Fractional Ownership

East Bay Real Estate Blog Site Owner Selected By Viscape University For October 6th Teleconference!

Viscape University has booked renown bloggers Jim Walberg – EastBayRealEstate.com, and Jim Cronin – RealEstateTomato.com to moderate their teleconference on October 6th!

Remember… a Blog = A citizen journalist writing about things they are noticing or personally experiencing and sharing those with the world through the internet.  Viscape is the world’s first social marketplace to rent or buy vacation properties on-line!  Because it is a social network focused on vacation destinations they also provide a blogging forum for world travelers to share their stories and resources.  One of the services they provide their Internet marketplace is Viscape University.  This is their education division that focuses on practical topics for world travelers who are interested in rentals and vacation property purchases.  On October 6^th at 9PM EST they are hosting another one hour seminar.  The topic is Blogging and how it can be THE tool one uses for many purposes, but specifically how to use it as an additional profitable marketing tool for your business.

Because of the success of EastBayRealEstate.com, and RealEstateTomato.com’s blog sites Viscape have arranged for the owners of these businesses to be the moderators of a one hour teleconference on this topic.  Jim Cronin and I will be the contributors as we share our experience of how blogging can be the most effective tool possible to connect with people who are looking for the services you are providing.

Jim Cronin’s internet site – RealEstateTomato.com, is built to be a “hub” to assist the real estate community to better understand how to embrace blogging as the center of their marketing efforts.  He recently launched Tomato University,  serving the needs of the blogging world.   Jim moved to California in the mid 90’s as the Senior Internet Marketing Consultant for Z57 Inc. from 2000 – 2006.  He then had the idea of creating a method where he could share his incredible strategies regarding blogging as a marketing profit center for real estate businesses, and RealEstateTomato.com was launched.  Jim has helped thousands of Realtors gain a superior Internet presence by using the tool of blogging on their websites.

No matter if you have been checking out my EastBayRealEstate.com site for the last year, or you just found us, we have become the real estate resource center for the San Francisco Bay Area, with thousands of visitors using our real estate services and information.  And, our readership continues to grow daily.  Our blog site has also evolved into being your Bay Area lifestyle information center with ME – for better or worse,  as your on-site detective letting you know about the stuff I am discovering each day in this place I love so much.  Not only is EastBayRealEstate.com a resource center for Bay Area real estate, we also assist those who want to purchase a piece of their Caribbean paradise as a second or third home.  At CaribbeanIslandsRealty.com  we represent real estate opportunities from Aruba to the British Virgin Islands.  Check it out!

So…if you want to discover the rules and strategies of blogging as a very profitable marketing tool for your business – whether it is for real estate or for any enterprise, check out this FREE teleconference on October 6^th.  RSVP to RSVP@viscape.com  by October 3rd in order to get the call-in information.  Today you can start posting your questions that you would like addressed during our time together.  Contact me if you have further questions.  Until next time…your Bay Area lifestyle detective remains on duty!

Fractional Ownership

Ragatz Associates Presents It’s 2008 Worldwide Fractional Interest Conference!

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…