With regard to Ritz-Carlton private residence clubs, is pre-construction pricing usually the lowest the price for a property, even better than resale prices?

I'd have to say absolutely, unequivocally, yes. Private residence clubs are typically built in upscale markets where real estate values are escalating rapidly, making it less feasible for an investor to shell out the money to purchase an entire vacation home when he might only use it 30 days or so a year. That is why fractionals (which is just another name for private residence clubs) make so much sense. Now if you figure that a property will take anywhere from 1-3 years to sell out of all of the developers units, the property will likely have already had a few years of appreciation figured in to resale prices. Now just last week I had an investor asking me about resales in the Ritz-Carlton in Aspen. I deduced that he was asking because he was looking for something inexpensive. My advice to him resulted in a sale to him at a different club at a price that saved him between $60,000-$80,000. Best of all, by acting quickly, he purchased his unit prior to the price increase which was about to take place. How far in advance does Ritz let people know where the new properties are going? I don't know the answer to this. However, I would imagine that their authorized agents, like my company for instance, will know far in advance of the general public as we are frequently in touch with our sales consultants at their existing four clubs. If you are seriously considering a purchase at any of the Ritz-Carlton Clubs, it is better to move forward now than later. When additional clubs are added, prices will be increased as, through their exchange program, each unit in all of their locations becomes more valuable.

The above question was submitted via e-mail by a visitor to www.condohotelcenter.com. The answer was prepared by Joel Greene, a licensed real estate broker with Condo Hotel Center which specializes in the sale of condo hotel units and fractional ownerships in private residence clubs.