It seems that from my standpoint, fractional sales are slowing down. This wasn’t the case at the beginning of the year and maybe now that the election is out of the way some of the uncertainty will evaporate… but I’ve talked with a number of sources that say the market is tougher now.

Personally I try to be optimistic about things. You may have read somewhere in one of my past posts that I don’t take a newspaper and have sold our television. To some this would seem pretty extreme, but to me is simply an attempt to stay positive. The news and general media can be so negative that just a few minutes a day is enough put most people into a poor state of mind.
That said, times are tough for a lot of folks right now there is no denying that. And while a person’s outlook has a lot to do with his or her happiness, it has less of an effect on how much money they have in the bank! The fact of the manner is that in times of uncertainty people just aren’t as willing to part with those precious greenbacks – especially for “luxury” items like new cars and vacation homes.
What do we do about this?

A couple of things: First, just keep the store open. Reduce costs as much as possible, but keep the tent up! Keep plugging along until sentiment changes. The alternative is to close up shop and hid in a hole. Nobody can make money in a hole (well unless you are mining ore, I guess…). The second thing is to try new approaches. Throw some more spaghetti at the wall and see if it sticks. I heard once someone use the term “try-storming” and I liked it so much that I use it frequently. Just brainstorm new ideas and try different approaches until something “clicks” – because it will.

To end this message, I want to briefly mention something new we here at Fractional Retreats are trying... It’s a new fractional listing site aimed at helping buyers understand and learn about fractionals and give sellers a place to list their fractional homes, boat or aircraft. The site is called “Discover Fractionals” and can be found here: http://www.discoverfractionals.com  Over the next few weeks you will probably hear more about it, right now we’re fine tuning everything and while we do that we are letting anyone with a fractional property, boat or aircraft to list it for free. Keep in mind that there are still some “bugs” and if you run across one of them please let us know!