What’s All This About “RENTAL EQUITY?”
One of the hallmarks of the Vermont Violins Rental Program, is the equity accrual terms. With our rentals, you are not only renting a fine instrument, but actually building an equity pool for yourself with which to purchase one when you are ready to move past rental into ownership.
With our Rental program, 2/3 of all the rent you pay is put into a sort of an “ownership hopper” that builds up over time. When the ownership hopper is large enough, we will simply hand over the ownership of the instrument to you and turn off the rental account….with our thanks!
But there are a lot of questions about the equity that folks are often asking. Here, we’d like to clarify the generous terms of the equity hopper: how it can be used, how it travels and how it offers a wonderful side-benefit of our rental program -- ultimate ownership!
Please note that our Harp Rental program is also equity-accruing, but the terms work quite differently. This essay refers to our bowed instrument rentals only (violins, violas, celli, bass). Here are some bullets to help explain the Equity Program of our Bowed Instrument Rentals
· Equity accrues as long as you are actively renting an instrument. 2/3 of all rental payments are applied to purchase.
· Equity accrues is person-specific, not instrument specific, so it will travel with a player as s/he moves from size to size, quality level to quality level. If a player switches instruments, it will also travel to the new instrument…so a violinist deciding to play cello won’t lose their equity by switching instruments.
· Equity must travel to instruments of equal or greater value. We don’t want people to be over-invested in an instrument and switching down in quality never ends well. So if you are accruing equity on a $1000 violin, you must switch to an instrument that is also of at least $1000 value.
· If equity is being accrued on a package (instrument, case and bow) as most are, it must be applied to a full package. If, for example, a client opts not to purchase a case, the equity will be reduced proportionally.
· If a client decides to buyout a rental package and is part way through a rental term, we will calculate the equity so that all months that are current or have passed will apply at 2/3 but unused rental months will apply 100% Therefore, the equity calculation is a moving target with equity being slightly higher at the beginning of a rental term than at the end of the term.
· If you need to take a break from playing, you do not automatically lose your equity. Sometimes breaks are needed: you are travelling the world, or you break an arm. Or just want to take a break. We keep equity accounts live for 1 year after a rental return!
· If you buyout an instrument, we still allow equity trades; we will take back your instrument as value towards another instrument- again of equal or greater value.
· Rental Equity is not the same thing as Shop Credit. Equity can only be used towards an instrument purchase for the rental client.
· Rental Equity may not be transferred to other families and has no cash value (we do not cash out rental equity)
