What is timeshare? Is it like AMWAY ?
There are many diffrent ways to do timeshare, so I’ll explain it the best that I can.
Time Share is where you buy a unit at a resort for a week. You acctually own this week, not just the right to use it, it can be sold by you, or passed down to your descendents. In order to keep the week you have to pay maintance fees every year, Normaly around $400-600 but varies based on the resort.
That is the most popular way to do timeshare, however there are others. One diffrent way is where you buy a week worth of time, but you can use that week any time of the year. There are also Right-to-Use where you just buy the right to use the property instead of a share of the property, this normally expires after a set of time (like 99 years).
You can trade a week of time share you have to go to some other resort, through a third party like Interval International or RCI. Time share is normally only worth it if you are accully going to use it at your home resort most years, and if it is somewhere in demand (Florida, Hawii, etc).
I hope this helps, if you have any other questions about timeshare just let me know.
Thank you…
are there any pit falls in owning a timeshare?
The biggest timeshare pitfall is that most timeshares have zero resale potential. If you don’t intend to spend THAT week EVERY year at THAT location, you will want to trade for a vacation somewhere else. If you can’t make the trades because your timeshare isn’t in a high-demand location, or your week is a bad week for that location, you probably won’t be able to sell your share, either.
Many unhappy timeshare owners sit around, resentfully paying their maintenance fees, sometimes taking vacations in a place where they don’t want to go, because they are stuck with a hasty decision.
There is an outfit which deals with trading time shares for a given year. If you have one in Myrtle Beach, you can put it in for exchange, and select one in Morocco, for the same week or another week, if available. Of course it comes at a premium. I don’t remember all the particulars, but generally that’s how it operates. If you don’t wish to get involved with that extra expense, you must be certain that the timeshare you buy is the type of vacation you will want for years to come. You may be able to rent it if you don’t wish to go in any year, but there’s no guarantee that it will be rented. As said, you just cannot sell it. There are outfits around that actively advertise that they will put your unit on the market, but they demand a down payment, which is most unusual in real estate deals. Many of these firms are not reputable and actually don’t make any effort to sell the unit at all. (Hell, they got your money.)
Timeshares are sold by high pressure sales. In order to resell a unit, the same method must be used, but only the developer of these resorts who sell the timeshares do that very hard sell. You give money to a dealer who says it will sell it for you, and they have no incentive to do so, having already received your money.
Repeat after me “timeshares area ripoff” This is a great scheme to sell a $100,000 for $500,000 to as many as fifty diffeent people. They are almost unsaleable. If you must buy one (and please don’t) buy one from the aftermarket. there you will find $50000 timeshares for $3000.00 or some for free if you will pay taxes and upkeep etc.
Remember, don’t say you were not warned.
As Nametag said, if you don’t own a timeshare in a good location they might not be worth what you paid for them. I own a week in Orlando, FL. about 3 miles from WDW in the middle of Aug. That week is in high demand so I can trade it and go almost anywhere I want with only having to pay the transfer fees (about $75 for domestic, $150 for international). It is still only worth it if you plan on going to the same place almost every year.
One major disadvantage to owning a timeshare is the cost. It costs around $12,000 (varies depending on location, size, and demand) for a week, and then around $500 a year. It can take a long while to get the worth out of the timeshare. I live in Atlanta, GA so Florida is pretty close to me, so I can go down there every year without a problem. Most people who buy timeshare just get pulled into it with the sales pitch.
One advantage though is that you can let anyone you want to use the week, or if you can’t use it that year you can deposit it with one of the large timeshare exchange companies like Interval International. You can also tell your resort to just rent the room out like it was a normal hotel suite, and if you do that you don’t have to pay the maintaince fee, or not as much of one.
[sub]DISCLAIMER: All of this is just from my experience from owning a timeshare, I don’t take any responciblilty for anything.[/sub]
I hate these SDMB hamsters, they are always trying to eat my posts! Good thing I’ve learned to copy and paste before I hit post.
I went to a timeshare ‘presentation’ (read hard sell session) - never again!
The techniques they used to try to sell me these things are intellectually dishonest, for example:
I was asked how much money was the most that I would ever consider spending on a two-week holiday, I answered £2,000 (which would have bought us both a very nice cruise at the time), he replied “so £2000 per year for the next, say, thirty years, not including inflation you’re going to spend £60,000 on holidays”.
There were a number of other tricks, including plain deliberate error of calculation and diversion.
I walked out in disgust (when they eventually unlocked the door) nothing that requires such hard sell can be good; if it was, people would be queueing up to buy it, not being herded into locked rooms and held captive until they sign.
What do timeshare companies claim is the benefit of timeshares - for both them and the buyers?
I mean, if timeshares really were great value, why would a businessman sell property as a timeshare - surely the profits on a regular sale or rental would be higher ?
Also, does anyone have any info on “EXA International”, a timeshare company which recently proposed selling timeshares on a cruiseship (the Rembrandt/Rotterdam).
That would be assuming that there is a market to sell the property outright (if it were honest and above-board)it would be wasteful for me to buy a villa in Spain if I wouldn’t live there all the time.
You could buy it & rent it out when empty, or just rent somewhere when you wanted.
Sure, and people do that, but then it would be my risk if O couldn’t find a tenant.
And rent somewhere for just a week or two when I go on holiday? Naah, it’ll never catch on. 
Finally, someone to tell my timeshare experience to who can’t raise their eyebrows and roll their eyes (well, you can at home, but I can’t see you (no smilies accepted 
)).
I went to a presentation similar to Mangetout’s 2 1/2 years ago. My g/f was hooked and they wanted us to sign a £6k contract for a week in a place in Portugal. To get any more info, you had to sign (with a 14 day opt out, aka “cooling-off peirod”?). So we did (and promptly cancelled, as you’ll see).
My attitude was that if you couldn’t kiss that money goodbye, then you shouldn’t gamble it on Timeshare (horror stories and past prejudices were what I was remembering at the time). £6k was, for us, too much to gamble.
We saw an advertisement for the Paradise Club. After getting over the tacky name, I contacted them and they sent us a video & pack, instead of a sales rep. The deal was £2k for a Tenerife studio.
To date, we have had excellent holidays off this. We don’t go to Tenerife, but the exchange power seems to get us anything we want - for a recent trip to WDW (off season, just in time for 9/11), we were offered a 2 bed apartment (turned down, because it seemed wasteful). We’ve also been on one package holiday since. The accomodation was terrible, and for an extra £50 we could have used RCI and stayed somewhere pleasant.
To summarise, pay as little as you can, try to get a Gold Crown or Resort of Distinction (with RCI, I don’t know what II calls it’s better places), check the management fee’s, say “no” to high-pressure sales and be prepared to lose the money and you should be pleasantly surprised.
[I’m not certain of this, but I get the impression that European (or possibly non-American) properties carry a higher exchange value.]
nicky - that’s true, until the Spanish government shafts you (as they did to foreign property owners in the 80s). Anyway, there’s the hassle of renting and the lack of control - my father didn’t receive any money from a Swiss skiing property that he owned and which was rented out 48 weeks/year. The locals did okay, and the management companies kept going bust.
O, in case you are wondering, is what O have decided to call myself from now on.
Something else to consider is that ‘package’ vacations that include accomodations are often close to the same price as airfare alone. So you’re not necessarily saving all that much money with a timeshare.
And if you add up all the costs of a timeshare, including the loss of income on the $12,000 you paid and annual maintenance/transfer fees, a week in a timeshare might cost you $3000 a year, plus all the liabilities and risk.
I could take that $3000 for accomodations alone and go on a pretty nice vacation.