Traditionally, sales of real estate fractionals are handled by the developer behind the property. Interested buyers had but one choice: deal with the development’s sales office and pay the asking price. Likewise owners looking to sell off their fractions have often had to go through the developers, either selling the fraction directly back to them, or using the development as a third party to facilitate a sale to another buyer.

The problem hasn’t so much been a matter of owners not having the rights to buy and sell fractions from or to whomever they please— as deeded real estate, fractional owners can in most cases transfer ownership as they see fit. Rather it has been the general lack of real estate brokers with an adequate understanding of the fractional market, which has largely consigned fractional transactions to remain within the reaches of the developer.

Enter Global Quarters, a real estate brokerage specializing in fractional ownership. Paula Gold-Nocella, Global Quarters founder, has more than twenty years of experience in real estate and has now branched out into fractional developments. Her listings include fractional projects in Paris (as prominently featured in the New York Times), the California Wine Country, and Jackson Hole, Wyo. Additionally Global Quarters has been contracted by established fractional developers like Calistoga Ranch and the Ritz-Carlton to serve as a clearing house for their fractions.

But perhaps the biggest market for real estate companies like Global Quarters is the resale market. As fractional developments mature and developers sell out of their initial inventory, and in the case of smaller projects, step away from managing the operations of a residence, there will no doubt be room for more independent agencies like Global Quarters to get a piece of the resale market.