58 | The Resort Owners Group
downsize and sell fractional interests in the future. Buy With Friends • Buy With Friends allows all eight ownership interests to be acquired with family or friends as a group. Each owner receives weeks equivalent to their interest purchased.
All well and good, but how does ROG help clients fund all of this in these straightened times? “Conventional mortgage fi nancing is offered for purchasers of Whole Ownership and Buy With Friends Ownership,” says ROG, and “private mortgage lending is available for purchasers of traditional fractional ownership deals.” And if it all goes wrong, what exit options are available to its buyers? The company lays out the following possibilities: • Owners can opt out of the ROG programme altogether; • ROG “Buy With Friends” owners can sell their unit as a whole unit, either back to ROG or list it with a realtor; • ROG Fractional owners can list and sell their fractional interest to ROG or list it with a realtor; • All ROG owners can “trade-down” their ownership interest to smaller increments (e.g. whole ownership to 1/2, 1/2 to 1/4 or 1/4 to 1/8) or similarly “trade-up” their ownership to larger increments (e.g. 1/8 to 1/4 or 1/4 to 1/2 or 1/2 to whole ownership.)
Of course, it is all very well having a range of fl exible ownership templates, but it is also essential to make sure that the fractional properties you offer are well managed day-to-day and offer high standards of service and maintenance.
ROG and Treasure Coast Rental Management look after their properties on a strict schedule. ROG is based in Toronto and
Treasure Coast is based alongside the development in Port St. Lucie, Florida and the deal is that ROG and Treasure Coast communicate via phone and/or email constantly. Every week Treasure Coast performs full unit cleaning after each guest departs and reports any maintenance that may be required to ROG. Treasure Coast also provides weekly reservation updates to ROG. Once a quarter Treasure Coast also supplies a report on each villa which outlines the revenue achieved, the operational costs incurred and any repairs executed. Once every 6 months an ROG and Treasure Coast representative inspect each villa to report any defi ciencies such as missing furnishings and accessories and to detail any new maintenance work that needs to be done. Once a year Treasure Coast does what ROG describes as a “deep clean” and the company also undertakes satisfaction surveys.
ROG does not do it all on its own
either. It has a number of alliances that include: • Resort2Resort, “an exclusive homeowner exchange network developed by Intrawest, allowing owners to exchange to over 40 properties across Canada, the US, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe.” • CPGA: ROG is the offi cial winter home of the Canadian PGA. This alliance “allows golf professionals and their members to purchase or rent
BUSINESS
at ROG properties, extend their golf season and conduct golf schools in the off season.” • Leisure Link, “which drives rentals to ROG owners through online marketing via portals such as Expedia.” • HiFX, leading foreign exchange partner that “offers our clients better conversion rates than the banks.” • Holland & Knight, which is ROG’s
law fi rm … “which provides the legal structure and closing documents for all owners (Fractional, Whole and Buy With Friends.)”
The sales approach to all this is via an experienced in-house sales team and an on-site sales team at PGA Village who can provide tours as well as execute sales. The company also has some third-party agents around North America and it makes a point of telling potential clients that it only targets products that are either already built or very near completion to avoid delays and disappointment. ROG offers additional consumer protection by holding the purchasers deposit “in trust” in a lawyers account (Adaire Morse) and by providing title insurance to certify clean title (via Treasure Coast Abstract and Title Insurance Co.) The company also makes a point of telling everybody that it is a member of ARDA (the American Resort Development Association) and by reassuring buyers with a 10-day cooling off period.
In order to win, you need to be as
fl exible as possible says ROG. Think laterally and give your client base the reassurance and the options it needs to take the plunge.
The key benefi ts of ROG’s fl exible ownership off erings: Benefi ts and Services
1. Capital appreciation from real ownership 2. Hassle-free purchase
3. Aff ordable ongoing ownership 4. Bulk saving on whole furnishing
5. Reciprocal exchange options with ROG’s network 6. Multiple home usage feature (stacking) 7. Greater rental income from ROG’s alliances
8. Global exchange membership (R2R, Registry Collection) 9. Ability to convert idle weeks in barter 10. Trade up option, from fractional to whole 11. Trade down option, from whole to fractional
Conventional Ownership ✓
www.opp.org.uk | AUGUST 2010
AWARDS 2010
Time is running out fast now if you want to enter The OPP Awards for Excellence 2010. The closing date for entries is 5pm GMT on Thursday August 19th. There should be something for everybody in this year’s revamped scheme which features new categories and an expanded judging panel of industry leaders. This year’s categories are as follows:
1:
Best Developer … overall and by country/region;
2: Best Luxury Developer; 3: Best Aff ordable Developer; 4: Best Eco Development; 5: Best Estate Agent; 6:
Best Financial Service Company;
7: Best Currency Company; 8: Best Mortgage Company; 9: Best Media Brand Overall; 10: Best Property Exhibition; 11: Best Property Magazine; 12: Best Online Service; 13: Fractional Scheme; 14: Fractional Service; 15: Best Innovation; 16: Best Financial Advisor; 17: Best Lawyer; 18: Best Marketing Services; 19: Best Marketing Campaign.
Please put your winning entry together now. Each submission will need to be
ROG Ownership ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
accompanied by a £275 entry fee. OPP editor and judging panel chairman Geoff Hadwick is excited about the scheme’s growth and is currently overseeing the compilation of the judging panel. “OPP is already the world’s leading international forum for property professionals” he says, “and we are determined to invest now in making the OPP Awards for Excellence the most prestigious accolades in the market.” “We want to cover all aspects
of the value chain in overseas property and work hard to ensure that our judging panel helps us to reward and recognise excellence in the industry.” Go to our group web site, www.
opp.org.uk, for more details of this year’s scheme and to fi nd our new online entry form.
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