yours2share - sharing stuff & collaborative consumption » fractional ownership

Raft adventurers arrive in Caribbean

sophie — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:20:52 +0000

I loved this piece in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph about four men who have just sailed across the Atlantic on a raft called Antiki. The four ranged in age from 56 to 85. It has several lovely aspects, but the bit that pleased me the most was

Mr Smith advertised five years ago for “OAPs” to join him on a trans-Atlantic voyage by raft

yours2share has has a steady flow of ads from people wanting to find partners to make long sea journeys together, and/or ads from people in their 70s and 80s who are still busy sailing and looking for boat sharing partners, here are a few current ads.

One quarter share of catamaran, 9m Catalac, Lefkas, Greece

49′ Performance catamaran for world wide cruising

Lagoon 440 Fractional Memberships

Sailing 60′ Catamaran, worldwide, dog loving partners wanted

What’s mine is yours

sophie — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 19:21:52 +0000

I’ve just finished reading “What’s Mine Is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption is Changing the Way We Live” by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers. It’s thought-provoking and highly readable. Many of its peers are the former, but rarely the latter, and for this reason I’ll admit that I was putting off reading it, even though it’s a must-read for me. So I was pleasantly surprised when I read it cover to cover in a day: couldn’t put it down.

What distinguishes it from so many earnest tomes telling us to reduce waste, reduce consumption, be good and wear a hairshirt, is that it understands that this revolution has to be lead by consumer demand and great design, and that excellent profits are there to be made by companies who understand this. Given the enormity of the issues facing our planet, it is also hugely optimistic.

It lays out the context for the need for change: why we’re in this un-sustainable mess and why it doesn’t need to be this way. Then it leads you through the major ways we can reduce consumption:

product service systems – such as car clubs like Zipcar and ridesharing like Liftshare
redistribution markets – such as ebay, freecycle and swapping sites like swishing
collaborative lifestyles – co-working (such as Jelly), finance (such as Zopa) and websites like landshare, parkatmyhouse and yours2share.

I found the sections on trust particularly useful and I’m waiting to see the first reputation platform emerge, bringing together our reputations on ebay, zopa, couchsurfing, relayrides etc. Ironically the only area of sharing that wasn’t really covered was the creation of private syndicates and sharing of large assets between small groups of private individuals similar to the sharing enabled by yours2share.

If you want to do your bit for the planet, understand the part that a large chunk of the internet plays in this, or find out where your company should be heading, it’s well worth reading.

ShareZen – making sharing simple

sophie — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 10:50:38 +0000

Over the next few days most of you will be celebrating Christmas and New Year with family and friends. I’m guessing that some of you will end up discussing plans for the future, including the purchase of boats, cars, motor homes and holiday homes. When you think about it, these major assets are almost always bought to share. The real return on your investment is the joy of inviting your immediate family, extended family, friends, colleagues or even like-minded people you met through yours2share to share it with you.

(To make life easier, and so that I don’t have to constantly use the word “assets,” which gets a bit tedious, I’m going to use a boat as an example of an asset.)

There are two types of boat owners:

Private boat owners who mostly just share their boat with family and friends. Usually the owner is on board with them, but some trusted souls may be allowed to use it unaccompanied.
Boat sharers who have bought the boat with family, friends or yours2share partners and formed a private syndicate.

Over the last couple of months I’ve been talking to ShareZen, a new website that helps both types of sharers manage their sharing arrangements. ShareZen has been designed by Drew Bernard, Shawn Kemp and Adrian Pike, who together have shared several holiday homes, a boat and a light aircraft. Drew and his partners wanted a simple online system that made sharing simpler, so they designed ShareZen.

I have been impressed with the user friendliness of ShareZen. There are some excellent short videos on their website that explain the details, but the six key tasks ShareZen makes easier are:

Communication – helps ensure everyone who uses your boat knows the status of things at all times: How much fuel is on board? Is the boat clean? Is it at the dock?
Bookings – keeps track of who’s using the boat and when
Money – records all payments made by sharers and to sharers
Maintenance – ensures servicing or other “to-do” items get done on time
Info – stores anything a sharer needs to know, such as safety instructions, directions, contact details and maps.
Memories – builds a long-term history of your shared boat, with status reports, stories and photos.

I’m delighted to see the arrival of ShareZen, because it completes the sharing process:

yours2share gives guidance and finds like-minded partners
Net Lawman provides the template contracts
ShareZen keeps the sharing arrangement running smoothly.

ShareZen has several packages. For single owners who simply want to manage friends and family sharing their boat, the basic package is free. More complex packages are priced on a monthly-fee basis. There is also a free 30-day trial period for anyone. This is extended to a 60-day free trial special offer for friends of yours2share, if you sign up for the trial before 15 February 2011. (They don’t require a credit card at the free trial stage, so you won’t be caught out if you forget to cancel. I like this.)

If you’re sharing a boat or any other asset and want to try ShareZen out, or are considering sharing and want to see how it might work, sign up and try it out.

Sharing satellites

sophie — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:06:09 +0000

I was delighted to read about Caneus, which fosters international collaborative aerospace development, has a major project bringing together many countries to share space on satellites. They are using a fractional ownership model to manage the use of the satellite, with 50+ owners; this will need to be a well written contract.

I think there is enormous scope for sharing much more, enabling people to achieve all kinds of objectives so much more cost effectively. It’s good to see Caneus taking this on, so many people don’t even consider collaborating or sharing, or if they do, dismiss it as just too difficult.

We have all kinds of assets being shared on yours2share, maybe there’ll be satellites too soon!

Fractional ownership articles

sophie — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:08:55 +0000

Over the weekend were two thoughtful articles about fractional ownership in the Independent and Travelution. neither considers private syndicates like those enabled by yours2share, but otherwise they give a balanced view of the concept.

Home sharing

sophie — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:25:53 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about our couch surfing experience with Australians Jeff and Gerda. As we chatted over dinner, conversation turned, as it so often does when I’m around, to sharing and yours2share. They explained that they shared a ski chalet in the Snowy Mountains with three other couples/families and had done so for many years.

One aspect of their sharing arrangement was a bit unusual and yet a good idea, so I thought I’d record it. The ski chalet does sleep eight at a push if all the sofabeds are used, so it can sleep all the owners. Their usage is a rotating weekly calendar: so each couple gets the fourth week. However, if any of the others want to ski at the weekend, if the couple whose week it is don’t have all the beds taken, they can stay there just for the weekend.

Jeff explained that it was rare for them all to be there at the same time, but fun when it happens. The arrangement also means that everyone feels like they can take advantage of particularly good weather or snow at short notice if they wish.

Boat coding

sophie — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:55:58 +0000

2-3 partners wanted, Southerly 110, Swing Keel, 2000, Lymington, Hampshire

Many boat owners are wondering whether they can justify keeping and maintaining their beloved boat and yet selling it, even if they wanted to, isn’t that easy at the moment either.

Some of these pondering sailors are coming to yours2share to sell shares in their boat: this is a great way forward. They raise some capital and reduce their annual outgoings in one stroke.

An alternative is finding a like-minded person to rent your boat for part of the time on a long term basis, say for a week or weekend a month for a year: I call this fractional rental. One or two sets of people renting a boat like this should make a good contribution towards the annual running costs without losing any control over your boat.

In the latter case, if you have a British flagged boat and wish to charter or fractionally rent it, in the UK or overseas, it must be ‘coded’ by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). MCA Codes of Practice apply to all boats under 24 metres in length that are in commercial use, carrying cargo and/or up to 12 passengers. ‘Coding’ means that the boat carries all the necessary safety equipment and is deemed to be a ‘safe vessel’ by the MCA.

The RYA is one of the organisations approved by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) as a Small Commercial Vessels (SCV) Certification Authority.

Homes & Travel

sophie — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:54:31 +0000

I’ve just stumbled over a good blog called Homes & Travel. Two articles caught my eye, both written by solicitor Peter Esder. The first is about fractional ownership where he explains some of his (and my) concerns. The second is about guaranteed rental agreements on holiday homes, something that I’ve always thought suspect, and, apparently, rightly so.

Options for sharing property or real estate

sophie — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:49:01 +0000

About a month ago there was a great article in the Daily Mail discussing fractional ownership and private syndicates. Two yours2share members who share more than one major asset were interviewed: Graham Price shares a property and boat in France; and Bill Hosie shares a boat and an aircraft.

This created a great deal of interest in yours2share and I’ve spent a fair amount of time since then answering questions. Many people who are trying to sell a holiday home abroad wondered if sharing was the way forward.

There are broadly three ways in which you can share an asset: joint or fractional ownership, fractional rental and timeshare. The principles below apply just as well to boats, planes, motorhomes, cars and any major asset.

Joint ownership

Two or more people own the property: either they find each other first and buy together; or the existing owner of a property sells shares.

In the latter case, if the property was worth £100,000, the owner might think four shares was ideal and look for partners to buy quarter shares. As it takes time to find people to agree the deal, often they will sell one share at a time. This could mean selling a £25,000 share to each buyer.

However it is important that all the partners are like-minded. So the vendor often sells half to the first partner on board for £50,000. Then both owners look for the next partner. The third partner then buys a third share for £33,333 and the first two partners split this between them. If, and when, a fourth partner joins them, their payment of £25,000 is then split between the three owners.

Fractional rental

One or more people rent the property for several non-continuous weeks a year. The owner often doesn’t want to holiday let, but wants to generate some income and to ensure the property is kept in use.

Some numbers help to illustrate how this might work. For example a £100,000 property might let for £200/week in the low season, £300 in the mid season and £400/week in the high season. The owner looks for a partner that is looking for a holiday home for 12 weeks a year, split between the three seasons. If this was a straightforward holiday let, this would cost £3600 per year.

Most owner/holiday lettings company give a good discounts for this many bookings, but between £2000 and £3000 a year is reasonable for the 12 weeks. Usually this kind of arrangement is agreed annually, with all or most of the payment up front. Generally the weeks are not fixed (although the number in each season should be defined in the contract), but agreed once a year for the following year.

Timeshare

One or more people rent the property for one or more weeks a year and pay for the right to do this for several years in advance. This is similar to fractional rental, except all the rent is paid in advance.

Taking the example above, instead of (say) paying £3000 per year, they may pay £10,000 in advance for the right to use the property for 12 weeks a year for 5 years, or maybe £30,000 for the right to use it for 25 years.

Commercial timeshares are generally sold for periods of one to three weeks a year, and there are usually annual management/maintenance fees. There are strict laws on selling timeshare in many countries because, amongst other issues, the timeshare purchaser has to know that the property will be available and properly maintained for the contract duration. In general, I would advise private holiday home owners to avoid the timeshare model: this is why I rarely mention timeshare. However last week I had several questions about possible sharing arrangements which were effectively timeshare. There are many well run commercial timeshare schemes; I just don’t think it works for private holiday homes.

Sharing a holiday home is a great solution if you can’t justify the cost of full ownership and don’t want to holiday let. Finding like-minded partners, discussing and agreeing everything, getting advice, writing the contracts and dealing with the purchases, can easily take a year, or two, or more. If the property is a long term investment, this is fine for many people; they are looking for long term partners. But if holiday home owners need to raise capital fast or are struggling to pay a mortgage, sharing is less likely to be the solution.

I should make it clear that I am not a professional legal, financial, tax or property advisor. The laws on ownership, finance, tax and property vary enormously from country to country and if you are considering sharing property or any other major asset, you must get independent professional legal, financial, tax and property advice. And I mean “must”. Even within any one country there will be several entirely different ways of setting up an arrangement each with advantages and disadvantages. The best solution will depend upon all the partners’ particular personal circumstances. Sharing is very cost effective, but you do need to invest time and money into ensuring that the arrangement is properly set up.

Daily Mail – How you can live like a millionaire… without spending a fortune!

sophie — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:39:33 +0000

There was a great piece in Saturday’s Daily Mail about fractional living with a good mention of various sharing arrangements. Two yours2share members were interviewed and it explained how private syndicates work and the benefits. I couldn’t have written it better if I’d tried.

Many thanks to the two members, Graham Price and Bill Hosie: to the author, Steve Boggan; and toPiers Brown of Fractional Life for putting Steve in touch with me..

As a result we had thousands of extra visitors on Saturday, some interesting new ads were posted and it’s taken me all morning to answer all the questions which people have asked us. Fantastic!