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Pacaso, the vacation home co-ownership marketplace, added thousands of new properties into its portfolio of available listings on Tuesday after it lowered the starting price for vacation homes on its platform.
Once catering exclusively to high-income families looking to buy a one-eighth or more shares in a home, Pacaso now offers shares to interested buyers for as low as $130,000, the company told Inman.
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The strategy shift opened up new listings across the country at the same time as the company began offering new services to help more people split their homes with others, Pacaso CEO Austin Allison said.
Austin Allison | CEO of Pacaso
“Today, we’re empowering buyers across the country to identify their own slice of paradise,” Allison said in a statement. “With millions aspiring to own vacation homes, but facing affordability challenges, Pacaso’s co-ownership solution just became more accessible through nationwide expansion, enabling more families to enjoy vacation homeownership.”
Pacaso buys homes in vacation markets, furnishes them, converts them into limited liability companies and sells off shares that allow owners six weeks’ access each year. Buyers can secure up to half of the ownership in the homes.
The company also offers financing at below-market rates, as well as property management services and help with resale.
Several of the lower priced listings on Pacaso’s site are actively listed on a multiple listing service. The company is looking to attract enough interested buyers before it buys the home, converts it and resells it to up to eight owners.
The company has rebuffed criticism that the model is effectively a modern timeshare, pointing out that timeshares are often one of many similar units at a resort and Pacaso homes are individually unique.
The company had previously been focused on proving the concept of modern fractional home ownership by buying only homes that were about twice the price of the median home in communities. But Pacaso co-founder Spencer Rascoff previously told Inman the company could eventually shift to provide access to more price points.
“Many great consumer-first companies, such as Tesla and Uber, begin with an upscale product before expanding into more accessible price points and products,” Rascoff said on Tuesday. “Just as Uber grew from its first luxury product of Uber Black in select U.S. cities before expanding globally with more offerings, Pacaso is now embarking on an exciting expansion phase to revolutionize vacation home ownership across the nation.”
Spencer Rascoff | Co-founder, Pacaso
Pacaso’s growth hasn’t been without difficulties. The company has faced legal battles and fights in communities that have sought to put restrictions on companies that facilitate fractional ownership at the behest of residents who point out high home prices nationwide.
The company has long maintained that its homes are better for communities than whole home vacation ownership, which might sit vacant for more days out of the year.
“With Pacaso, you establish lifelong traditions in a home and community you know intimately and have a long term connection to,” Allison said. “That’s something you don’t get with short-term rentals or other transient travel options.”
In a nod to those who might already own a vacation home but might not be in the market for a Pacaso share, the company also released templates to help convert a home into an LLC to share with others. That template is available for $50, and another template that helps lay out an operating agreement for managing the property is available for $250.
Editor’s Note: An original version of this story said Pacaso had an ownership share for $84,000. That share is for a lease that is being handled by the company. Pacaso’s least expensive listing for an ownership share is $130,000.
