Why share?

We all have some fairly expensive assets that we rarely use: second, third or fourth cars that sit unused outside our house for all but an hour a week, swimming pools that are used twice a week, second homes we try to visit once a month, boats we make ourselves sail six times a year to justify keeping them, motor homes cluttering our drives for fifty weeks a year, plus all the sports and gardening equipment filling our cupboards sheds in case we suddenly have the urge to lift some weights or trim our hedges.

Amazingly most people accept this huge waste of resources, hoping they can continue to justify keeping them in their expensive sheds for their annual outing.

But now everyone is reconsidering their finances: some wonder if they can generate a little income or release some capital. Can they their assets work harder for them and still be there when they want them?

What if you could find one or two like-minded people that you trust? Would you consider selling them a share or agreeing a long term rental arrangement where they use the item (say) once a month? Until recently people only found sharing partners through serendipity: at a dinner party, through a friend, or a chance advert at the newsagent.

yours2share enables you to find like-minded partners in an organized manner. Advertise for partners to share just about any asset: property, boats, aircraft, horses, dogs, gardens, swimming pools, motor homes, cars, and so on. For example, if you have a second home, you can advertise to sell a half share or to rent it for a week a month. Or if you’re looking for a second home, you can advertise for people to join you in buying your dream cottage, or find someone with a second home from whom you can rent or buy a share.

Once you’ve found your partners, you need to invest sufficient time (several hours and several meetings) at the beginning to discuss everything properly and negotiate the agreement. This process will establish whether or not you are sufficiently like-minded and compatible: consider the contract as proof of this. For property and any major financial asset you should always take independent professional legal advice (and sometimes financial and tax advice as well). If you’ve already agreed everything, then the legal checks should be relatively inexpensive.

As well as the financial benefits, sharing is also environmentally friendly. It makes much better use of resources and, because the running costs are shared, shared assets are often maintained to the highest (environmentally friendly) standard, to the pride of their owners.  Often the higher standard of maintenance means the asset is safer too.

However the greatest pleasure of sharing doesn’t usually strike people until they’ve been doing it for some time. This is the sense of community and of shared responsibility. Whenever I speak to people in private syndicates, even the most cynical, hard-nosed “I never share anything, but my wife talked me into this” men will tell me how lovely it is to have found three (say) great “friends” who love this wonderful boat/property/aircraft as much as he does, and how fantastic it is to have pals to share the management and maintenance issues with. They tell me how extraordinary this is. I smile, because it is ordinary for well designed private syndicates to be extraordinary.