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Time Shares?

N

Namuna

Platinum Member
Wife and I recently returned from an awesome, week long vacation in Hawaii (entirely on the island of Kaua'i). While we were there we got roped into a Time-Share presentation and I came within a breathe of buying one.

What halted me is that being a hot-deals freak, no way I could jump into something like a Time-Share without knowing a LOT more info beforehand and what the best deals are.

The presentation was given by folks representing the 'Shell' business of TimeShare people and they were pressing us on their 'Point' system. I was able to get the gyst of it, and that eventually you pay off the cost and 'own' that amount of time...But then you have to take in the fact of you never really stop paying (maintenance fees and memberships fees and so on).

So here are some questions, if anyone has decent links to solid info that's already out there that's great, otherwise here goes...

1. A part of the sales pitch is to buy NOW, because prices are always going up...So then I inquired about resale value (not that I would intend to buy with the intent to resell, but what if?) and the girl was (to say the least) very vague with her answers and was pushing that I shouldn't think about that? What's the deal there?

2. Quite a few of the other people we saw in the presentations were buying 2nd, 3rd or even more weeks in TimeShares and not necessarily all with the same companies...Are these people looking for ways to just throw their money out? What am I missing that these people seem to know?

3. The one thing that seems prevalent is that Time-Shares don't really hit their full potential of return until you hit the 20+ years mark of owning them (always assuming you ALWAYS use the time-share in some manner every year)...That about right?

4. There's 'Fixed' time-shares and there's 'Points' based time-shares. The points based system seems good, but I KNOW there's more than meets the average persons' eye and the hot-deal-fanatic in me says I could probably do better on my own (for the most part). What's the lowdown here?

Again, if there's already some good articles or sites out there about this, that would be great for reference...Otherwise any insight and help is much appreciated!

Thanks!
 
my friend's parents have a time-share in Florida. it works out pretty well if you can schedule your days off far enough in advance that you can secure having time off during the same period of time you have allocated for your time share.

also, you'd have to enjoy going to the same place every year.

it's not my cup of tea, but one summer when her parents couldn't make the trip, they let us kids have the timeshare for the two weeks, and it was pretty awesome. a much nicer place than where we'd have otherwise stayed.
 
I work for Marriott Vacation Club Intl which is Marriott's Vacation Ownership (read timeshare) division. Everyone knows the Marriott name and for good reason, Marriott is a company which will be around for many many years to come.

I don't have alot of information on our prices, etc...but I do know that overall MVCI is the top timeshare company that every other timeshare company is chasing. I have toured one of our resorts (Newport Coast Villas, Newport Beach, CA) and it is simply amazing. The villa is about 1500 square feet and is simply astounding. In addition, you can trade in your week for Marriott Rewards points which are good at any Marriott in the nation as well as for flights with many major airlines.

Resale value: These weeks can and do sell for far more than they are purchased for after a few years, at the Newport Coast Villas, the weeks originally sold for ~$13K and now sell for over $25K on average.

What we do where I work (California Call Center) is sell preview packages to: Newport Coast, Desert Springs (Palm Desert), Timberlodge (Tahoe), Canyon Villas (Phoenix), Kauai/Waiohai, Maui and Ko'Olina. The mainland pkgs are typically 4 days/3 nights for $198 at rooms which retail for over $250 a night and the Hawaiin pkgs are typically $698 for 6/5 with a rental car for rooms which retail for over $300 a night. Check out the rates at any of the above resorts for any given night and you will see.

Anyway...getting long winded here...PM me if you want more info.
 
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