Lets say a person wanted a timeshare. I am not at that point, but it may be something I’d want down the road if I am looking at vacations.
Since the time share meetings are high pressure and designed to make money off of you, that can’t be the proper way to do it.
I do notice people selling timeshares on ebay, I"ve heard you can buy a timeshare off of someone who already owns it for about half of what it would cost to buy it in a timeshare meeting. Anyone know how true that is? Can you get a timeshare for 30-50% of face value buying it secondhand? What all catches and strings come with that?
What about maintenance costs? I’ve heard figures like $500 a year on a 20k timeshare. Seeing how there are 50 other owners that works out to about 25k a year in maintenance fees. No building should have fees anywhere near that high (most condos are in the 100-500 a month range, nowhere near 2k a month). So is there any market competition for timeshares which have realistic maintenance fees, maybe something like $100 a month which would out to about 5k a year for all the owners (assuming it is totally bought)?
Also what about ones where you can exchange both the week you get it and/or the location of the timeshare? That would be a nice perk, if you want to spend a week in LA one year, then a week in NY the next.
I doubt there are non-profit timeshares (but for all I know there could be). What about CO-OP timeshare communities run with the goal of providing a service to the members? It seems those would have more realistic prices for real estate and maintenance fees.
Secondary market is the best place to buy a timeshare. There are a few websites run by non timeshare companies that are fantastic. You can purchase a timeshare there depending on location for much less then half.
Couple things to know.
how much are the maintenance fees
is it deeded
what are the escrow and title charges
is it a fixed or floating week
how are the major holidays handled
You can join RCI and other timeshare exchange outfits, They are based on points and take into account the star rating of your particular timeshare when exchanging. Somebody with more knowledge about those can help
Ebay is a secondary market but need to know all the hidden costs prior to bidding.
BEFORE you buy, go to Tug2.com and ask questions re your timeshare. You’ll get great advice there.
Timesharing has a bad rap with good reason – if you buy from the developer, you will almost always lose money. However if you buy from the resale market, it can be a nice alternative to hotel stays.
A timeshare seems like a terrible investment. Assuming the numbers in the OP are correct, that for $20,000 with a $500 annual maintenance you get a week’s stay in a hotel room/apartment equivalent somewhere nice. What if instead you invested the $20,000 in the bank or a decent stock fund and used the income and the $500 annual maintenance for a hotel room or to rent a small cottage in the same place? Plus you’d have the flexibility of going where ever and when ever you wanted.
here’s a fascinating little observation, that should make you think twice about whether a timeshare is a good idea:
I once read a newspaper interview with a sales agent who sold timeshares . He used the typical high-pressure sales presentation. And he said that many times people would listen, but not commit. They would take his brochures and give him their phone number,asking him to call them tomorrow, after they had read the material carefully.
He then said the thing that fascinated me: he never called any of those people back. The reason: he said that people who buy timeshares do it emotionally,as a gut reaction. If they don’t sign immediately, if they take the time to look at all the facts and make a careful, reasoned decision,then ** they never, never buy a timeshare.**
I would qualify that. They never buy a time share from him. A little bit of research leads to the realization of a secondary market. Once a buyer finds the secondary market, even if they end up buying the timeshare, they will buy it secondhand.
Shop the secondary market and base your buying decision on the maintenance fee and trading power only. I know several people who have done that and bought timeshares in South Africa with low annual fees and decent trading power. They have never even been to their home resort but instead use it to trade into what otherwise would be a much more costly location.
I’ve never, ever seen an upside to a timeshare, even when the financials are in order. How many people want to not only spend every vacation in the same place, but do it on a rigid annual schedule?
I concede there might be a small number of special case situations where it would be a good idea, but it would be smaller than the number of people for whom a $250k motorhome is really a sensible purchase.
There are so many better ways to plan and manage vacation time, with more flexibility and likely at far less cost. I’d say there is NO good way to buy a timeshare.
::raises hand::
My parents have had the same time share for over 30 years. It’s in the mountains, about 1.5 hours from where we live. It started as a family vacation spot for the 5 of us (them and 3 kids). Now my kids are nearly grown and look forward to going every year. My siblings and their kids dsrop in for a day or 2, the last few years we have had to rent another unit there were so many of us. I plan on taking over the maintenance payments and keeping it in the familiy for the foreseeable future.
It’s a small, well maintained, low key resort in a place we like to go. We take vacations to other places during a given year, but this one is the tradition.
Not all timeshares are on a rigid schedule. Many of the ones out there are now point systems, so instead of the third week in July every year, you have 100 points or whatever that you can schedule for different times. Disney, Hilton, and a few others go with this type of system.
Of course, in those systems you do have to make sure to plan out a little more (as it happens I just booked my Disney timeshare today for a trip in November).
Now, with points systems, the resale market can be tricker–points systems often let you “borrow” points from the next year, so the resales are often stripped for that next year.
I do second the TUG forum recommendation, it was very useful to read for me. As for the question of it being a good investment, of course it isn’t. Vacations are never good investments, they aren’t supposed to be. Yeah, I could “save” by not buying the timeshare and just go to a Motel 6 or something, but that just spirals down to me saving everything by just never going anywhere at all, which is the exact behavior I was getting the timeshare to fight.
But like any vacation, only do it if you can easily afford it. Much like you’re not supposed to take out a loan for a vacation, you shouldn’t take one out for a timeshare.
We have friends who are into them. They said that if you get a place where you can stay at various properties around the country, select one as your base with lowest maintenance. Maintenance fees vary greatly.
We went to a pitch with no intention of buying - and didn’t. But the price had dropped about 50% by the time we left. That just shows why the secondary market is a good idea.