second home, she says. She is confident the value of the home will stay intact when the two decide to sell. The family visits six or seven times a year, Redlin says. They visit both during the off and on seasons. “My wife and I love going up on the off season in the fall when it’s more of a local feel and it’s not as crowded with tourists. We love to hike and see the fall colors and I love going to my favorite yarn store—I’m a knitter,” Redlin says. “We have our favorite restaurants we go to. We love being part of the community.” Redlin believes that Pacaso is not a timeshare. A Pacaso spokeswoman elaborated. “The most significant difference between Pacaso co- ownership and timeshares lies in
Whether Pacaso sells timeshares is a matter of dispute.
the benefits of ownership with minimal responsibility of ownership; if things break or something needs attention, we call the house manager.” Redlin and her wife are professional working parents with a blended family of four children, so one of the advantages is not having the burden of taking care of a
what you own. With Pacaso, owners possess a true real estate asset,” Pacaso spokeswoman Chrissy Bruchey said in an email. “And because it’s a real estate asset, its value will move with the market—which means that any equity realized is yours. In contrast, a timeshare typically grants you the right to use the property for a specific period, not ownership. Pacaso’s co-owners are deeply invested in their community and property, approaching it with a true owner’s mindset,” Bruchey said. Smith doesn’t see it that way. “They come and they go, sometimes Super Bowl, New Year’s Eve, lots of cars in the driveway, but there is no camaraderie like there is with the rest of the owners in the cul-de-sac,” the StopPacasoNow member says. Overall, Smith says she feels the sun is setting on Pacaso. When the company launched in 2020, Pacaso announced it had raised $17 million in Series A funding; the company was helmed by real estate tech luminaries like Zillow co-founder and former CEO Spencer Rascoff. In October 2022, however, the company laid off nearly a third of its staff, about 100 employees, real estate news site Inman News and SFGate reported. “The malaise affecting the tech sector is definitely having an effect,” Smith says. The St. Helena settlement is a good thing, she says, but it’s not over until it’s over. “We won’t have won until the house across the street is no longer a Pacaso property,” Smith says. g
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34 NorthBaybiz
April 2024
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