Everyone is looking forward to their next vacation. This is good and can be a recipe for burnout. And make no mistake. People are back on vacation now that Covid is in the rearview mirror. In fact, Valupenguin's research shows that more than half of Americans are planning a trip in the near future. However, deciding where to live can be difficult. For many people, co-ownership of vacations offers an attractive option.
What makes it so hard to find the perfect weekend? Despite the proliferation of sites like Airbnb and VRBO, it's not always easy to find affordable housing in the best locations. Many travelers end up feeling like they weren't getting the best accommodations for their money. As a result, many individuals and families are considering buying a vacation property or looking for a vacation home
Get some rest... without breaking the bank!
However, there are problems with both of these solutions.
Investing in a house, apartment, bungalow or cabin in a resort town can be expensive. This is why many people rent out their properties for vacations. Unfortunately, the most favorable time for renting is the most popular time of year. As a result, many owners let their vacation homes go during the peak season.
Timeshares are not necessarily a good choice, which is why so many people are flocking to download timeshares. While the prices for timeshares may seem low up front, they are very limited.
Also, timeshares only "own" their own time. They don't actually invest in real estate. Therefore, they cannot take advantage of timeshares, making them a poor choice for novice investors.
Then what should individuals and couples who want to vacation on the same vacation do? Series entrepreneur Matt Williamson asked himself the same question a few years ago. The answer became the forerunner of his start-up company, Plum Ownership.
The simple way to own a vacation property
Williamson created the plumes to get tourists to ask, "Where are we supposed to be?" The trailer is permanently under a co-ownership agreement. Co-ownership is exactly what it sounds like. Several individuals or couples buy property together.
For example, four friends might want to buy a beach cottage separately. However, each friend can only buy a house up to $250,000, not close enough to hear the waves, let alone a good view.
But if they team up, they have the power to buy properties listed in the $1 million range. If they invested in such a luxury property, they could save money and spend 13 weeks a year there.
Not only do they share ownership of the property, but they also own a place to live in their favorite place. And they own the property directly instead of paying a third party for their time.
To be fair, co-ownership is not a new concept. In fact, there are over 2 million vacation rentals in condos, but this may seem daunting to groups interested in buying a vacation home.
After all, there are many considerations, including how to form a co-ownership group, find the right real estate agent, and create a fair use plan. The platform, the brainchild of Williamson, Plum, aims to remove the biggest barriers to co-ownership, making vacation property ownership viable for those interested.
Plum's approach to simplifying co-ownership of vacation properties
Powered by pioneering technology, Plum serves as a stepping stone for aspiring co-owners to realize their vacation home dreams.
Individuals can create a free plum account to start their journey. If they don't have a group in mind, they can advertise that other real estate investors are participating. When a group is created through Plum, the site's intuitive system guides the group through the co-ownership process.
Below are some of the advantages for co-owners using Plum.
1. Through Plum, a co-ownership group can be an LLC.
Instead of hiring outside legal assistance, co-owners have the option of having Plum help them form an LLC. The LLC then becomes the entity that legally owns the property.
LLC support protects individual owners and makes the experience safer and more satisfying. The location of the LLC makes it more efficient to create one transparent bank account for all LLC members.
While Plum recommends that only a few members have access to money transfers, full and transparent access to monthly statements and all transactions should be available to all.
2. Co-owners can outline the products they must own and sell on Plum.
For co-owners of the property, it's important to outline everything from house rules to maintenance schedules. The sooner this happens, the fewer surprises there will be in the long run.
The Plum System guides the team through the process of negotiating all obligations. The final result is presented in the document. Ideally, paperwork will be created prior to bidding on the holiday property to reduce the possibility of misunderstandings.
3. Associates can take a property or query table with pride.
When Williamson started looking around the condos, he realized that several people already owned vacation properties. But they are interested in dividing the property into shares to reduce monthly mortgage payments, taxes, etc.
Plum allows that owner to find other owners to form a co-owner group. For groups who are not thinking about property, the Plum website offers a property search facility. In addition, Plum can recommend properties to real estate agents and lenders interested in selling to co-ownership groups.
4. Users can rely on Plum for property financial management.
After investing in a property, co-ownership groups have many reasons to keep the property running smoothly.
Plum made sure of this by including a reserve fund in his initial financial projections. Each month the co-owners pay a fixed amount to the reserve fund. In this way, funds can be increased and can cover general and extraordinary maintenance costs.
Ultimately, the property is in better shape and the co-owners have fewer incidental expenses.
The future is bright for people looking to buy vacation properties
Even though it was just released, Plum received a lot of attention.
Plum recently appeared on the Entrepreneur's Elevator Pitch Show. The result was a $175,000 investment from the former CEO of Netflix. Williamson and his team plan to use the investment dollars to further improve the site's user experience.
At the same time, Plum offers an exciting way for people to finally own a vacation home with less stress. After all, pressure is the opposite of what one has to go through. With Plum, everyone can spend their holidays comfortably in their own home, not just by choice.
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