Timeshare Cali between friends?

[Ambler]

Yep
Always someone who knows someone who knew a friends, uncles, brothers pal who had a negative experience.

Very clever. I actually know the guy quite well and made the mistake of asking how it was going. Received a long tirade. Enough to put me off any such arrangement.

Do you share ownership with others?

 

[soulstyledevon]

Very clever. I actually know the guy quite well and made the mistake of asking how it was going. Received a long tirade. Enough to put me off any such arrangement.

Do you share ownership with others?

Re-read the post from top to bottom and you will answer your own question

 

[soulstyledevon]

With all the talk of owning second cars etc. I thought this would be an interesting thread to resurrect.

I recently met with my friend who is in a shared syndicate for a canal boat. One of the couples has decided they want to leave the syndicate. They are soon to retire and have enjoyed the boat so much, they are having a brand new bespoke one made next year. They plan to use and live on it 4-5months of the year, so obviously need their own boat.

So I asked what happens now...?
I'm told the other two couples have the opportunity to buy the remaining share between them or by themselves. Or they can look for another investor to buy in at market value.
As it happens, they have all decided to keep for another season, then sell the boat. Which means they have had the use of this boat for 6 years and each couple had the lions share at the top of the list for first pick of weeks they wanted the vessel.

I'm told they have had the boat valued and once sold next year the money from
sale will be split 3 ways.
My friend said all in all, it's been a great experience and a great way to own a high ticket item. Most importantly, it saved them having to invest large sums of cash in what's nothing more than a luxury.

I love the look and idea of an airstream trailer for longer trips. But wouldn't want to dump £60-70k into one. A shared syndicate and investment of say £15k would be a better idea in my opinion, especially as it's something I would possibly only use a couple of times a year.

 

[Hotel California]

You could go on a journey to the other side of the world....

https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/three-month-swap-our-cali-in-nz-for-yours-in-uk.16437/

 

[Niborn]

With all the talk of owning second cars etc. I thought this would be an interesting thread to resurrect.

I recently met with my friend who is in a shared syndicate for a canal boat. One of the couples has decided they want to leave the syndicate. They are soon to retire and have enjoyed the boat so much, they are having a brand new bespoke one made next year. They plan to use and live on it 4-5months of the year, so obviously need their own boat.

So I asked what happens now...?
I'm told the other two couples have the opportunity to buy the remaining share between them or by themselves. Or they can look for another investor to buy in at market value.
As it happens, they have all decided to keep for another season, then sell the boat. Which means they have had the use of this boat for 6 years and each couple had the lions share at the top of the list for first pick of weeks they wanted the vessel.

I'm told they have had the boat valued and once sold next year the money from
sale will be split 3 ways.
My friend said all in all, it's been a great experience and a great way to own a high ticket item. Most importantly, it saved them having to invest large sums of cash in what's nothing more than a luxury.

I love the look and idea of an airstream trailer for longer trips. But wouldn't want to dump £60-70k into one. A shared syndicate and investment of say £15k would be a better idea in my opinion, especially as it's something I would possibly only use a couple of times a year.

I think it's a great idea , but there is also probably a hybrid possibility between hire out and owning a share . Floating time , whereby you buy weeks over a specified number of years to use in red white or blue time ( high mid low ) and then the person who funds the Cali gets to own it but recoup some costs with hire but to known trusty people , say in this group . 6 weeks mid may cost just 2000 , much less then hire ( depreciation and maintence etc ) and a great way for someone to get the long term Cali experience and the owner could recoup some money by hire out say 26 weeks . A business could also depreciation the van and claim back the vat . Wouldn't suit everyone but some , like me would go for it as an owner and maybe renter .

 

[Philip]

It was my dream to own a Cali since my early 20s , took me almost 20y more to actually own one....
Only one i share it with is my wife....and our dog

Understand your POV but as an example we could be ideal sharing partners because:
- we live 10 km apart
- I only need it mainly during school holidays the next 2-3 years and from your reports I can see you're travelling outside school holidays

Just a question of working things out in fact...

 

[Gavinskii]

I've got a friend with a PPL who has been in a syndicate with 5 others for the last 6 years. Due to a shift in career and family commitments he advertised his share on flying orientated websites / forums and found a buyer fairly easily.
He was telling me that he hadn't flown much in the preceding two years. From what I understand, none of the syndicate really knew each other, but were all within striking distance of the airfield / hangar. They worked out a formula of fixed costs. E.g. hanger rental, insurance, air worthiness certification etc. Then they used an online diary to pre-book dates for use and there was a cost for engine hours flown. For example fly to Le Touquet 90mins each way (total 3hrs), but do this over a long weekend which was part of your allocated time.
I don't believe they had any major issues with the syndicate and this example must be a lot harder than for a California!
Nice idea that I think has some merit. Though better IMHO if you don't do it with friends, just associates through the syndicate.

 

[Hotel California]

@Philip , all thru but still a no-go
It's something we should concider doing more in the future: sharing houses,cars....but i think my generation (born in the 70's ) is not ready for this .
The generation born about 2000 i think got a diffrent view , now the younger got a whole other view on things , don't dream of owning a house or a car , we were looking out to our 18th birthday soo bad so we could get a driverslicence , now young people don't bother and wait until over 20...

 

[JohnnyP]

Settle down, settle down! Some pampas grass growing on those driveways in Caliland by the sound of it.

Seriously though, I think this is a quite interesting idea and the notion of ceasing to own expensive assets but instead paying for use each time is the way a lot of things are going. How far they will go in any particular domain will depend on various factors but the development of a tech-enabled (probably app-enabled) business model will be crucial (just because we can't imagine what that will look like for 'Cali-share' is no matter - few people saw Airbnb or Uber coming either).

We on this forum membership are obviously predominantly people who already have a Cali, and who therefore by definition can afford one, and I'd predict that as a group we'd tend to be resistant to the idea of sharing our pride and joy (I have to admit I would). So T4WFA you're probably asking the opinions of the wrong bunch! Run your idea past a bunch of twenty-somethings who couldn't at this stage of their economic lives afford to own a £50k van outright... and if they're urban hipsters they have nowhere to park one either.

Although they might be more excited by a Bay-share than a T6-share scheme.

It could be called a T6 Splity,
You are right, I would have been all ears to this idea while saving up to buy one but now we have the van the disadvantages of sharing are exaggerated

 

[motacyclist]

Probably best to share with people who are not friends as there may be disagreements along the way that could spoil personal relationships.

 

[Niborn]

Probably best to share with people who are not friends as there may be disagreements along the way that could spoil personal relationships.

I think its everyone will have their own view on this and somewhere there will exist a compromise , which is a formula which would work for most people. Its a huge depreciating ( even if not very fast ) asset for most people to leave parked up and such a scheme offers scale benefits, not only utilisation but also the group could enjoy things which as individuals they may not go for. For example we have been talking in another thread about tyres for Lapland ( studded ) these and other things like 4 motion would be a relatively tiny cost when shared. I am positive that a formula could be found my only concern would be that the vehicle would be cared for 100% well when out on use and any problems were not left to the next person to sort , or everyone signs up to pay for someone to sort problems. Maybe when I get my 2017 4 motion DSG 204 with all extras I will present a formula and ask who would be interested , for my part I am almost never wanting to use it in school holidays as I always avoid those times. I would also like the other people involved to be nearish Kent / South East , so we could easily meet if need be . Or possibly English people in the South of France where I have a holiday home. Id be interested to hear from anyone who would like to generally chat about this idea more.

 

[sidepod]

Surely it depends on how much you use it and when. We use ours on average 20 weekends per year so it wouldn't be my choice. Also I'm too anal about stuff so I couldn't share it with anyone, I'd be clenched all the time.

Is it not easier/cheaper just to rent when you need one as opposed to committing to a syndicate?

 

[Niborn]

Surely it depends on how much you use it and when. We use ours on average 20 weekends per year so it wouldn't be my choice. Also I'm too anal about stuff so I couldn't share it with anyone, I'd be clenched all the time.

Is it not easier/cheaper just to rent when you need one as opposed to committing to a syndicate?

I see your point of view , I agree it wouldn't suit everyone this idea , I think someone else posted it depends what one is familar with as well . I reckon I get the time I want for about 1/3rd of the cost and have a new model every two or three years , I guess total costs including insurance and depreciation and services would be around £2500/-+ person a year , based on three people contracting in ...I could not hire for that price around an average 17 mixed weeks a year. That's great value and might suit some.