Time-share II

Private resident club within Carneros Inn between Napa and Sonoma. Cost: $300,000 for 1/10 share of one of 17 luxury two-bedroom cottages. Highlights: Pools, spas, three restaurants, private trainers.

Mayacama golf club

Luxury members-only golf club east of Windsor

Cost: $1.425 million for a quarter-share of Tuscan-inspired 3,600-square-foot hillside homes; 1/10 shares of smaller units sell for $200,000 to $300,000.

Highlights: Club membership -- an additional $100,000 to $200,000 -- includes golf, clubhouse, spa, gourmet dining.

The Ranch on Soda Rock

A renovated 2,400-square-foot single-family home in Alexander Valley

Cost: $300,000 for 1/10 share

Highlights: Cabernet sauvignon vineyard, home winemaking operation, seawater pool, on-call chef.

Sea Ranch «¬

A vacation home at Sea Ranch built and owned by investment group

Cost: $96,500 for a 1/10 share of four-bedroom home on 16th hole of Sea Ranch Golf Course

Highlights: Ocean views, separate cottage, tennis, pools, golf, hot tub, beach. Built in 1990, it's one of county's first co-owned properties.

The Lodges at

Calistoga Ranch

Auberge resort in hills east of Calistoga

Cost: Mid-$400,000s for a 1/10 share of a group of 27 luxury lodges.

Highlights: Pool, concierge, spa, fitness center, restaurants, hiking.Call it care-free luxury.

Call it living the Wine Country dream.

But please don't call it a time share.

The latest trend in selling posh vacation homes in Sonoma and Napa is called fractional ownership, and it's coming to a high-end resort or country lane near you.

"It's a slice of the Wine Country lifestyle for a fraction of the price and a fraction of the headache," says Cynthia Palmer, the developer of The Ranch on Soda Rock, a small but luxurious Alexander Valley vineyard property she's hoping to sell to 10 different owners.

For a mere $300,000 each, buyers can purchase a 1/10 deeded interest in the 2,400-square-foot home, entitling them to five weeks each year of high-living on a property that includes its own vineyard, small winery, seawater pool and organic vegetable garden.

Palmer's home is one of several luxury projects in Napa and Sonoma that have recently begun offering buyers the option of buying a piece of the action.

From $1.4 million for a quarter interest in a hillside estate at the Mayacama Golf Club outside Windsor to $300,000 for a piece of luxury cottages at the new Carneros Inn, fractional ownership seems all the rage. Marketers of luxury homes say there are several reasons for the rise in the number of such properties.

The arrival of Wine Country as a luxury destination, the Baby Boomers advancing toward retirement, high cost of high-end properties, and the hassle and expense of owning a second home are all cited as reasons fractional ownership is gaining traction.

"People fantasize about owning a home in the Wine Country and they come up for a weekend and look around and what they are fantasizing about is $1.5 to $2.5 million," said Sheri Morgensen, a broker with Sotheby's International Realty in San Francisco.

While they might spend that kind of money on a primary residence, many find it very difficult to justify the expense given how infrequently most are likely to use such a home, Morgensen said.

The real estate slump may also be driving some of the increased interest in such deals.

The Tuscan-inspired hillside homes at Mayacama golf club might be a tough sell as single-family residences in this market, but general manager Jonathan Wilhelm said he's optimistic the fractions will get snapped up.

"I think it's the right product for this market," Wilhelm said. "I would rather be selling $1.5 million (homes) than $6 million right now."

While fractional ownership is becoming more common, it's hardly new.

It actually is just another word for time shares, explained Paula Gold-Nocella, owner of Global Quarters, a Clearlake-based brokerage opened earlier this year to focus on the fractional ownership market.

Gold-Nocella adapted the tenants-in-common approach to owning real estate she saw in San Francisco to a project in Sebastopol in 1997. She and a group of friends upgraded a group of six rural cottages, and the project was a huge success, she said.

While one of the earliest such ventures in Sonoma County, it wasn't the first.

In 1983, a group of friends from the Bay Area invested $5,000 each in a piece of land in Sea Ranch and set out to build their dream vacation house. After plenty of hard work and heartache, the group, called Sea Ranch 12, finished their four-room home and cottage in 1990 and today have something of which they're immensely proud.

"I can go up to Sea Ranch and have an incredible vacation in the most beautiful house with the greatest views, so I am thankful at all times because of that," said Diana Limberis, one of the original investors in the project.

Sea Ranch 12 (which is now just 10 owners) is, however, experiencing one of the pitfalls of such co-ownership models. They are a niche type of real estate that can take a long time to sell.

The group has been trying to sell one-tenth of a share in the home for $96,000 for about a year, she said.

Such slow pace of sales can be a problem for developers of fractional projects. After all, it's a lot harder to sell 10 buyers on a property than one.

The developer of a luxury vacation home on Chalk Hill Road initially put the house on the market last fall as a one-tenth fractional ownership. When that didn't work, they dropped it to a quarter interest in the spring, and still didn't get any takers.

The rules were one issue. The rules called for the home to be smoke and pet free, which probably cost one sale, Morgensen said.

Others had difficulty getting their brains around the idea that they wouldn't really know all the other owners.

"Owning a house with three other people is one thing, but 10 is something else," Morgensen said.

It's now back on the market simply as a single-family home for $2.4 million and getting plenty of interest, but so far no bids.

"It makes sense and I think there is a market for it, but right now, it wasn't particularly successful in our case," Morgensen said.

Palmer says she's not worried that a project with similarities to hers didn't fly as a fractional property.

She bought the "1961 toad" in late 2007, and spent six months and hundreds of thousands of dollars on a complete renovation. It now looks like something out of a Pottery Barn catalogue -- warm tones, gleaming stainless steel appliances and 600 thread-count sheets.

Outside, the biodynamically farmed cabernet sauvignon vineyard on the one-acre property and small winery make hers a unique offering that has already generated substantial interest, she said.

People love the idea of being able to take a hands-on role in "their" winery property when they are visiting, but also have the comfort of knowing that others are caring for it while they aren't there. Each member will get six to eight cases of wine from their vineyard each vintage, she said.

That level of service comes at a price. In addition to the $300,000 for the first four shares (it goes up 20 percent for the remaining six), homeowners dues are steep -- $985 a month, or $2,360 per week of use.

While such a project is "not for the faint of heart," Palmer says she is confident the demand is there.

"I have absolutely no doubt the property is going to sell," she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com.