The equity destination club is planning to close to new investors at the start of May. Anyone who wants to join after this date will have to wait until a current member investor is ready to leave.
In 2011 over 60 families joined the fund, repeating the growth of about 50% that it has seen in the last couple of years. Equity Estates purchased vacation homes in Hawaii, Napa, Los Cabos (pictured above), Punta Cana (pictured below), Bahamas, San Diego and leased a 3 bedroom residence at The Solaris in Vail. Before they sell out, the fund expects to acquire additional residences in places such as Orlando, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, the Bahamas, and Kiawah Island.
"It's the right time to join for anyone who's been watching us all these years" said Philip Mekelburg, CEO, who was quick to highlight he and the rest of the Managing Member team own their own membership interests, along with family and friends. "That's how it all started and our sound structure and financial transparency model lead the industry in the equity destination clubs. We are the most fun and smartest investment according to many of our owner members, a good number of whom have been members of the better known destination clubs and fractional programs."
"The world was our canvas and I appreciate the opportunity we have had to cover it with pins in places we now call home." shared Adam Capes, President, about their portfolio of vacation residences.
Equity Estates Fund I owns the majority of its homes and leases a few of them, in addition it has a partnership with London based Hideaways Club, so that in total the fund investors have access to over 50 vacation residences spread across 16 countries and 5 continents. Members can choose from three levels of investment, depending on how much they want to travel each year, with levels offering 15, 30 and 45 days of travel to the fund homes.
The fund is structured with a fairly typical investment structure. The fund has a finite lifetime and will start to sell off its residences in ten years time, at which stage it will return 100% of investor's capital contribution and 80% of any profits.
