Time Share

[lncoop]

Anyone have or had one? I often see them offered on CL cheap or even free. What's the deal? Do people just no longer want to pay the maintenance fees? I've thought for several years about picking one up, but I'm not entirely clear on how it works. Can anyone enlighten me?

 

[relocyo]

Re: Time Share

Well, the one an old girlfriends family had was, you get 2 (but im sure thats adjustable) weeks a year with your name on it, you can either enjoy it, or rent it out for one or both of those weeks, and they cut you a check for whatever they clear or a percentage. But the real beauty I think, is that if its not your week but the unit is available you get an incredible discount (hers was along the lines of $25 a night, min 2 or 3 nights, plus maid fee $30 or so) but we lived only about 30 mins away from hers. We absolutely loved it as her folks barely ever used it right on the gulf of mexico, whyndam resorts is a big seller of timeshares in our area, well and across the nation I think. Check out their website I bet they would have alot of the info youd be looking for... Cheers! I loved hers, until she stopped lovin me go figure... Lol...

 

[nlain]

Re: Time Share

You can also swap your week or weeks with someone that has one in a different area. Say you have one near Disney in Fl but want to go snow skiing in the mountains in Co, find something comparable to yours and trade. There is a good bit of maintenance expense and taxes, and I think some other expenses, from what i have heard others say that have them.

 

[roscoe]

Re: Time Share

Not as nice as it sounds.

I have know a minimum of 2 dozen people that had them, HAD being the key word.

Only know of one family that still has it.

Why commit to the down payment, monthly payments, dues/fees and maintenance costs, when you can almost always find one to rent.

Everyone that was willing to talk about it after they sold out, admitted that they took a bath on it.

One friend of mine could never find anyone the wanted his week/location.
Yes he was able to rent it out, but at a huge loss.


The is a reason there are so many people constantly trying to sell them.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Time Share

To me it is VERY not worth it. Besides the cost, you are totally tied into only going somewhere that you can trade the timeshare week for.

 

[bigdee]

Re: Time Share

Personally for me, I think it is a stupid concept. I would rather own a vacation home outright and be in complete control of everything including who rents it and if and when. When I do travel to places other than my vacation home I am free to look and bargain for the best deals and at the end of my stay I am no longer obligated to them.

 

[Fly Rod]

Re: Time Share

I had bought two weeks years ago in the Bahamas for 1,000.00 each in what is called prime weeks. My maintance fee each unit has gone from 150 bucks per week to 450 now per week for the weeks you stay there. You can still buy them now for 1000 - 1500 when they go to silent auction that people have given them up. You need to find the right deal no matter where you are buying.

We rented a time share with two units a couple of years ago a mile and a half from Disney in Florida for 700 for the week. We had to go to a one hour seminar, and they were trying to get us to buy the two units, we never had any intention of ever going back to Disney, did the week for kids and grand kids. Anyway they wanted 28,000 for the double unit, and 13% mortgage and 700 dollar maintance fee . By the time we were done negociating they were down to 8,000 for the units, no interest loan, and no maintance fee for life. At the end of our time we said no thank you and left.

If you buy one you can always join a club like ICI bank your week or weeks and go where ever on the weeks that you own. If buying a time share always buy in the red zone which are considered the best weeks.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Time Share

Thanks for the thoughts guys, but I might not have been clear enough. It would be a cold day you know where before I'd consider buying a time share from a company. I'm talking about something I could pick up for free from someone who just doesn't want it any more. I know I would have an annual maintenance burden, but I'm wondering about other contingencies I might not have considered. I'd like to hear from someone who really knows the ins and outs.

 

[skargo]

Re: Time Share

Ripoff.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Time Share

Ripoff.

Care to elaborate?

 

[bassman284]

Re: Time Share

I would think the fact that people are offering them on CL for nothing would be a clue. Granted you wouldn't have much invested, but you would own something that is hard to unload.

 

[DaNinja]

Re: Time Share

While Dave would kick my but over some of our financial activities, I'm with him on this one.

Dave Ramsey on time shares

 

[southkogs]

Re: Time Share

We've used time shares a few times, but have never owned one. I would NEVER buy one - especially the way the real estate market is working now. Cheaper to rent ad-hoc even in the resort towns right now.

To answer the question of wether I would take one if it was FREE except for the annual fee, I would say only if the annual fee was under $500 for 2 weeks usage. There weren't any additional fees associated with any of the units/plans/points we were allowed to use in the last few years - but I'd be afraid that I wouldn't want to use the unit/plan after a while, and then couldn't dump it and still had to fork out the annual fee. My family can travel for a week for under $1,000 and still have a nice time (not going to Tahiti or anything, but we'll enjoy the trip). If I've gotta' blow that on a maintenance fee for a place that I really don't want to go to ...

We've used a time share four times now, and we've enjoyed all of the trips. However, there's only one of the trips that I could stomach being locked in to more than a few times.

 

[oops!]

Re: Time Share

my aunt used to own a travel agency ........she sold it and a few years later.....bought a shared ownership in the delta grand hotel residences here in kelowna.....she really loves it.

however.......she/they have lots of money, and they used to drive here from edmonton 800 miles....three times a year.....so for her....it is good

 

[drrpm]

Re: Time Share

Its far cheaper to rent someone elses timeshare when you vacation.

 

[DaNinja]

Re: Time Share

Its far cheaper to rent someone elses timeshare when you vacation.

Agreed. The math doesn't work. I'm happy that we bought our lake place instead of doing some time share thing.

 

[relocyo]

Re: Time Share

Despite what everyone says, they are big business here in nw florida and there are some super nice places and the real estate market here is at its absolut lowest , so that bein said if you can get in cheap it would be a great addition to your portfolio. And a great area to vacation to boot. Seriouly check out Whyndam properties, great plans going on. And as mentioned nation wide tradable, and people always are goin to want to come here, even if you dont

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Time Share

Despite what everyone says, they are big business here in nw florida

They are big business because the developers make a lot of money and there are suckers that buy them.

 

[aspeck]

Re: Time Share

I own both through Marriott and through Westgate. Haven't owned long with Westgate, so I will speak for Marriott. There are some "loop holes" that make them attractive for us. If I had to do it over again I would never own on the coast because of the higher maintenance fees.

A caution on buying them from an individual, at least with Marriott there are perks you can get if you buy direct from the company vs from an individual. With ours, we have a lock-off. What that means we can use a 2 bedroom for 1 week, or we can "lock off" the one room for $25 which gives us 2 weeks.

Now, we never like to go to the same place twice, or at least not in a row, so we pay $100 plus a year for a membership in Interval Travel which enables us to deposit our now 2 weeks and "trade" them for any place they have available. Thousands of places available all around the world. Then it costs us anywhere from $79 - $139 per week to reserve our week at another resort. With our 3 weeks (2 Marriott and 1 Westgate) our cost is about $500 per week. We are trading for 2 and 3 bedroom units that are gorgeous (we are careful as to where we reserve because some of the places are not as nice as others). Where we are staying right now would cost $750 per night if we were to rent this room.

I am also VERY busy, but this actually FORCES me to take a vacation, which makes my wife happy. With our timeshare we have been to Vermont - Stowe, PA - Poconos, VA - Williamsburg, Tn - Gaitlinburg, FL - West Palm Beach, Ft Lauderdale, and Orlando, TX - Galvaston Is, Kuai, Aruba, and CA - Palm Desert. If you play the plan well, and can be flexible in your time to go on vacation, the deposit in an timeshare exchange like Interval can really make it worth your while. If you are not as flexible, then it can be a real bummer and not so good.

If you have any more questions, let me know and I will do my best to help you. They are not for everyone, that is why some buy on the high-pressure sales vacations and then can't use them. But for others, they can be a really great way to get away.

 

[DaNinja]

Re: Time Share

I won't go as far as calling time shares a scam, though there are many that are.
I will say that between renting or just buying property, you'll come ahead of a time share about 99% of the time.

And Aspeck makes it 98%....