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Clearview Express Broker Referral Program Gains Traction in San Diego

2011-10-24T20:04:39Z

San Diego Luxury Real Estate Conference Success

Team PKI just returned from a very productive trip to the Luxury Real Estate annual conference held at the breathtaking Grand Del Mar in San Diego. CEO’s of the country’s top LRE brokers are buying into the Clearview Express Broker referral program because it simply makes sense. The most productive agents in the most highly regarded firms are beginning to open up to the idea of creating additional out-of-market revenue streams while providing more value to their clients. What makes our program work is ease and transparency.

For years the mystery of how to actively involve the real estate agent community into a successful fractional referral campaign has been a mystery. The mistakes have been aplenty:

Improper assumptions that real estate agents would proactively sell real estate that is sold at a fraction of the cost of their typical multi-million dollar listings
Assumption that agents could learn and embrace the fractional concept in addition to their day to day core business
Inability for the agents to be sure that their referrals would be properly credited to them
Attempts to have agents pay for all or a portion of marketing efforts

We’ll stop there for now, but we could keep going; the CVE Broker referral program fixes those issues.

First and foremost, the quality of second home residence club properties that we deliver is of the upmost importance. These agents are of the highest caliber and won’t even listen if the product isn’t something that those clients in their network would enjoy hearing about. Next, our system is completely transparent, we do this by creating, and paying for, co-branded landing pages that can be used in web links and email blasts. When a new lead requests information from one of these landing pages, the referring agents is immediately and automatically notified.

CVE Broker also provides reports to agents to keep them in the loop on how their referred leads are moving through the sales process.

We provide qualifying agents the opportunity to further increase their competitive advantage by adding more value to their clients. They do this through continued communication of sensible yet very luxurious second home opportunities in second home markets that are of interest to their clients. And oh, by the way, the 3% referral fee isn’t bad either.

PKI Begins New Alliance with Beautiful Places

2011-10-24T16:33:57Z

First up... the Palms Private Residence Club!

What is the most important step in the luxury second home sales process? The prospective buyer must see the property before writing the check. Now, for select clients, PKI has teamed up with uber-luxury vacation home rental purveyor, Beautiful Places, to deliver qualified buyer traffic for The Palms Private Residence Club in Costa Rica.

Beautiful Places holds title to the fastest growing, most upscale luxury vacation rental business in America. Look for PKI properties like The Palms in Costa Rica’s gold coast region to benefit in a big way. Marketing relationships with names like American Express, Costco, Virtuoso and Andrew Harper certainly don’t hurt.

Patrick Smith, CEO of Beautiful Places: “We are very excited to be working with The Palms, Costa Rica’s premier private residence club, and with PKI, the industry leader in structuring, marketing and selling such luxury PRCs. As leaders ourselves in luxury villa rentals in such markets as Sonoma and Napa, Nantucket, France, Italy, Mexico and the Caribbean, BeautifulPlaces is very pleased to be adding Costa Rica to our repertoire as it has been on our radar for some time. We will be working hand-in-glove with PKI and The Palms’ developer to deliver outstanding villa vacations to our guests, many of whom we believe will become owners at The Palms. Moreover, we are looking forward to working with PKI on other luxury boutique properties such as The Palms.”

For properties that don’t already have a built in hotel component with a loyal group of repeat visitors, Beautiful Places can create those loyal guests in the form of savvy and successful luxury villa renters. It would be ridiculous to not partner up and utilize excess developer inventory to replicate the owner experience and spread the word about such a fantastic ownership opportunity.

First See: The Palms at Beautiful-Places.com

Then: Contact us to discuss your development and let’s find out if it’s the right fit for the Beautiful Places rental referral engine.

PKI Adds Ireland's Most Iconic and Historic Retreat!

2011-10-23T15:59:37Z

Adare Manor, a sense of belonging in an historic Irish community

Situated in the heart of Adare Village in County Limerick, Ireland - Adare Manor, a luxury Five Star Hotel and Golf Resort is both steeped in history and surrounded by medieval ruins. Now, PKI will present a new sensible, yet luxurious second home ownership opportunity at the famed property, The Adare Manor Residence Club. Other residence club properties in Ireland are unable to deliver that sense of belonging to an Irish community so desired by many; this is where Adare Manor delivers. Peter Kempf explains it perfectly, "The village of Adare is contiguous to the club property and a short stroll for owners. It is a huge competitive advantage because there is nothing quite like an Irish village with all of its thatched roof buildings, shops, pubs and color."

The award winning Adare Manor, a member of Leading Hotels of the World, is a well established luxury hotel with a strong reputation in the international market, especially the United States. Many of Adare’s guests are loyal, repeat visitors that come to escape and become a part of the fabric of local Irish community. Although it has one of Irelands highest rated golf courses designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr being way more than just a golf resort is a strong competitive advantage for Adare. Sales have been tough at competing Irish residence clubs and it’s no wonder why; without the sense of community, shops and pubs, it’s simply a golf resort and renting just seems more appropriate in that situation.

Adare Manor has a collection of townhomes that are being renovated to the level of luxury that is expected from current Adare Manor guests. Our Executive Vice President, Randy Burgess chimed in on this one, “This opportunity is so exciting for us because not only is Adare a unique, beautiful, and historic property, it has a very large group of loyal fans who come back year after year. Now we’ll be able to offer these people a larger accommodation, more suitable for families and the ability to actually own a piece of this beautiful property, it’s the topping on the cake!”

Those loyal guests and anyone else who is fortunate to come for a stay at the hotel, will be presented with the opportunity to purchase a two or four bedroom residence in their own private, gated enclave next to the famed Adare Golf Club. Membership in the Golf Club, host of the 2007 and 2008 Irish Open where Lee Westwood shot the course record 64, is included for members of the Residence Club. Introductory pricing has yet to be confirmed but look for more information to come on this exciting new residence club opportunity.

The Best Beach in Costa Rica

2011-08-25T15:49:22Z

Check out this post on The Palms blog, The Howler...

We have to admit that Costa Rica has no shortage of fantastic beaches to enjoy. With more than 300 different beaches along two different coastlines and a choice of white, black or brown coloration, we dare anyone to say that they can't find their perfect beach vacation in our country.

Read the full article on The Howler!

Private Residence Clubs - The Best Value in Vacation Homes

2011-08-17T15:25:46Z

By: Randy H. Burgess, EVP, Peter Kempf International

The Vacation Home Purchase

Traditionally, frequent vacationers to a particular destination bought whole ownership homes to enjoy 3-5 weeks per year and rationalized that expensive purchase with the expectation of continued appreciation in the belief that the purchase would be a good investment. Well, those days of double digit appreciation are over and may be gone for many years to come. Thus, the purchase of an entire vacation home or condo which is used only 3-5 weeks a year has suddenly become a very imprudent financial decision.

Many whole ownership buyers offered their vacation property for rent in an attempt to generate income to cover the year round utilities, maintenance costs, real estate taxes, insurance and all the other customary expenses of maintaining a second home. Unfortunately, the renters didn’t have the same “pride of ownership” of the owners and the home was often abused and quickly became worn by rental traffic. Even then the nicer, more expensive vacation properties seldom if ever generated an actual positive cash flow.

Let’s Just Rent Rather Than Buy

More recently, vacationers who realized that it doesn’t make financial sense to purchase a whole ownership vacation home have chosen to simply rent. This isn’t the ideal solution either, since families and extended families often vacation together, thus requiring the rental of multiple hotel rooms or a larger vacation rental home. Repeated rentals don’t leave the renter with any tangible residual value other than the photos of time with family and friends. Renting over the years also becomes expensive and the costs are unrecoverable.

Why Are We Doing This?

Well, perhaps more than ever, families need a break – they need quality time together away from the stress and strains of work, daily routines, and the nightly news. Many families also enjoy different types of vacations during different seasons of the year. They may enjoy the beach and golf in summer and skiing in winter; touring Tuscany or other areas of Europe.

All this begs the question “Why would someone purchase a whole ownership vacation home (or continue renting one) if they could obtain the same degree of flexible usage or more, with more amenities and services, without having the maintenance and renter hassles – all for less than the down payment on the whole ownership purchase (or the accumulated expense of repeated rentals) and with a fraction of the ongoing maintenance costs?”

The Palms Private Residence ClubEnter the Private Residence Club...

Private Residence Clubs were specifically created for those desiring to own a luxurious vacation home, with all the amenities and hospitality services of a fine hotel, and; have flexible and frequent usage by family and friends – without having to invest millions, maintain a second home or pay rent. Just imagine the ideal vacation home purchase . ..

you would actually own deeded real estate in the most desirable location, which may appreciate over time
you would have unlimited usage of not just one but all of the Club’s similar residences, simply by following the Club’s reservations process (much the same as playing golf at your local country club by making tee times);
you could entertain extended family, friends and business associates;
you’d have all the amenities and hospitality services of a fine hotel in that location;
you could enjoy reciprocal use in other luxurious private homes and resorts in ski, beach, golf and urban destinations worldwide as part of your Club’s ownership privileges;
a professional management company would manage and maintain your property so you could spend your precious vacation time relaxing with family and friends;
all of this would require an investment of less than the down payment on a comparable whole ownership vacation home; and
your share of all the operating and maintenance costs (utilities, insurance, taxes, maintenance, replacements, etc.) would be a small fraction of the total annual costs of operating and maintaining a comparable property . . .

Voila! A Private Residence Club offers all these benefits and is absolutely the best value you can find in a vacation home! Now, by joining a Private Residence Club, you can own the best, use it as much as you like, avoid the hassles of maintenance or the repeated costs of vacation rentals; enjoy a myriad of vacation experiences worldwide; and, provide a vacation legacy for your children and grandchildren.

The Private Residence Club . . . sensible vacation ownership today and for generations to come.

_____________________________________________________

Randy Burgess is the Private Residence Club industry's most experienced sales executive having personally trained and directed sales teams generating over $600,000,000 in sales at some of the most successful residence clubs in the world. Randy has also provided consulting services in the areas of Club feasibility, structure, operations and marketing for dozens of Club developers throughout North America, Mexico and Europe.

Super Blogger Candy Evans Praises PKI Clients

2011-06-30T14:18:00Z

Candy is falling for fractional. First her bio, then her latest blog entry.

Candy Evans is one of the nation’s leading real estate reporters, bloggers and consultants. She contributes daily to AOL Real Estate, Joel Kotkin’s The New Geography, and is a guest blogger for Inman Real Estate News FORUM: The Future of Real Estate Marketing. She also writes for Move.com. Candy was a longtime contributing editor to Dallas’ D Magazine and sister pubs, and in 2007 founded the wildly successful Dallas real estate blog, DallasDirt, where she broke the news on where former president George W. Bush bought his Dallas home. She is the founder and creator of SecondShelters.com.

Second Home Trends - Affordable & Amenities: Calistoga Ranch in Napa Beckons

Here’s the deal. The economy is not cooperating, but we still want to enjoy life. I know so many families who want a second home to “create family memories.” Most families, like mine, are spread out all over tarnation. A second home is a great way for everyone to combine a vacation with a family visit. Our family did this for years at Drake’s Island, Maine, and we are trying to do it for our kids with a shared-ownership ranch in the Hill Country. As hard hit as the second home market is right now, buying and maintaining a home outright is still costly. According to the Wall Street Journal, sales are really soft in the Hamptons, which Wall Street usually flushes with money. And no one in their right mind thinks they’ll be flipping it for a profit. Read more

BERMUDA’S PREMIER PRIVATE RESIDENCE CLUB ANNOUNCES UNPRECEDENTED SALES

2011-06-24T16:47:13Z

Strengthened by the Sales & Marketing of Peter Kempf International, The Reefs Welcomes 40 New Owners in the Past Two Weeks

SOUTHAMPTON, BERMUDA (June 16, 2011) – Supporting the resurgence of the private residence club market, The Reefs Club is proud to announce the sale of 40 memberships of its luxurious fractional resort real estate product in just two weeks. With these sales The Club welcomes 37 new members and 3 existing owners who have purchased an additional interest in The Club.

Read/Download/Print the Full Press Release

Fractional Ownership Rule #1: Time Is of the Essence

2011-06-24T16:36:38Z

So you’re a developer of a very upscale Private Residence Club and you’ve just committed six figures to another powerful lead generation campaign. Marketing teams have been deployed with the intent to design and deliver great experiential messages designed to engage hundreds of consumers and bring them to your sales team. Then your sales team will have meaningful and relationship building conversations with these leads. Then eventually, two, three or maybe four of every 100 leads generated will purchase an interest in your beautiful PRC. It doesn’t seem like much of a return does it?

There are many reasons why developers see sales closing rates between 1 and 4%. Simply put, not everyone is a perfect fit for your product. However, what you are probably not aware of is that at least 50% of those new leads you generate will never be spoken with by any member of your sales team. This has been an unfortunate industry average for years and PKI now has a way to fix this problem and improve those percentages.

How do you fix it? Time is of the essence! You are selling a discretionary product that is a ‘want’, not a ‘need’. Therefore, everyday life can easily get in the way and divert the attention of your interested prospects. Your property might have been really exciting last night over a glass of wine, but the next day after a board meeting, it could be a distant memory. Your biggest competition is life, not the other property across town or the whole ownership market. So compete against life, and compete well! We are deploying sophisticated technology to deliver dynamic and engaging presentations to interested buyers instantly, at the time of 100% interest! We also promote advanced Lead Response Management practices by your sales team to work in conjunction with that technology. Our sales executives are notified immediately when a new lead is viewing their presentation and we provide reports that tell the sales team who is reading their presentation most often and therefore, who is most interested.

Click here for more information on Clearview Express™.

Good News at Calistoga Ranch!

2011-02-01T16:18:11Z

PKI client, Calistoga Ranch, is leading the upscale Residence Club pack with a sales resurgence. Read more here:

Good News At Calistoga Ranch: Sales Volume Greater Than In Past Two Years Combined.

PKI AWARDED SERVICES CONTRACT FOR THE PALMS RESIDENCE CLUB

2011-01-27T22:15:32Z

International Private Residence Club Consultancy Brings
Sales & Marketing Expertise to Exclusive Costa Rica Property

Leading Private Residence Club consultancy, Peter Kempf International (PKI), announced it has been awarded the exclusive sales and marketing contract for The Palms Private Residence Club, located on renowned Flamingo Beach on Costa Rica’s coveted Gold Coast.

Steps from the sand and with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, The Palms is a luxury getaway and the only beachfront private residence club in all of Costa Rica. PKI President & CEO Peter Kempf noted, "We have earned a reputation for being highly selective, and our portfolio includes some of the most iconic clubs ever created,” said Kempf. “As soon as we arrived at The Palms, we looked at each other and knew that this was the equal of any club anywhere in the world.”

Kempf is experienced with exotic resort properties – PKI is the exclusive representative of the Private Residence Club Industry on The Board of Regents, the governing body of Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate, the worldwide network of elite luxury real estate brokerage firms.

Kempf said the project – a collection of 32 two-story ocean side residences - represents a great opportunity for both PKI and buyers. “There is no finer beach in Costa Rica, the grounds are lushly landscaped, the villas are beautiful, the construction is the epitome of attention to detail and the hypnotic views run to the horizon, “ he said. “The fortunate few who will become Club members are in for one heck of a treat."

For The Palms development, PKI has partnered with fellow Board of Regents Executive Committee member Todd Cutter of the highly respected San Jose brokerage 2Costa Rica Real Estate.

“For years developers have been flirting with the idea of residence clubs, but have lacked the right location, the right product, and the right team to bring it to the forefront,” said Cutter “With successful residence clubs in the world’s finest destinations, PKI brings to The Palms an unprecedented track record, which combined with the unmatched beauty of this property, is a recipe for success.”

The Palms was developed by Spence Enterprises, and according to partner and CFO Robert Reddy, PKI was the right fit for the project. “We had a goal of being the finest beach front resort development in Costa Rica. We also sought out the best sales organization to market our private residence club. We surveyed the entire market, attended trade shows, and interviewed several sales and marketing organizations. Peter Kempf International clearly has the most experience, highest sales results, finest reputation, and best personnel in the industry for premier private residence clubs. That made selecting them as our partner easy.”

PKI will be responsible for the Club’s overall structure, sales, marketing and global reciprocal-use alliances, and will be installing their Clearview Express™ Lead Response Management Program, a proprietary system Kempf said is designed to improve fractional sales organizations’ lead generation and conversion rates while reducing marketing expenses.

The Palms project represents what Kempf said is a true, proven private residence club concept, meeting certain key criteria: Club members receive deeded ownership of real estate; high-end residence architecture and interior design; and unlimited, flexible usage in accordance with reservation privileges that have been tailored to the seasonality of the market and the typical usage patterns of the intended buyers.

Sales are underway at The Palms Private Residence Club, which is less than an hour’s drive from Liberia’s international airport, making the Flamingo beach area popular with divers, game fisherman and golfers.

For more information, visit:

www.kempfintl.com

www.palmscostarica.com

www.2costaricarealestate.com

http://www.regents.com

http://www.luxuryrealestate.com/about