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Launch HN: Ancana (YC S21) – Fractional ownership of vacation homes

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Re: Launch HN: Ancana (YC S21) – Fractional ownership of vacation homes

#71

Post by atlasunshrugged »

rblack44 wrote: post #34
dewski wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pacaso allows you to purchase more than 1/8 of a residence, you can purchase as many 1/8 shares as you like. So in theory you could easily purchase 1/4 of a residence. Pacaso is also purchasing homes that are not yet built, for instance they’ve purchased two homes in North Lake Tahoe that are actively being developed. I am a 1/8 shareholder of a property in North Lake Tahoe through Pacaso and I love the model. Best o…

We're fans of what Pacaso is doing. If nothing else they are proving out the market for this type of ownership model. Congrats on the home, I grew up an hour from Tahoe and have always dreamed of buying a home up there!

Where an hour from Tahoe? I lived in Gardnerville for a chunk of my childhood

Re: Launch HN: Ancana (YC S21) – Fractional ownership of vacation homes

#72

Post by rblack44 »

mbesto wrote: post #59

I'm your target market as I'm currently investigating this with 3 other friends. Honestly, I wouldn't trust a commoditized service for this. It requires honest discussions with friends, a trusted lawyer and a trusted accountant. I want to personally know the parties I'm dealing with because often times disputes can be handled with gentlemen agreements or through those trusted contacts.

Friends and family have been entering into these type of agreements for years. If you have a group that agrees on the same property we think that's awesome. Our solution isn't for everyone. But we are trying to make this co-ownership opportunity available to everyone. Especially those who want to invest in a property but don't have a group to go in with them.

In terms of disputes, we agree that most can be handled through simple communication. Our platform allows for this. Many of our owners like the idea of having Ancana there to act as a go-between for issues that do arise and to set rules that everyone can agree to.

Good luck with your home buying adventure! What areas are you looking at?

Re: Launch HN: Ancana (YC S21) – Fractional ownership of vacation homes

#73

Post by rblack44 »

benatkin wrote: post #66
mbesto wrote: post #59

I'm your target market as I'm currently investigating this with 3 other friends. Honestly, I wouldn't trust a commoditized service for this. It requires honest discussions with friends, a trusted lawyer and a trusted accountant. I want to personally know the parties I'm dealing with because often times disputes can be handled with gentlemen agreements or through those trusted contacts.

Also using an automatic scheduling system like the one described to set up the dates when there's only a handful of fractional owners doesn't make sense to me either. Information about individual preferences should be gathered.

This is great feedback, perhaps our explanation wasn't clear. The scheduling system isn't automatic, each owner has the flexibility to book stays whenever they'd like (the booking window is 2 days to 1 year out). What we try to do is make sure that each co-owner gets access to the property on the dates that matter most to them. To accomplish this we give each owner the ability to select their priority dates before the general booking window opens

Re: Launch HN: Ancana (YC S21) – Fractional ownership of vacation homes

#74

Post by fuzzer37 »

rblack44 wrote: post #60
hifriends wrote: post #17

My family owns 1/4 of a vacation house through an LLC. Some issues that come to mind are: - Can an owner rent out their time? Who gets the rent money? How much is reserved for maintenance because renting will incur higher maintenance costs. - What happens if one owner can’t carry their weight on taxes or insurance? Our house is beach house so insurance is ridiculous — we rent it out during the summer to cover it and…

Thanks for sharing! The co-ownership model has been around for a while, but usually has been limited to friends & family. Really great feedback on some of the challenges you've faced. - Rentals: this is property dependent. Some of our homes are located in communities that have explicit rules regarding short term rentals. For homes not governed by these rules, the owners are free to vote on whether they'd like to allo…

> For other upgrades, the owners put it up to a vote

2 vote for, 2 vote against. What now? All of the examples you listed are even splits (2 vs. 2 or 4 vs 4). Who resolves a dispute in the case of a tie?

Re: Launch HN: Ancana (YC S21) – Fractional ownership of vacation homes

#75

Post by fuzzer37 »

DonHopkins wrote: post #54
rblack44 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My bad, I think I misinterpreted your question! Each home has a reserve fund that is paid into by all co-owners. For standard fixes/improvements, Ancana will handle the work and pay for it out of the reserve fund. If a co-owner stops paying their monthly fees, they are in violation of the real estate contract and liable to forfeit their ownership in the home. Similar to someone defaulting on their mortgage.

What is unique and refreshing about your pitch is that you're using contracts, but you don't use the blockchain! The environment thanks you, and you don't automatically sound like a charlatan shilling a get-rich-quick pyramid scheme. And you used a nice word like "bananas" to aptly describe the US housing market instead of cussing.

> you don't automatically sound like a charlatan shilling a get-rich-quick pyramid scheme

Well they don't automatically, but this is still very clearly just a shady timeshare ad.

Re: Launch HN: Ancana (YC S21) – Fractional ownership of vacation homes

#76

Post by rblack44 »

benatkin wrote: post #67
rblack44 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One way to look at this is unlike a timeshare, Ancana has no ownership interest in the property. Resorts own the property and sell you access to that property. At the point all of the shares are sold, we become property managers. You don't have to sell the share back to us like you do with timeshares - in fact, we don't purchase shares back. You are free to list your fraction with an agent of your choosing or sell to…

It's already a thing, though. "Fractional ownership" is a mouthful. I would probably call it a "timeshare" unless I needed to be specific, when I'd call it a "fractional ownership timeshare". https://luxuryfractionalguide.com/fractional-ownership-vs-ti...

Right, the fractional ownership model has been around for decades. We are making it more accessible and streamlining an otherwise complicated process.

As you can see from this thread, the assumption by many is that we are a new take on a timeshare. But like your linked article demonstrates, there are many important differences between fractional ownership and timeshares. So while it rolls off the tongue easier, we want to distance ourselves as much as possible from a timeshare. Appreciate the feedback, we'll continue to refine how we talk about our model!

Re: Launch HN: Ancana (YC S21) – Fractional ownership of vacation homes

#77

Post by rblack44 »

atlasunshrugged wrote: post #71
rblack44 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're fans of what Pacaso is doing. If nothing else they are proving out the market for this type of ownership model. Congrats on the home, I grew up an hour from Tahoe and have always dreamed of buying a home up there!

Where an hour from Tahoe? I lived in Gardnerville for a chunk of my childhood

oh nice! I grew up in El Dorado Hills, off of Highway 50

Re: Launch HN: Ancana (YC S21) – Fractional ownership of vacation homes

#78

Post by rblack44 »

nicklo wrote: post #25

Your testimonial section of "happy customers" are just the stock headshot photos from this wix template. It's probably safe to assume that the testimonials themselves are fake as well? I'd suggest removing this section entirely as it comes off as dishonest and misleading.

Thanks for the feedback, this is an embarrassing oversight and was not meant to mislead. The testimonials are from actual Ancana buyers but we did use the Wix stock photos. Andres and I are non-technical founders and tried our best to stand up this Wix site as quickly as possible while we worked to develop a new website. Getting customer photos is a challenge, but we should not have made it look like these were our actual buyers. I've removed them while we fix this and apologize for the misrepresentation. And it won't happen again.

Re: Launch HN: Ancana (YC S21) – Fractional ownership of vacation homes

#79

Post by [deleted] »

rblack44 wrote: post #40
thiscatis wrote: post #4

If it looks like a timeshare and smells like a timeshare, it’s a timeshare. If there’s no secondary free market to sell these “fractional ownerships” it’s just forced rent I can’t resell.

One way to look at this is unlike a timeshare, Ancana has no ownership interest in the property. Resorts own the property and sell you access to that property. At the point all of the shares are sold, we become property managers. You don't have to sell the share back to us like you do with timeshares - in fact, we don't purchase shares back. You are free to list your fraction with an agent of your choosing or sell to…

[deleted]

Re: Launch HN: Ancana (YC S21) – Fractional ownership of vacation homes

#80

Post by atlasunshrugged »

rblack44 wrote: post #77
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where an hour from Tahoe? I lived in Gardnerville for a chunk of my childhood

oh nice! I grew up in El Dorado Hills, off of Highway 50

Ha funny, small world. Well best of luck with everything!
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