Well I’ve already talked to one shyster who tried to tell me that he sells to corporations who dont’ care about paying full price because its a tax writeoff, and by the way, it will cost me $1,000-$1500, because someone has to pay for the advertising!
What blows my mind is how anyone falls for that shit… dude, if you are so sure you can unload this puppy at full price or more, you should be paying ME for the listing!
Do not do this. jtgain describes the process as it is and nobody should have to go through this. My wife and I have fallen for it a couple of times (the sales presentation. We haven’t actually bought a timeshare) and it is a wonder we aren’t divorced.
In most of these things they want both the husband and wife to attend to get the “gift” that doesn’t turn out to be quite what they promised. The salesmen have no qualms about turning wife against husband, child against parent, if it will get them a sale.
I’d never buy one, but my wife’s grandparents gave us theirs (it’s in the RCI network) and we pay the yearly fee (maybe $3-400) and can book a week in tons of places. It’s cheaper than a hotel/resort, plus it usually has a kitchen, so we can save money on food, as well. If we don’t use it, we can bank the week and get a more premium place the next year, I think (haven’t don’t that yet). Anyway, I have no idea what it might be worth, but it’s a good option to have as long as you aren’t on the hook.
God, yes. My husband and I were taken by our best friends to be at their wedding, all expenses paid by them, in St. Thomas. Just the four of us plus the Justice of the Peace at their ceremony in a gazebo on the beach.
Walking down the street of the main town there, the bride heard a pitch for free bottles of rum for each of us if we listened to a 5 minute sales pitch. Basically it was what jtgain described. The bride was taken in and tried to convince the groom to sign. I’m surprised none of us hit her over the head in an attempt to knock her out so we could drag her forcibly out of there. None of us signed anything, and all we got were tiny flasks (like 250 ml or so) of the local rum - good stuff, but we were buying 2 L bottles of it at the supermarket for about $10.
With the points that are listed I bet she could stay quite a few weeks. I am not sure just how Wyndham points system works.
We belong to a point system time share. We can stay in any of the resorts in the system not just one or on only one week a year. I ran the numbers once and figured that if we stayed in a hotel every year the cost would be about the same. But the hotel room may not have a kitchen, be able to sleep from 2 to 8 people, have a washer and dryer in it. And for the same money the hotel room will not be as nice. After years of camping and using an old RV then using the time share my wife now thinks that anything less than a 4 star hotel is slumming.
But my advice is do not get a time share unless you have a lot of time to use it. When we got our time share I got 6 weeks off a year. Now I only get two weeks and we do not get the best advantage out of our time share.
And that’s part of why I say it’s good for some people and not so good for others. The amenities that you like, I could really care less. Eight people in a room? No thank you. Washer and dryer? I never stay longer than a week at one place. Not necessary for me. Kitchen? I cook at home. I eat out on vacation.
And since the price was the same, I could go anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice, or stay home and bank the money at my option.
Both of our vacation styles are perfectly acceptable, but these are things that the timeshare people don’t tell you.
Actually, we found that our timeshare people told us everything. The closing documents and deed were available for full inspection, we were shown not only the “model room” but also a regular room, and everything checked out perfectly. We had to ask the questions, mind you, and I know they can prey on the dull and stupid, but nothing was hidden from us.
You know these resorts are generally laid out as a one or two bedroom apartment, right? And now ours is paid for, so we pay $500 a year, and stay in a two bedroom apartment with a full kitchen, laundry and excellent resort amenities. This is key for us, since we have a family.
Even if we banked what we paid (far less than $24K, BTW), we would have been able to afford maybe 2 or 3 years at that type of resort, and then we’d be back to Motel 6. It was certainly a win for us.
No, they are not investment properties, and they are generally not sold that way. We’ve done a number of presentations, and in each place, it’s been in the initial presentation that they are not for investment.
Not 8 people per room, 8 people to a unit. usually 2 people per room.