Timeshare Ownership...opinions?

[Scarpozzi]

I bought into a timeshare sales pitch in 2005 for the exchange points in 2005 and it was pretty awesome. The resort basically sold me a 5 year membership for $2400 out of pocket with $0 maintenance fees after...I only paid RCI membership dues/booking fees to use the near 400,000 points I got for that price (50k points is a week in Hawaii) That stuff expired in 2010, so we've been paying for vacations out of pocket since then.

Fast forward to October of this year. We stayed at a timeshare on the coast for a few nights with my wife's aunt and uncle in a condo that's about 5 hours from home. The maintenance fees are about $850 a year and we can book during half of the calendar year...so we wouldn't be locked to a particular week. Hotels in that area are double or more. This is a 3 bedroom unit with a full kitchen, living room, etc...updated and clean.

Has anyone here bought into one of these and regretted it for some reason? Give me the downsides...I have tons of vacation to burn yearly and $850 seems like a reasonable price for this place...it's deeded, so I think I can rent it on my own without going through a points network. I'm going to call and ask. Thanks.

 

[SearchMaster]

If it's something you can actually use, it *can* be a decent option. The problem is that most people, especially those with kids, have a much less flexible schedule and they end up not using them. My sister and her husband had a timeshare and it was awesome for them - until they renewed and had kids shortly thereafter. They only used it once during their second stint and it was a waste of money. In addition to the time flexibility, you have to consider the location flexibility. Is the one you're considering only for that particular unit or can you book all over their network? For example, if you decide you'd like to vacation at the Grand Canyon this year or take a ski vacation you might not be able to. If you just want ANY place to relax and don't care where, then it can work.

I would imagine that there is a lot of room for negotiation. If you think it will work for you then see if you can get a similar deal that you got the first time. Also, if they are resellable there are sometimes bulletin boards at the unit where people are offering to sell their timeshare at pennies on the dollar - anything just to recoup some of the money they've paid and will owe in the future. There are also websites and brokers that can find sellers for you (for a fee).

 

[NutBucket]

I'd consider a points-type timeshare. I don't think I'd buy into a specific property just because your vacation preferences may change, etc. Just because you have a ton of time now doesn't mean you will in the future. Or maybe you'll move and the property won't be 5 hours from home. Is it worth flying to? That sort of thing.

 

[CraKaJaX]

My dad has had one for many years now. We used it a lot as kids on vacation but haven't done it in a few years. I know that he has an option of 'banking' weeks if he does not use them that year but I don't know the exact details on it. I do know that by now he's got a few weeks banked for whenever we take a trip again. Everywhere we've stayed was a lot nicer than a hotel for sure. The facilities were nicer and there were more amenities than an average hotel. He usually moves it around every couple of years but I can't tell you what the cost is. It's fairly cheap considering we essentially get our own condo anywhere we want for a week or two out of the year. There hasn't been many issues/complaints on our end..... I would say it's something he definitely doesn't regret.

 

[Anubis]

we have one, Points system (Wyndham property) works well, and is used yearly. we have our "weeks" but can exchange weeks for whenever. just gotta make up the points difference if there is one

 

[purbeast0]

i don't know much about timeshares so this may not be obvious to me, but i don't understand what benefit you get from buying a timeshare with strict guidelines of when to use it, when you could just rent from the same hotel whenever you want to go there.

 

[Scarpozzi]

we have one, Points system (Wyndham property) works well, and is used yearly. we have our "weeks" but can exchange weeks for whenever. just gotta make up the points difference if there is one

I still don't fully understand the weeks vs points conversions because my old one was only points and RCI had 2 different logins, depending on which type of resort you owned. Since my home resort basically sold me points, when I would need points, I called the resort and they transferred whatever I needed into my RCI account. It was a little bit of a hassle because I had to wait a day to book when I didn't have points in my account, but worked alright.

Since this unit has floating weeks, I don't know what the value is or how well it trades to other properties up and down the coast. We'll probably go ahead and do it and deal with repercussions later if we aren't able to maximize it's use.

Since we can likely get the unit without paying anything up front in transfer costs and it's 50% cheaper to pay the maintenance fees than paying for a hotel room, I figure if we use it for 3 years, we'll have 3 years to sell it with no use before losing the advantage. (if that makes sense) I'm pretty sure we'll be doing 2 vacations a year and a few conference trips comped through work for the next few years, so this will help spread our money a little further until the kids start school.

 

[OutHouse]

just find a vacation rental on homeaway.com or VBRO.com and dont deal with the timeshare bullshit.

I hate companies having leverage over me and don't get invoked with contract deals like this.

 

[Anubis]

yes thousands of people.


just find a vacation rental on homeaway.com or VBRO.com and dont deal with the timeshare bullshit.

TBH I think the ones now are a lot different vs the ones in the 80s and 90s

for us its actually cheaper vs renting a condo for 1-2 weeks

 

[CPA]

Tough lesson I learned in Vegas back about 8 years ago - don't let your drunk wife talk you into going to a timeshare presentation because you can get a free dinner and free tickets to some crap show.

 

[purbeast0]

Tough lesson I learned in Vegas back about 8 years ago - don't let your drunk wife talk you into going to a timeshare presentation because you can get a free dinner and free tickets to some crap show.

hahaha my wife and i walked out of one of those the first time we were in vegas once we found out they were trying to sell us on a timeshare. they were like 'we will show you one of the rooms up on the top floor' when we were in the lobby like 2 minutes after we were there. that is when i realized what was going on. i was like 'nope sorry we're good' and just left.

 

[Scarpozzi]

TBH I think the ones now are a lot different vs the ones in the 80s and 90s for us its actually cheaper vs renting a condo for 1-2 weeks

That's the only reason I'm considering it. We typically travel with family and end up getting multiple 1 bedroom units or paying for 3 bedroom units at a beach in North Carolina. $1600 for a rental home in 2012, $2300 for a hotel in 2014 and $1700 in 2015 for a larger unit (rather than 2 smaller separate units).

$850 seems like a bargain.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Tough lesson I learned in Vegas back about 8 years ago - don't let your drunk wife talk you into going to a timeshare presentation because you can get a free dinner and free tickets to some crap show.

My wife and I listened to a bunch of those to get:

1. Free breakfast/dinner and then these free perks:

Free helicopter ride in Hawaii ($175 value), $100 cash (Orlando), Free catamaran cruise/drift diving trip/dinner (Isla Mujeres Not sure the value...probably 50,000 pesos each) In all cases, we never spent more than an hour and had youth on our side. We just told the sales people that we were still in college and that they'd be wasting their time with us...and answered all the household income questions at the lowest option.

I always felt bad about the salespeople that got stuck with us, but figured that the hour or so was worth it since they were essentially paying us to listen.

 

[NoTine42]

From what I understand, you should spend time at TUG to fully understand the system(s) that interest you.
http://www.tug2.net

A lot of new people incorrectly assume they are buying a good trading timeshare.

 

[OutHouse]

That's the only reason I'm considering it. We typically travel with family and end up getting multiple 1 bedroom units or paying for 3 bedroom units at a beach in North Carolina. $1600 for a rental home in 2012, $2300 for a hotel in 2014 and $1700 in 2015 for a larger unit (rather than 2 smaller separate units).

$850 seems like a bargain.

850 sounds too cheap. what are the hidden fees?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdSsU6gWdbg

 

[cubby1223]

Timeshares are an obligation to continually spend more and more money every year. You have to spend money on plane trips, lost wages, meals out, other touristy activities, in order to make use of the timeshare.

Basically, you end up spending a lot of money to ensure that a little bit of money doesn't get wasted.

 

[SpiderWiz]

just find a vacation rental on homeaway.com or VBRO.com and dont deal with the timeshare bullshit.
.

We have booked our last two vacation(2014 and 2015) via VRBO.com (which is part of the homeaway company.) Both worked great.

 

[vi edit]

Yeah I spent a lot of time at Tug after checking out a Hilton Timeshare and bought a Hilton one in the resale market.

Hilton is pricey, but their managed properties are top notch. We are deeded into Myrtle Beach which is ridonkulously expensive. My property itself cost me about $7000 and it came with 7000 points to use annually.

Points are nice because it helps create a value metric for seasons and room sizes. I can get an offseason room at a nice place on the Vegas strip for 160 points a night. Or I can do a penthouse, 4BR luxury sweet on the 52nd floor of the Elara for 4200 points a night.

I can book a year out for Myrtle Beach. A 3BR apartment there for 6 nights cost me 6200 points in the 2nd week of June. I'd pay $400 a night for that out of pocket.

I can go down their resorts in orlando and a 2BR suite across from sea world or on international drive for about 350 points a night.

You can bank points and roll them into the next year, or draw them from a future to use in the current. A week stay at kings landing in Hawaii would run me about 10,000 points. So I'd bank for a year and pull from the next still leaving me with 4000 points to use in the next one for a smaller trip to Florida.

Plus you can exchange out to RCI resorts like Disney club or some of the sandals ones. Those are 4800 points + $200 for a week.

My maintenance fees + club dues run about $1400 a year. It's nice for me being a cheap ass to know that I can book at a place and not feel guilty seeing a $350 a night tab. It's all paid for each year with the fees at a price that's about half what I'd pay outright. It makes me also force myself to take vacations...something I'm not great about. So it's not a terrible thing to me.

 

[boomerang]

Yeah I spent a lot of time at Tug after checking out a Hilton Timeshare and bought a Hilton one in the resale market.

Yeah, that's a site worth knowing about whether you're buying, selling or just contemplating.

http://tug2.net/

We bought one in Hawaii. We never regretted the purchase because we used it and traded it. I feel we got our money's worth. I eventually sold it for a number of reasons.

I got tired of having to plan vacations so far in advance. Things may have changed but in order to get a week where we wanted, I had to plan nearly two years in advance, especially if we wanted to go to Hawaii. We bought on Maui but once we'd gone to Kauai, we never wanted to go back to Maui so we were always trading.

Another reason was after a horror story I heard. The crux of it is that a woman owned two in Cancun. When the hurricane went through there, the resort where she owned was destroyed and she got a bill for like $35K x 2. The Hawaiian islands are long overdue for severe weather, so ...

And, the state of Hawaii pretty much declared war on timeshares and were and perhaps still are making it more and more difficult for them to operate. Maintenance fees were also going through the roof in part because of actions by the state.

I sold it for $1 and was glad to have it gone. But I still don't think they are necessarily a bad purchase if you intend to use it.

Edit: I much prefer staying in a nice condo over a hotel room.

 

[Genx87]

What are the maintenance fees? What are the up front costs? Not sure if I have ever seen a timeshare come out. Buddy of mine made the mistake of buying one through Disney for 16K about a decade ago. He has a mortgage payment + 2400 in maintenance fees\year. For 2400 bucks he can easily find housing, possibly right on Disney properties if he looks at the right time. He loves it because he is on the property. But they go every two years. So for 4800 + mortgage costs he gets on the property every two years for a week.

/facepalm

 

[poofyhairguy]

Second hand they are a good value.

 

[Anubis]

that's Disney, we paid I think 14k for a place in the Caribbean (grand cayman) and added on some weeks for another lets say 12k. its totally paid off. we pay 1000$ if we use it, if we don't we pay 1/2 that and it goes into the rental pool for that year

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Second hand they are a good value.

Otherwise no one is selling you something that is worth LESS than the value derived.

"oh no, don't pre-pay me, locking yourself into a permanent vacation, and giving me all this money for me to invest that you now can't earn anything with".

Do a NPV of all your investments against at least 6%

and just look at the secondary vs. primary market for how much depreciation you'll face.

 

[DrPizza]

We went to a time share meeting in Myrtle Beach. Supposed to be there an hour. First we watched a movie about the glamorous lifestyle. I noticed the other couples seemed to be really into it; I was skeptical. Went through the rest of the process, got to numbers, etc. At some point, I managed to poke my head into the salesman room where they hung out - I could see from a big plaque that our salesman was consistantly the #1 salesman. After about 40 minutes, I asked if I could be alone with my wife for a minute or two. By the time the salesman had returned, I had worked out the numbers for total cost over the first 10 years, including interest, and figured that out on a per trip basis - it wasn't a deal at all, and locked me into their properties for vacations (not that there weren't a lot of options). I did apologize for an approximation - "I didn't have a calculator, so I used this approximation" - the guy just looked at us, sighed, and said, "I don't know how you got this offer - we never sell to math teachers. I knew as soon as you said you were a math teacher that I wouldn't make the sale" "The offer was sent to her, a nurse." "Ah. Usually we do a lot better with nurses." No more high pressure sales tactics; he just signed our paperwork right then and presumably went on to get an easier target from the people waiting.

Maybe there are some time shares out there that are a good deal - the one we went to certainly wasn't. (I did the math.) I replied in a thread shortly after it with some of the actual numbers, I believe, if anyone wants to search. But, of course, your numbers would be different from my numbers. Annual fees for 1 week were similar - around $850 "maintenance" (almost $50k to maintain a property for a year? Seriously?) And, that was for an "every other year" plan. At $1700 per vacation... that's getting into the ballpark of just staying at a hotel at the beach. Tack on the fees up front, and I would be behind for at least 20 years (excluding considerations like loss of interest on that money paid up front, etc.)

 

[Feneant2]

Be careful about ownership now... there are rarely ownership periods and they now deed for life and spew you bullshit about leaving it to your children and their children's children until the universe explodes.

Wife made us go to a presentation in Vegas a few years ago and then had us buy one for 10k bi-annual. We paid it off in a year and really, now that it's paid off we're benefiting from cheap vacations but my calculations were that we'll only break even in about 40 years of bi-annual usage. We went with weeks over points but the new gimmick now is to call saying it's 'urgent' that we call them back and when we do they ask to switch from weeks to points which is much better for us in every way possible- except it'll cost 5000$ to switch (AKA-we sold all the timeshares now need new scams to get money out of former suckers)

Best bet- get it used, the one we bought for 10k you can get for 1$ from desperate sellers. If I had waited on the purchase then researched I probably would still have bought because most resorts are head and shoulders above hotels, we're talking 800-1000 square feet, full kitchens, etc. We're going to Orlando just next week in fact to a Hilton Grand Vacation Club resort that we exchanged for and those places are sweet. Having it paid off and excluding that initial expense, I figure we're paying about a third of the price it would cost to rent there via Expedia.

Oh, and as to the people who are interested during sessions, they are all planted there by the vendor.