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Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Home Ownership, The Sharing Economy And Luxury Travel Converge
In an era when luxury consumers are rethinking ownership, travel, and lifestyle experiences, few innovators have captured this shift as effectively as Austin Allison. The co-founder and CEO of Pacaso (pronounced like 'Picasso') isn't just reshaping the second home market—he's redefining what it means to belong somewhere. Allison, who previously founded Dotloop, spotted the inefficiencies of traditional second homeownership long before remote work, rising home prices, and multi-generational travel changed the game. 'Most second homes are used just five weeks a year,' he explained during our recent call. 'That creates a lot of problems—empty homes, affordability challenges, and economic drag on local businesses.' Co-Ownership As The Next Wave In Luxury Travel Pacaso's model is elegantly simple: take a high-end second home, divide it into shares, and allow buyers to purchase the amount of ownership they'll realistically use—typically one-eighth. Unlike timeshares, this is real estate ownership via a dedicated LLC. Each co-owner holds a deeded interest. Pacaso manages the experience from A to Z, including design, furnishing, cleaning, property management, scheduling, and resale. The model works because it blends tech, trust, and timing. A proprietary app called SmartStay ensures equitable distribution of peak, off-peak, and holiday time. 'It's essentially a shared calendar, backed by rules and algorithms,' Allison says. 'If someone wants more control over dates, they can buy a quarter share instead of an eighth.' The result is a seamless blend of flexibility and luxury—ideal for the family that wants to spend a few weeks a year in Aspen or Palm Springs, without the headache (or expense) of owning 100% of the home. Applying Fractional Jet Share For Luxury Homes If this reminds you of fractional jet ownership, it should. 'NetJets is Picasso for planes,' Allison says. 'Or, you could say, Pacaso is NetJets for luxury homes.' Whereas NetJets sells time in flight hours, Pacaso's ownership equates to weeks on the ground. The average 1/8 share gives you about six weeks a year in your chosen destination—whether that's Florence, Paris, or Scottsdale. And if you only want to use two of those weeks? Pacaso's new 'Swap' program lets you trade time in your home for time in someone else's—enabling global, luxury home exchange without the traditional headaches of peer-to-peer swaps. Serving the New Luxury Consumer According to Allison, the ideal Pacaso buyer uses their second home more than once a year, but less than six months. That sweet spot—between vacation rental and full-time residence—is where most aspirational second-home buyers live. Even high-net-worth buyers are opting in. 'We have billionaires who could afford the whole home, but they prefer co-ownership because it's more efficient, sustainable, and hassle-free,' says Allison. 'They just show up, take their things out of the owner's closet, and enjoy.' All maintenance costs are proportionally distributed, and everything is managed through the Pacaso app. Owners never see a repair invoice or property tax bill. It's a turnkey approach for a generation of luxury consumers who value experience over excess. International Growth and the Next Chapter Pacaso's growth strategy now includes aggressive international expansion. New homes are launching in Florence, Milan, the Caribbean, and more destinations across Mexico and Europe. The U.S. still dominates the portfolio, but Allison sees tremendous demand from U.S.-based buyers seeking vacation homes abroad. The Swap feature is also a major strategic focus. 'We only launched it a few quarters ago, and it's growing fast,' says Allison. Enhancements are on the way to make the experience even more seamless—an important factor as luxury travelers continue to seek more authentic, immersive stays. Tapping Into Broader Trends The Pacaso model aligns with three major luxury travel trends Allison believes are here to stay: Co-Ownership Has Gone Mainstream Pacaso isn't a startup playing in a niche. It's a brand riding the tailwinds of powerful cultural and economic forces—remote work, digital nomadism, and experiential living. The company's platform turns what used to be a dream—owning a second (or third) home—into something practical and accessible, without sacrificing luxury. As one of those luxury-minded travelers myself, I get it. I've looked at Aspen. I've rented in Scottsdale. I understand the appeal—and the math—of Pacaso's model. And as the brand continues to scale globally and deepen its tech-enabled concierge experience, it just might become as recognizable in the travel world as NetJets is in the sky. Stay tuned for what's next. Because this is not just about homes—it's about the evolution of luxury itself.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
North Jersey broker challenges 'outdated' real estate brick-and-mortar office requirements
Signing paper contracts and filling file cabinets with physical records are likely things of the past for most people. And one North Jersey-based broker says the requirement for brick-and-mortar real estate offices should be, too. Derek Eisenberg is the founder of Continental Real Estate Group Inc., a national online brokerage based in Hackensack that offers a la carte real estate services. He is currently in the midst of legal battles against real estate commission officials in the states of Nevada and West Virginia, where he said the rules requiring brokerages to have physical office spaces is "outdated" and simply adds unnecessary costs for his expanding business. "All of our records are electronic," he said. "We don't come into our office to write up a contract. Everything is done with DocuSign or Dotloop or ZipForms online. There's no paperwork done in the office anymore, and basically we never go into these offices." Overall, Eisenberg said, he began focusing on online-first services in 1999 as a result of the dot-com boom. He said his business provides sellers the option to pay for just the services they want at a discounted price, rather than requiring them to work fully with an agent and pay all the typical fees. In what is often referred to as the flat-fee industry, Eisenberg said, the business operates on a model in which clients pay anywhere from about $75 to $245, depending on the services they need, as well as a 0.25% fee at the time of closing. He said the primary clientele is do-it-yourselfers — people who are willing to work with a real estate agent but want to be in more control of the listing, and those looking to sell as "For Sale by Owner," but who need some guidance. "They come to us for the marketing aspect, which is the MLS," he said, referring to the Multiple Listing Service. "Then they can subscribe to as little services as they want. They can get a basic listing with six photographs and just put them in the MLS, or they can get a very detailed level of service where we will negotiate and basically do everything that a local agent would do short of putting the key in the door. "The only thing we won't do is open it for showings or inspections, but we'll get on the phone or email and do whatever a local agent would do as far as negotiating the deal and setting up stuff goes,' Eisenberg said. He said the brokerage's services include selling lawn signs and lockboxes, scheduling open houses, a texting system that notifies owners anytime their lockbox is opened for a showing by an agent, and a telephony platform that forwards calls from potential buyers to the client, among other things. Some states do require more services from real estate agents by law, and he said his business offers them in those states. "It occurred to me that if you charge people less money, you could do less work," he said. "My original plan was just to do it in New Jersey. And then I said: Why don't we try this in Pennsylvania and New York? And it just started growing, and it was scalable. So I just kept taking tests and adding more states." He said that collectively, among him, his wife and two other brokers employed at his Hackensack office, they have real estate licenses in 45 states and Washington, D.C. And by the end of the year, they aim to be licensed in all 50 states. As they expanded, Eisenberg said, they ran into the issue that certain states require brokerages to have a physical address within the state in order to be licensed there. That could mean having just an office suite, having a location that is physically staffed during business hours, or having a general address within the state that brokers can provide, depending on the state. Because most of their services can be offered to sellers remotely — with the exception of a few, based on the regulations of certain states — and the fact that most brokerages now handle transactions electronically, rather than with physical copies, he said these regulations are no longer necessary. Nevada and West Virginia are two states that maintain some version of the presence requirement. Eisenberg said he currently pays rent in seven states overall for unused office space under this type of regulation, and he decided to file lawsuits against those two to see if this is a change he's able to make in today's digital-first world. As of the end of March, Eisenberg said, they had submitted an opposition to a motion to dismiss from officials in Nevada and are waiting for a response. In West Virginia, he said, they agreed to stay the case because House Bill 2010, if passed, would change the requirement for a brick-and-mortar office. "We keep coming up against all kinds of regulations, and we do whatever it takes to legally get around them, but there isn't anything we can do about the office requirement," he said. "We're going to file in the other states that require this, as well, but first we want to see how we do in these two states." Maddie McGay is the real estate reporter for and The Record, covering all things worth celebrating about living in North Jersey. Find her on Instagram @maddiemcgay, on X @maddiemcgayy, and sign up for her North Jersey Living newsletter. Do you have a tip, trend or terrific house she should know about? Email her at MMcGay@ This article originally appeared on Hackensack broker challenges real estate brick-and-mortar office rule
