Understanding wealthy people and their real estate needs.
Launching today, Pacaso – how many great names were passed over for this? – wants rich people to buy expensive second homes – and then share them with other owners.
VRBO meets time-shares, except that nobody actually likes staying in temporary spaces. It turns out there really is no place like home.
People hate sharing their most intimate spaces. They hate sharing driveways, for goodness sakes! I find it hugely implausible that any significant fraction of one-percenters will buy a second home to share with strangers.
PRNewswire: Pacaso Launches to Create New Category of Second Home Ownership; Secures $267 Million in Funding
The website: A better way to buy and own a second home.
Sorry, Spencer: My read is that this is the very worst iBuying idea I have heard so far. Prove me wrong.
Thomas Johnson says:
How much personal money is Spencer sharing to launch this?
October 1, 2020 — 9:38 am
Greg Swann says:
It’s actually only $17 million invested, The other $250 million is lines of credit, like Zillow.
Your buddy Cowboy Slim is involved. I saw his job announcement on LinkedIn.
October 1, 2020 — 9:52 am
Brian Brady says:
At least with a timeshare, you get a deed. It seems like you get a certificate of membership in an LLC with Pacaso.
It’s a great deal for Pacaso if the sum of the parts > whole. It’s a fair deal for customers if the Managing Member never goes out of business
October 1, 2020 — 11:26 am
Greg Swann says:
We’re not seeing the trickiness part. It’s not and #iBuyer play unless there is a secret sauce that cheats any number of unsuspecting parties, to the chortling delight of the cheating poindexters.
Moreover: Residing and investing are two different economic acts; they mix poorly.
And: A getaway home in Phoenix is useful year-round, almost. Who wants the time-slice of the ski chalet at strawberry picking time? Who wants that Cape Cod rambler when the Noreasters come? Other than the very, very rich, who wants to “summer” in the same house every year?
If you can eke out a profit, your business is a success. But this idea will work about as well as any other high-concept real estate sale: It will sell to people who like being sold to.
October 1, 2020 — 12:00 pm
Brian Brady says:
“It will sell to people who like being sold to.”
I think I was trying to say that nicely.
My first mortgage sales manager came from the timeshare biz. I told him I toured Orange Tree in Scottsdale and was considering a purchase there. His comment was. “Timeshares are great to sell, horrible to buy”.
October 1, 2020 — 12:30 pm
Greg Swann says:
What makes Ci so valuable, where it is, is its extreme self-isolation into abstract realms. What makes it pernicious, everywhere else, is its extreme self-isolation from objective reality.
So take note: There are precisely ZERO known organisms that share happily outside of storgic relationships. Only a full on geek could not know this.
October 1, 2020 — 1:03 pm