This $1 billion S.F. startup wants to disrupt vacation homes. Wine Country residents say it's destroying their neighborhoods
One afternoon in April, Brad Day and Holly Kulak were sitting in their backyard in Sonoma when they noticed a drone buzzing above the eight-house dead-end street they live on.
“It was clearly getting pictures of our cul-de-sac,” Kulak said. “We were like, ‘What is going on?’ We had no clue what was happening.”
What they would soon learn was that the drone was being piloted by a photographer for Pacaso, a San Francisco startup with a billion-dollar valuation and a mission of disrupting the vacation home industry in the way Airbnb challenged the hotel industry or Uber upended taxis.
Pacaso is in the business of buying expensive houses in California vacation destinations like Tahoe, Napa, Sonoma and Palm Springs, as well as sun-drenched resort towns in Florida or ski retreats in the mountains of Colorado or Montana. The homes are then split into eight fractional ownership shares and sold to second-home buyers who might not be able to afford a $4 million home in Wine Country but can afford one-eighth of a $4 million home in Wine Country. With one share, a Pacaso owner gets 44 days a year in their vacation home.
In Sonoma, the drone in question was capturing footage of 1405 Old Winery Court, which Pacaso purchased for $4.05 million and is now selling in one-eighth fractions for $606,000 each. The cost of one share in the home, branded as “Chardonnay,” includes about $35,000 for design upgrades and $65,000 in fees and closing costs. “The low-slung exterior of this newly renovated, single-story home belies what’s inside: a bright great room with soaring ceilings, a fireplace wall and access to a stunning backyard,” the marketing statements says.
