East Bay Real Estate

The Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco was the host of this years conference ending March 20^th.

Ragatz Associates is an international consulting and marketing research firm that serves the worldwide resort industry.  It was founded in the 1974 by Dr. Richard Ragatz which has now conducted over 2,000 studies for resort developments in over 70 countries and across the United States.  The company provides two core services to the resort industry - feasibility analyses for resort projects and market research for the potential resort project.  Ragatz Associates focuses on consumer shared-ownership of the resort industry, which includes fractional interests, private residence clubs, destination clubs, and resort timeshares.

For the past eight years, Dr. Ragatz and his team host the annual conference which further explores the world of fractional ownership of resort properties.  This year’s conference was in San Francisco from March 18^th - 20^th.  The “whos who” of the resort property world were attending.  It was my pleasure to spend time at the conference and even have the opportunity to interview two of the conference presenters - Sherman Potvin, president of Luxury Fractional Guide, and Bob Waun, the CEO of Vacation Finance.  The conference agenda covered all aspects of the evolving world of fractional ownership for those seeking part time second homes around the world. A sample of the conference agenda follows;

• Today’s Affluent Consumer
• The developers’ view of the upcoming trends - from the Brand developers, Private Residence Club, and Independent fractional ownership developers.
• Fractionalizing “One-Off” homes - creating a fractional ownership for one residence.
• The external exchange companies
• Structuring the most proper offering of the fractional ownership product.
• The owners benefits and the required ancillary services.
• Critical legal issues in the fractional ownership industry.
• Financing fractionals in today’s wild financial market place.

For a copy of Dr. Ragatz 2008 report click here.  I believe the cost for those who did not attend the conference is $175. Please contact me if you like more information about what Fractional Ownership is about, or, if you are a developer, how you can maximize your return by creating a fractional ownership structure for your resort projects.  Until next time…

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