Broker carves Tahoe mansions into pricey timeshares

If eight buyers are willing to pony up $2 million each for a one-eighth share of a Lake Tahoe mansion, why not try selling fractional ownership at other high-end price points?

Why indeed, asks Bob Wheeler, the Incline Village real estate broker who's masterminding the sale of fractional interests in a 13,210-square-foot mansion overlooking the north shore of Lake Tahoe.

Intero Real Estate Services, where Wheeler works as an associate broker, last week rolled out the sales campaign for the fractional ownership of the mansion at 456 Lakeshore Blvd.

If it works and Wheeler says there's been strong early interest from millionaires who want to live like billionaires he says other home sellers at Incline Village appear willing to follow the same path.

And Wheeler envisions a day in which his firm has a shopping cart of fractional interests Incline Village homes for sale priced, say, from $300,000 each on the low end to $2 million or more.

A lot of the spadework already has been completed as Wheeler and Intero Real Estate figured out how to get fractional interests in the first project on the market.

Buyers get a one-eighth, fee-simple, tenant-in-common ownership in the property. Once all eight interests are sold, a combined closing will be conducted.

Buyers get six weeks a year in the mansion on a rotating schedule they get Christmas week once every eight years, for instance and four weeks are set aside for maintenance.

"We took baby steps in our approach to make sure we have all the components in place," Wheeler says. "It was like putting our arms around an elephant."

In all, Wheeler and the team at Intero put some 16 months into investigating the market as well as the legal technicalities of the fractional-ownership market.

A key number, Wheeler, says is: Among folks who have a second homes, most spend no more than 45 to 60 days a year in them. The rest of the time, a second home is a headache to manage.

The Incline Village is marketed as a hassle-free alternative. Concierge service is available to buyers. So is access to recreational amenities such as use of a Hummer and watercraft. (The vehicles will be owned by separate companies to reduce the liability exposure of the home's owners.)

For their $2 million, buyers of interests in the Lakeshore Blvd., home get a home with five bedroom suites one of them, a guest apartment with a separate entrance and six full baths. Other features include six fireplaces, a wine room, a 24-zone audio system with a 300-CD player and the largest incense red cedar tree in Nevada on 11.6 acres that border national forest.

To market the fractional ownership interests, Intero will rely on print ads in the western regional edition of the Wall Street Journal along with listings on numerous Web sites that feature luxury real estate.