Networking Norfolk style May 17, 2008
Posted by admin in : fractional ownership, fractional rent, website business , add a commentFor the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busily seeking out networking opportunities in
Simply meeting people and telling them about yours2share has lead to several interesting opportunities. It often gives me new ideas and helps me to develop new functionality and categories.
Given that we moved to Norfolk only a couple of months ago, I’m also pleased simply to meet people, either as acquaintances or as people who can help me to develop and promote yours2share. I’m currently looking for a PR consultant and am always interested in people with strong perl/html skills.
The Women on Top meeting was interesting. As happens so often, when I first explain what I do, people can’t see how they can benefit. Then within a few minutes I found several examples of sharing arrangements both current and contemplated. I met someone who shares a piano on a fractional rental basis. They advertised locally some years ago for someone with a grand piano that they could use once or twice a week. Another woman is considering finding people to invest in a new swimming pool in the grounds of her house: investors will have the right to use the pool for half a day a week for the next five years. Someone else wants to share a horse. Everyone was pleased to find a way of advertising for partners on a wider scale and a source of guidance.
Chris Evans and the power of the radio May 11, 2008
Posted by admin in : fractional ownership , add a commentA couple of weeks ago yours2share had a wonderful mention on the Chris Evan’s Radio 2 show, probably made better by the fact that his researchers couldn’t contact me to ask me for a phone interview. I couldn’t have written it better myself: they had a piece about fractional ownership and interviewed Piers Brown of Fractional Life, the researcher asked Piers about yours2share as another website which allows people to advertise for like-minded sharing partners. Piers kindly plugged yours2share, spelt out the url, and added that it is a super website. Thanks Piers.
At first I was devastated that the call had come on probably the only day this year when I was totally out of contact for the day! I’ve been a fan of Chris Evans for years, ever since his breakfast show on Virgin that had me regularly swerving around the motorway because I was laughing so much. But on reflection, and inspection of yours2share’s traffic stats which went through the roof, I’m pretty pleased, particularly as I could have spent days trying achieve coverage like this and would probably have failed.
So I came out of an all day seminar to find my mobile phone had gone into meltdown due to the calls and texts from friends informing me of yours2share’s moment of stardom. The traffic figures have shown me just how powerful a mention on the radio can be.
Google’s calendar - helping you to manage your fractional ownership April 25, 2008
Posted by admin in : boat share, car club, fractional ownership, fractional rent, sharing , add a commentI’ve been asked several times if yours2share recommends any on-line calendars which people can use to book times for a property, boat, aircraft or anything else they are sharing, either through fractional ownership or fractional rental.
This allows everyone to see at a glance who is using the property etc at any time. If the sharing arrangement allows people to use the asset on a first come basis, when no-one else has booked it, it also enables people to see when it is free.
Some syndicates allow everyone to alter their calendar; many restrict the access to just one “gatekeeper” who manages the calendar. Generally speaking the greater the number of people in the syndicate, the more likely you are to need someone to manage this for you. You can also pay a third party to manage it on your behalf. This could be one of the roles for a management company, if you use one.
Some months ago I found e-allocator.com which is designed for people who share a boat or aircraft etc. This appears to offer a decent service, which is also hosted by e-allocator, for about £5.75/month + VAT.
However I’ve discovered a free alternative. I spent some time last week playing with Google’s web calendar and it’s pretty good. You only need to sign-up for a Google account, which is free, and it is one of the many Google options. Simply go to Google and click sign-in.
Three Yorkshiremen share a Fairline Targa 40 in Mallorca April 17, 2008
Posted by admin in : boat share, fractional ownership, sharing , add a commentThere is a great new case study on the website about three Yorkshiremen who met through yours2share and after about five months bought a Fairline Targa 40 together to be moored in Mallorca.
I’d spoken to Tom Harrison on the phone several times before he called me a couple of weeks ago to tell me that the deal had been completed. Unlike every other yours2share member, Tom isn’t on-line. He saw the ad for yours2share in Motorboat and Yachting magazine and called me. I agreed to manage his on-line membership for him, so over the next few months I called him many times to tell him about the replies to his ad.
Over the last three weeks I’ve spoken to all three members of the new syndicate: Tom, Ian and Geoff and it has been wonderful for me to have another example of my vision for yours2share unfolding.
Fractional rent: template contracts available April 7, 2008
Posted by admin in : fractional rent, property, template contract , add a commentWe have just released a new fractional rental template contract which enables to help people set up all kinds of fractional rental arrangements where the property is a non permanent residence or used as a holiday home by the landlord and the tenant. (It is document PR545 at the bottom of the page.) Alongside it is another template contract (PR604) for use when property is the permanent residence of the landlord but not the tenant. This is most commonly used for Monday to Friday lets.
As with all the template contracts, it has been developed by yours2share and Net Lawman, an internet document provider. This document has taken longer than usual to develop as it is a combination of a holiday letting contract and a fractional ownership agreement and we had to think through many issues from first principles.
I’m particularly pleased to see it as fractional rental was the reason I started yours2share in the first place.
Car shared ownership: template contracts April 1, 2008
Posted by yours2share in : car club, fractional ownership, sharing, template contract , add a commentyours2share has two new template contracts available for people who wish to set up a shared or fractional ownership agreement for any kind of car: supercar, classic car, sports car, convertible or 4×4 SUV “you had eye on but couldn’t quite justify buying unless you buy it with someone else”, or just a great little run around.
As usual there are two versions: one for two people buying together, the other for three or more. The difference is that two people don’t need the formal management and meeting structure that is required when there are more partners.
And as usual, the documents were created in conjunction with internet document provider, and yours2share’s legal pal, Net Lawman. All the template documents are fully editable, so you can adjust them to exactly fit your requirement. Or for a small charge Net Lawman can do this for you.
As well as template contracts, there is some general advice on setting up sharing arrangments and detailed advice on setting up an informal car club (the generally accepted term for a small group of private individuals getting together to own a car together) .
Informal car clubs March 29, 2008
Posted by admin in : car club, fractional ownership , add a commentI’ve just found this website about an informal car club successfully running in Lewes, Sussex. There aren’t many yet, but I think it is an idea that could suit many people who only need a car occasionally.
There is extensive guidance on setting up an informal car club here and an earlier blog entry which explains what yours2share is doing to help enable more informal car clubs
Fractional ownership and the community March 27, 2008
Posted by admin in : environment, fractional ownership, fractional rent, property, sharing , add a commentI read this blog item by Gary Winter with interest because I too had read the news item he referred to and, like him, found the argument that fractional ownership is detrimental to the neighbourhood, well, frankly bizarre.
My involvement in fractional ownership and fractional renting came about specifically because I felt uneasy about owning a second home which I only used every other weekend. It didn’t seem fair on the community, we weren’t contributing to the local economy and it was a waste of (very pretty) resources. I wanted to find someone who would use it the other weekends, found it difficult and yours2share developed out of my frustration.
Buyers in any community will be one of the following: owner occupiers, landlords buying to let permanently, second home owners, fractional owners or timeshare buyers.
Yes, the ideal for any community are owner occupiers. Permanent landlords are OK, but too many can cause issues as whole areas become inhabited by tenants.
But as society becomes increasingly affluent, more and more people want second home. Of these, fractional owners strike me as the best. Second home owners are rarely there, so they make little contribution to the community. Worse, they often let the property for holidays, and holiday tenants make no contribution to the community, have no reason to take any particular care of the property, and really can be detrimental to the comunity. Timeshare “owners” are better because they return each year, which usually leads to some pride in the property and because there are always people occupying the property, so they collectively contribute to the local economy.
Fractional owners visit for several weeks a year, so they will all become part of the community, contribute to the local economy and, because they have a significant financial stake, take pride in the property. But there is only one owner present at any one time: the concept that fractional owners will have the same “impact on a library as if 12 people used one library card” is completely mistaken, well actually bonkers.
So to the real issue, will fractional owners lower the tone of the neighbourhood? In practice, I just don’t see this happening. Most fractional ownership properties are valuable: larger 4/5 bedroom houses in highly desirable areas. Which is why their neighbours are viewing any change in the type of potential owners with alarm, even if I believe it is misplaced. 1/6 or even 1/10 shares in these properties are still relatively expensive as second homes. The owners probably also have sizeable managment fees. The fractional buyers are probably at least equivalent in affluence to their owner-occupying neighbours. Unless perhaps all the local properties are second homes – but then the place will be virtually deserted and there will be no local community to notice!
I’m not a legal expert, but I can see no way of preventing this that would not also prevent two brothers/friends etc buying a property together and this is surely not sensible. Attempting to define fractional owners as those that have a formal contract is also unhelpful. Family and friends buying together should also always have a written contract.
yours2share “freecycles” to Norfolk March 17, 2008
Posted by yours2share in : environment, home worker, sharing , add a commentI’m kind of glad this week is over. We’ve moved house, yours2share and two dogs from West London to
As part of the move we got rid of a lot of clutter that we had collected over many years. This involved heavy use of eBay, the rubbish tip, and a great service called Freecycle. If like us, you have stuff that has no value (you’ve checked on eBay) but seems too good to throw away, then Freecycle is what you need. Freecycle is a network of groups where you can post ads for items you are willing to give away provided someone comes to pick them up. So you don’t even have to take things to the tip. Last week, we freecycled a washing machine, dryer, cooker, keyboards, lots of china, a whole set of kitchen units and about fifty plants.
At the One Life Live exhibition a couple of weeks, several people asked me if yours2share was the same as Freecycle. Initially I was thrown by this question as yours2share is designed to help people share assets, not give them away free. But then I realised that the mentality is similar: both Freecycle and yours2share enable people to make the most of resources. Freecycle by giving away items that you would throw away anyway and yours2share by sharing items when you aren’t using them (admittedly this is not usually free of charge!)
Fractional ownership: become a part-time millionaire March 4, 2008
Posted by yours2share in : car club, fractional ownership, property , add a commentThere was a good article in the Independent on Saturday 1st March about fractional ownership. It covers many asset that can be fractionalised: cars, jets, property, handbags, art, and points out some of the realities of sharing. I may be passionate about encouraging people to share, but I’m always at pains to point out that the partners must be like-minded and have compatible requirements. I also understand that it doesn’t suit everyone. As someone recently told me: “I don’t share anything. I was an only child”
It mentioned yours2share too - so it must be a great article!
How to live like a millionaire – even if it’s only part-time
London, UK (1 March, 2008)
Be honest. Given half a chance you’d jump at living the lifestyle of a millionaire. For most of us, however, this will never be any more than a pipe dream. Disposable incomes have fallen by 5 per cent over the last decade, according to price comparison site uSwitch.com, thanks to, among other things, soaring tax bills, rising housing costs and increasing utility bills.
But you may not need a winning Lottery ticket to get your hands on a red Ferrari or Swiss chalet. If that must-have item is just out of reach, why not follow the example of a racehorse syndicate and simply buy a portion of what you want?
