project as a consultant
http://luxuryfractionalguide.com/ask.php
Biography of Sherman Potvin
Founder of Luxury Fractional Guide
I was first introduced to the fractional interest concept at Killington, Vt., in the early 1990s. I joined a sales team being assembled to sell quarter fractions at the new Killington Grand Hotel. Even though the concept was new back then, the combination of a ski-in, ski-out location with many great amenities at one quarter of the full price was too good to pass up for many people. The project was a huge success and I was hooked on a new real estate concept, after spending 30 years selling normal, whole-ownership real estate.
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http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-fractional-ownership.htm
Fractional ownership is essentially partial ownership of a property. With fractional ownership, a property is owned and shared by at least two, and often several, individuals. This type of ownership is popular with vacation properties and resorts.
To understand fractional ownership, consider a large, and expensive, property that may be difficult to purchase and care for on your own. Instead of becoming the sole owner of the property, you purchase a share of it, as do 15 other people. Now, you own 1/15 of the property and have others to share in the burden of maintenance and taxes. Though this option is popular with larger properties, it may be used with smaller, lower cost properties as well.
Often, people confuse fractional ownership with timeshares. Both fractional ownership and timeshare situations are common with vacation and resort-type properties. With a timeshare, however, you would purchase a specific amount of time to spend at the property, such as 3 weeks out of every year. You would not actually own any portion of the property. With fractional ownership, you would actually own the portion of the property you purchase.
When you opt for fractional ownership in a property, there will be sharing involved. For example, if you purchase a share in a property with three other fractional owners, you may have use of the property for one week out of every month. The other owners would have their weeks as well and you would not have use of the property at that time. Keep in mind, however, that each fractional ownership property is different and some allow owners to use the properties more or less than one week per month.
Some individuals choose to use fractional ownership to earn money. For example, if an owner doesn't plan to use some or all of his allotted weeks, he may choose to rent them out to others. Depending on how much he charges, he may be able to earn a profit. He might even be able to rent his weeks to other owners, allowing them to spend more time at the property. Rules concerning renting the property to others are usually covered in a fractional ownership contract.
Fractional ownership is attractive to many because it offers an easy way to own vacation property. With this type of ownership, you have a place to go to vacation, yet are freed from being solely responsible for the property and related expenses. In most cases, a third party or management company takes care of everything from upkeep and utilities to taxes and insurance. Though you have little responsibility with a fractional ownership, you do get the deed to the property, specifying the number of shares you own. You can gift it or sell it as you wish.
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The practice of joining together with family and friends to share ownership of vacation property has been around for many years. But the fractional property industry started in the US in the Rocky Mountain ski resorts in the early 1990s. These first fractional developments recognised that people did not want to buy whole homes, which they would only use for a few weeks a year in the mountains. According to research firm Ragatz Associates there were over 250 fractional developments in North America in 2006 and fractional properties can now be found throughout the world.
Outside the USA a non-commercial form of fractional ownership has been in existence for several decades. In this form, otherwise unconnected individuals (rather than family or friends) form private syndicates to purchase, for example, vacation property or boats. These syndicates operate as private member groups with small numbers on a non-profit basis, generally just sharing expenses and usage. These groups can involve assets ranging from modest apartments or condominium type properties to multi-million euro / dollar properties, and leverage their ability to make collective purchases of additional assets such as boats or vehicles as additional facilities, while retaining control entirely within the membership of the group.[citation needed]
The popularity of the term fractional ownership has caused extensive rebranding in other industries where similar concepts, such as real estate timeshares, were already well established.
Fractional ownership divides a property into more affordable segments for individuals and also matches an individuals ownership time to their actual usage time. A fractional share gives the owners certain privileges, such as a number of days or weeks when they can use the property. Occasionally, the property is sold after a pre-determined time, distributing the relative proceeds back to the owners. A few private owner-groups have developed highly sophisticated usage allocation schemes and other features based on the principle of attempting to get as close as possible to the flexibility of individual ownership, and only compromising this to the minimum extent necessary to accommodate multiple owners. In such schemes the basic agreement is between the members themselves, whereas in most commercial fractional ownership schemes, the owner's principal relationship is with the property developer and/or promoter of the scheme.[citation needed]
Private residence clubs are the luxury, high end of the fractional property market. They provide the services and amenities of five star hotels, and some of the luxury hotel groups, such as Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons and Hyatt run their own private residence clubs. Occasionally membership in a private residence club grants to its member only the right to usage of the club properties and services, without ownership rights in the properties themselves. Note a private residence club is different from a Destination Club, although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably.
A key aspect for any fractional owner is to understand their usage rights and the reservation plans. These vary from property to property. Some offer fixed occupancy periods in which an owner uses the same time each year. Some offer "floating" periods, in which the occupancy times rotate throughout the year, and some offer a mixture of these, with some time fixed and some floating.
Another variation in the business model is what are called "destination resorts". These are typically properties, whether hotel rooms, suites, or freestanding villas, located on property owned and managed by a hotel developer, and which provide amenities typically expected of a high class hotel or resort. Some hotels are also developed as a condo-hotel, in which individual rooms are sold off to individual owners.[1]
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here is the project we are selling.
http://www.dockofthebayftmyersbeach.com/
This project has taken us into a part of real estate I never expected to be. The Brits are responding the most to our marketing.
On a side note, we are not having a hard time finding people to work out of High End 3 story homes, with a dock and a pool. Thats a great place to go make your money!
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