Catching up with Carl - February 2011

Resort sales haven’t recovered, but with a little creativity and
minding the realities of the market, resort product can be
moved. Our acute surgery program at South Carolina’s Dye
Villas resort is paying some dividends. Our developer 'close
out' at $30k per 1/13th + HOA dues for a year + closing costs
+ extras, all cash at $34,650 down from $60k has gotten us 8
closed sales in the past 60 days with the pipeline filling up. We
began this program at the start of the holiday season, so uphill
with our customers to come to the project. We have about 12
other, solid deals in the works. All the buyers are regional to
Myrtle Beach.

We plan to continue this 'close out' through the first quarter.
Here's the scenario: Dye Villas was built and opened in late
2005. It sold very well through early 2008 and then began to
slow and stopped on September 8th of that year.

Not much happened until the spring of 2010 when we became
involved. In the meantime, a 1/12th share had been approved
by the DRE in South Carolina, down from the 1/6 share
previously offered at up to $150k. By 2010, it was down to
$120k, so the $60k for the then amended to 1/13th share was a
good price. But there was no traction, so in November of 2010
we began with the 'close out' plan.

The concern was to: [1] make sales and bring in some cash,
[2] bring in more HOA dues to cover the subsidy and [3] most
importantly, not let the project go stale, to not let it be seen as
old and older inventory although it's been kept in impeccable
condition.

So, what do we know of the recession? Cut, cut and cut the
prices and some prospects will move off center. Not very
clever, but what can work, can work.

We have reconfigured our sales team in the process,
stepped up our relationship selling skills, filled our toolboxes
with contemporary data and figuratively 'married' any prospect
that will raise their hand. We are with them until they 'divorce' us.

At Whit ef ish in Mont ana, it's still hand- to- hand combat to
get decisions made. For every sale we close we lose two that
had deposits and paperwork. For all of 2010, we closed just a
handful.

I’ve previously talked about the turn of the Canadian market,
which used to buy real estate in the U.S. as a hedge to the
Canadian economy. Now, they say the U.S. is worse off than
Canada, so why buy? I’ll be speaking at the London fractional
conference in February, and am interested to see how
European resorts are fairing.