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Residential Real Estate: St. Helena broker offers fractional ownership; rules limit house footprint

St. Helena-based brokerage Up Valley Real Estate launched a new division specializing in fractional ownership of high-end properties. The company is hoping to target vacation-home buyers looking for a less-expensive alternative to purchasing an entire house.

Fractional ownership is a deeded interest in a property, which entitles an owner to use the property for a certain amount of time each year.

“We were finding from our clients that they want to be immersed in the Napa Valley culture but they couldn’t afford a $3 million or $4 million home,” Up Valley owner Cessna Barrett said of the decision to launch the new division, which is called Dwell Napa Valley.

Dwell Napa Valley markets and sells fractional property, helps divide properties into fractions, assembles groups of buyers and arranges for professional property management. In addition to the purchase price, buyers pay annual fees covering property maintenance and access to amenities at nearby resorts.

Unlike timeshares, fractional ownership gives buyers an ownership interest in a property, which allows them to profit from appreciation in its value. Fractional ownership is used by a number of North Bay resorts such as Orchard at the Carneros Inn near Napa, Calistoga Ranch near Calistoga, and Mayacama Golf Club near Santa Rosa.

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A Santa Rosa contractor has started a new company that promises to remodel bathrooms in as little as five days. The company, called Dream Bath in a Week, provides a guaranteed completion date for each project.

“We actually start paying you back $200 per day if we don’t finish it on the day we say we can,” said Keith Borrall, founder president of the company.

Remodels of large or highly customized bathrooms can take longer than a week to finish, but Mr. Borrall said his company specializes in finishing projects as quickly as possible.

“We just do a lot of planning and a lot of logistics to make sure it’s all set up and ready to go the day we show up,” he said.

Mr. Borral, previously a builder of custom homes, said some potential customers are reluctant to start a remodel project because of the uncertainty about how long it will take.

“People are hesitant with the mess and the length of time,” he said.

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The buyer of a former Intero Real Estate franchise in Napa has converted the brokerage into a RE/MAX office.

The new owner, Katrina Giacalone, was previously an agent for Intero. Ms. Giacalone purchased the assets of the Intero office from broker Mike Bolen., who will remain at the new office, RE/MAX Cornerstone. The office will keep all of its 13 agents and will stay in its location at 100 Main St. in downtown Napa.

Mr. Bolen previously owned Intero franchise rights throughout Napa and Sonoma counties and planned to add several new offices. Last fall, he opened a second Napa office at 1600 Main St., but the office closed earlier this year. The office has shrunk by more than 50 percent since October, when it had 28 residential agents.

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Owners of agricultural properties could soon face restrictions on the size of new development.

Sonoma County’s Permit & Resource Management Department is developing new proposed guidelines limiting the size of a property’s building envelope to 10,000 square feet.

A building envelope is the amount of land occupied by buildings, lawns, patios, swimming pools and other man-made surfaces. The rules would not affect square footage created by adding additional stories to a home.

“The concern is that people are purchasing ag lands and building ‘McCastles’ without any real interest in continuing agriculture,” said Sonoma County Supervisor Mike Reilly, who supports the new rules.

“When you build a very large home on ag land you probably price it out of the reach of any future farm person who wants to use it for farming,” Mr. Reilly said.

Property owners would also be required to keep their land in agricultural production.

The proposed guidelines will be incorporated in a draft of the county’s updated General Plan, which must still be adopted by a vote of the Board of Supervisors.

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Submit items for this column to William Jason at 707-579-2900 ext. 225, wjason@busjrnl.com or fax 707-579-8475.

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