We’re getting ready to kick off a new real estate investing section of Luxury Latin America. We’ve got an advance taste of things to come here with an interview on farm and vineyard investing in Argentina.

It’s an interview with David English, who lives in Mendoza - the main wine-producing area of Argentina. David advises people on investing in land so they do not lose their shirts and then will be their eyes and ears on the ground to ensure things run smoothly. He is not a real estate agent who makes a sale and then pockets a commission. He works with buyers on a retainer basis to help them make the right choices.

So for all you wine business dreamers out there, how does a vineyard in Mendoza rate as an investment? How long until you start rolling in the cash?

“There is not standard length of time, since each investment is unique, ” David says. “What one has to keep in mind is that the wine industry in particular is quite capital intensive. Returns are low or nil for a number of years, as capital is tied up in wine, barrels, supplies, etc. while the wine is aging, being sold and being developed into a successful brand. All this takes time, and time truly is money. Also, economy of scale is critical with agricultural ventures. Whether one owns a grape farm or a peach farm, the larger the piece of land over which fixed costs can be spread, the better.”

I recently returned from a trip to Roatan Island in Honduras, where the cement trucks are very, very busy these days. One of the best–if not the best–beaches on the island is West Bay, which has a string of hotels and restaurants on a beautiful crescent stretch of sand. There’s a new condo complex which is also operating as a hotel: Infinity Bay. It’s not finished yet, but the essentials are ready: rooms, pool, and bar. You can read the review of Infinity Bay Roatan on the Luxury Latin America site, but here’s a quick video tour to give you a taste.

In another sign of the shakeouts and consolidation in the luxury vacation ownership club market, Ultimate Resort (www.ultimateresort.com) and Private Escapes (www.privateescapes.com) are set to become one company. This is a merger of the second-largest and third-largest operators, so this development will lead to a Pepsi and Coke duopoly at the top of the scale in this industry.

According to the company press release, “The new combined club…will account for more than 25 percent of the total market share and boast a global resort real estate portfolio with a fair market value of $200 million.”

There’s a high amount of geographic overlap in these clubs, so in some ways this is bulking up more that providing more breadth. Even after the merger, there are only “nearly 50 destinations,” with the Latin America choices limited to a few spots in Mexico and Costa Rica. (Hint,–these clubs love Los Cabos.)

Depending on how much of a payment you can swing, you’re routed into one of three pecking orders. “The combined company will operate three distinct destination clubs targeting the $1 million, $2 million and $3 million average home value club categories.” There are now 1,200 combined club members, but no word on how many are in that highest category.

Expect a bit of membership campaigning and due diligence before the planned closing in mid-November. The final named of the merged destination club is to be determined.

“Fractional vacation home” companies bristle at the word “timeshare” since it has connotations of tawdry developments and fast-talking sharks trying to bamboozle you into something you don’t really want. But at the risk of alienating future advertisers, the luxury version of this game is not any more secure when it comes to the financials. The numbers are just bigger. This became very clear with the recent belly-up move of a company marketed by esteemed names Abercrombie and Kent and Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report. Get the sordid details from this USA Today story: Members of a bankrupt vacation club strike back.

As anyone who runs these things should know, when you stiff a bunch of rich people, an army of lawyers will follow. And stiff them they did.

“The clubs, which enabled members to stay in a network of multimillion-dollar vacation homes in glamorous destinations, cost $100,000 to $1.3 million to join, plus annual dues and daily usage fees. Abercrombie & Kent and Harper ended their association with the clubs, which they did not operate, two years ago. Re-branded as Tanner & Haley destination clubs, they went bankrupt in 2006.”

In other words, people put up the price of a nice little beach house for a fractional share in a bigger and nicer one and were left with…nada.

Here’s a bit of advice. Buying a real house or condo that you own outright is real: real property, real title, real ownership, and you at the helm. If you must buy into a fractional plan to get rid of ownership hassles and leverage into a bigger place, due even more due diligence than you would for an outright purchase, not less. The risks are higher, the ability to even break even on a future sale is iffy, and the unknowns are greater. You can find plenty of people who have done this and are thrilled. Be one of them instead of the ones having weekly meetings with a class action attorney.

According to the National Association of Realtors, vacation home sales in the U.S. hit a record of 1.07 million homes in 2006. What’s a little scary about this number is that “the share of second-home sales was 36% of all existing and new residential real estate transactions in 2006.” More than a few of those were speculators buying investment property to fix up or flip, but still…

There’s been a lot of talk about a housing bubble bursting, which so far hasn’t been too painful in most areas (parts of Florida and California experiencing the worst), but many intrepid investors are finding much better values outside the U.S. Even in parts of Mexico that you could argue are overheated, such as Puerto Vallarta and San Miguel de Allende, prices are still half or less what they would be north of the border. Often the workmanship is far better as well, with things like custom tile work and swimming pools made to order.

If you are more of a pioneer, you can find even better real estate deals abroad and have almost no downside risk. We’ll be covering specific markets here and on the pages of Luxury Latin America later, but there are some enticing value plays in Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama, and others. The median price paid for a vacation home in the U.S. in 2006 was $200,000. Open up your definition of what a second home can be and you might end up buying two or three houses for the price of one in the U.S. or Canadian location you were considering…