For many, owning a luxury vacation home is merely a dream. But a potential trend toward what's known as “fractional ownership” could help more folks realize at least a piece of that dream.

Lincoln City is one of the few places in Oregon where those want to can invest in and own one-seventh of a multi-million-dollar home through The Shores @ the Ocean, a development firm owned by Lincoln City resident Gordon McMahon, who launched the project in 2001.

“When I first came to the Oregon coast, I noticed exceptional house overlooking the ocean, but they were just sitting there empty and weathering away,” said McMahon, who brought with him extensive experience developing fractional properties in California. “When I spoke to the owners, they told me that, when they did use the house, they spent most of their vacation time doing maintenance. They never really had time to just relax. It didn't make sense.”

So McMahon began selectively purchasing homes with ocean frontage or overlooking the beach.

He gutted them and restyled them into “top-of-the-line luxury showplaces,” and acquired prime oceanfront lots to build “one-of-a-kind designer homes” to sell on the fractional ownership plan. McMahon decorates and furnishes them lavishly, provides an array of recreational amenities - such as home theatres, pool tables, and spas - and even puts a sporty convertible in the garage of each home.

But The Shores' main selling point, according to McMahan, is putting ownership of such luxury oceanfront homes “within reach of many who might not have believed it possible.”

Multiple buyers purchase deeded shares of a property, usually as tenants-in-common. Properties are generally cared for on a fee basis by a management company, which maintains the property and provides various services. Industry analysts such as Ragatz Associates in Eugene say fractional ownership allows vacation home buyers to leverage their resources, and buy only as much home as they can reasonable use.

McMahon sells one-seventh shares in The Shores homes, and each share ensures that each owner has access to the home a minimum of seven weeks each year. Owners never even need to meet each other.

Quoted from News Times newportnewstimes.com by Terry Dillman