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People just need to think about what they are doing when they buy a timeshare. Think about paying that $7000 a year every year. Do you usually pay $7000 for vacation every year. And how much time do you have to vacation. And forget about what they say at the sales talks unless you tweak the numbers yourself. We went to a sales talk where the girl was telling me that we could pay the same amount we are paying now, get more points and pay our maintenance with the extra points we would not use. Pure lie! I had already checked to see how much maintenance our points would pay if we got sick one year and wanted to use the points that way so I knew it wouldn't work. I asked her to show me the figures on paper and when we left the interview my husband said, "You really upset that girl. Did you see her break her pencil?" No I didn't.
We bought what we needed and no more. I love my timeshare and absolutely hate to spend a night in a regular hotel. Maintenance is about what it costs to be in a regular hotel for the same amount of time we are staying in anything from a studio to a four bedroom condo. I'll take the condo, thank you. We also have the option to stay every year in the location we bought by reserving it 13 months out or using the points in other locations throughout the year. Since we like to vacation off season that works fine for me. I have used almost every point every year since 1998 when we bought it. We also have the option of buying more points equal to what we own or borrowing from the next year. I have found it is better to borrow points from next year than it is to bank points you don't want to use this year. I would think that turning them into RCI points rather than banking the points would be best.
Most people run into trouble when they buy too much timeshare and the maintenance does go up. Can you really see maintenance going in any other direction? It is like paying for a country club and then having a yearly fee. Works for us. I have been to so many places I would never have been if we didn't have the timeshare. Maintenance comes out of our checking account that we have special to pay automatic payments. We will be leaving for Lake Tahoe soon. We like having our own car because we don't trust rented cars so we will be driving. We are giving ourselves four full days and two part days to get there. Our travel to and from the timeshare will cost more than the five days in a two bedroom will cost when we get there. But we have never traveled I-80 before so the trip to and from there will also be interesting for us. We are also going through several states we have never been in before.
Our timeshares (2 one bedroom) are each one days travel so we can vacation locally. We are using the opportunity to visit different places. When we don't want to use the points we have two children who help us use them and one child is looking forward to inheriting the timeshare. The other child told us he probably wouldn't be able to afford the maintenance.
Points, trading, banking, trading up, buying more points, maintenance fees always going up, real estate taxes, etc, etc. LOL. Give me a break.
When I want to go somewhere I simply put it on the credit card and pay the bill. I've rented condos, houses, hotel rooms, etc. Keep life simple.
With AirBNB and VRBO there are amazing choices out there. I cant imagine locking into a timeshare network. When I went to Hawaii I rented an amazing 1 bedroom oceanfront detached house for $100 night through VRBO. The water was 10 feet from out door.
Never buy a timeshare unless you can drive to it and you really enjoy the location. You can buy them for dime on the dollar but you have maintenance fees. If maintenance fees are on the lower side and you can drive to it may make sense. Buy from a private person not the resort itself.
Here's my dilema: I've always believed that timeshares are a waste of money, primarily due to the fact that theyou are restrictive, have constant and rising maintenance fees, and are often a headache.
That said, I just met a ln older couple in a diamond resort in Florida that's trying to get rid of theirs (shocker! )
They have 45k points a year with a current Maintenance fee of $7000 a year.
A week in Florida translates to 2000 points. A week in a NY resort is about 5000 points. A week in Cabo San Lucas is 3000 points....just to give you some perspective. So we are talking about 10 or 12 weeks a year for life. And you can pass it on to family after death. And you can let family and friends use it.
Oh, and you can use 20000 points a year to pay all the maintenance fees, leaving you with 24k points or 5 or 6 weeks I guess.....
He wants to sell it for $50k. I guess assuming that I can get a week for about $1k on average at these resorts without having the timeshare, simple math would say that my ROI is about 9 years.
Am I correct in my assumptions? Am I overlooking something?
You are a sucker for even considering it. What the sellers do not tell you is that timeshare operators are notorious liars and cheats, so when you go to make your reservation they tell you they have nothing, but they hold units back to rent them out. Also they don't tell you how much all the fees are for switching to different places or changing dates, you can expect a few hundred more each trip. Like you said it's for suckers.
Take the $50K and the $7K a year and buy a condo in Florida and rent it out while not in use, it will go up in value as opposed to a timeshare that is worthless.
Last edited by LifeIsGood01; 02-22-2017 at 08:47 AM..
No for most people it's a worthless debt that never ends and is hard to get out of. They are so worthless that even after you paid them off in full the timeshare company won't take them back for free and you can't sell them for $1, and no organization will accept them as a donation because they are a debt not as asset.
You are a sucker for even considering it. What the sellers do not tell you is that timeshare operators are notorious liars and cheats, so when you go to make your reservation they tell you they have nothing, but they hold units back to rent them out. Also they don't tell you how much all the fees are for switching to different places or changing dates, you can expect a few hundred more each trip. Like you said it's for suckers.
Take the $50K and the $7K a year and buy a condo in Florida and rent it out while not in use, it will go up in value as opposed to a timeshare that is worthless.
Not how it works at all if you are with a reputable timeshare like Wyndham.
I just go online and look at the resort where I want to stay, then look at the calendar and pick the days I want. It tells me what they have available.
Of course, sometimes nothing is available, especially somewhere like Disney World, where my daughter wants to go, and she asked me to set it up for May. Ha! I laughed at her. Because from May to September, those resorts are booked a year out.
I did manage to find her a 3br condo at our favorite timeshare for May 13th for a weekend, because I am a VIP owner and I get perks.
As far as renting, an owner at a specific resort has to agree to allow the timeshare to rent out in lieu of losing points.
We don't have any fees for "switching". We are on a points system, so we go wherever we want, whenever we want, for however long we want.
Our maintenance fess are ~$100 a month for all of our timeshares combined.
Seriously, it's funny how much people truly don't know about it, and just tell people how awful it is.
Not how it works at all if you are with a reputable timeshare like Wyndham.
I just go online and look at the resort where I want to stay, then look at the calendar and pick the days I want. It tells me what they have available.
Of course, sometimes nothing is available, especially somewhere like Disney World, where my daughter wants to go, and she asked me to set it up for May. Ha! I laughed at her. Because from May to September, those resorts are booked a year out.
I did manage to find her a 3br condo at our favorite timeshare for May 13th for a weekend, because I am a VIP owner and I get perks.
As far as renting, an owner at a specific resort has to agree to allow the timeshare to rent out in lieu of losing points.
We don't have any fees for "switching". We are on a points system, so we go wherever we want, whenever we want, for however long we want.
Our maintenance fess are ~$100 a month for all of our timeshares combined.
Seriously, it's funny how much people truly don't know about it, and just tell people how awful it is.
And when you rent out your timeshare to try to recoup the $1000 maintenance fee you run the risk of the renters trashing the place and you will have to pay for the damage and then try to go after them to recoup your losses.
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