Are you happy with your Florida time-share property?
The US housing crunch has hit vacation timeshares hard. Sales have fallen, expenses have risen, and older developments have aged ungracefully — prompting many long-time owners to bail for just pennies on the dollar.
It's clearly a buyer's market. You can find stacks of free and nearly free timeshares are listed at SellMyTimeShareNow or Timeshare Resale Vacations.
Most owners just want to get out from under the maintenance fees, but many are discovering that it may be even harder to sell a time-share than it is a single-family house in Detroit, according to Reuters.
One cash-strapped retiree placed an ad on the Time-share Users Group’s website offering his 140,000 points — usually enough for a week in Pompano Beach, Florida — for a penny, but got no takers.
Eventually, he got out from under by listing with Time Share Refuge, a third-party site that helps move distressed properties. But there are lots of people who are still stuck.
If you're tempted to jump in, it may take more than the $1 purchase price, of course. New owners often have to pay membership fees, closing costs, and a portion of the property’s real estate taxes.
And, like most condo arragements, if the property faces major repairs, timeshare owners may be required to chip in even more money.
Do you own a US time share? Have things worked out as planned? Have you ever considered buying one?
By Gordon Powers, MSN Money
Posted by: bigm | Aug 13, 2021 9:37:06 AM
Well, with how much they cost to buy, it was stupid and not worth it. When we went down on our honeymoon, they had some that was like a foreclosure so really cheap. Since we were not going to end up paying to buy the condo forever like those other ones and the condo fees were half of what the others were and it was beach front, we thought what the hell. In the first few month of having it, my sister was away and got ill so I banked it and used it for my parents to go see her overseas somewhere else. I don't know if we will make it to our home timeshare but just the places we can get are incredible. Last year, we banked again and when someone else. Those places are incredible and for what we paid, well worth it. Now, on the other hand, my sister had a timeshare up here and it was terrible. Fees double what we pay and restricted use and she couldn't sell it and ended up giving it back to them to sell and do whatever. Ours is for life. So really, you have to watch what and where you get before you make a decision. Sadly, it isn't exchangeable as well all over like they say it is, as this year there isn't a place to use it where we are going. Think most people must be keeping or going there instead of offering up. That is what most people don't realize, someone has to bank theirs to open it up so you can use it there so some places may never be open. So far we are happy but that can always change but I don't think we would have problems selling. Our place just did major renovations so we should be good.
Posted by: Trent Hastings | Aug 13, 2021 11:27:07 AM
Loved our timeshare for the first 10years. No better deal. For the last 10, complete drain on finances and no one, NO ONE, will sell it. Many people/fake organizations trying to scam cash for saying they will sell, including Timeshare Resale, and others. Not one can do the job. Can't give it away.
Posted by: Chilli56 | Aug 13, 2021 11:46:36 AM
We purchased a houseboat timeshare at Lake Havasu as my gf has family in Arizona. Unfortunately we never got to use it as shortly afterwards they were moved to Florida. We also attempted to sell it several times and finally gave up. We are from Canada and they eventually separatd the Canadian and American owners and assigned units in Canada to us. We used the weeks for banking and exchanging but it became a financial drain. What I found funny was they recommended several licensed real estate brokers to handle resales, and in talking to them, none have ever sold one of the weeks.
We also looked at these companies that supposedly "et you out rom under" but found the costs for them to be quite high. I eventually stopped paying strata fees as, in reading the agreement, found that by falling in arrears the unit reverted back to the company. I have my lost my initial investment but better than the constant drain.
I do have one other timeshare however and we use that every year so it all depends on location for us.
Posted by: Western Guy | Aug 13, 2021 11:55:32 AM
As an individual with reasonable financial knowledge I find timeshares to be very humerous.
As an "education" my wife and I went to a presentation when I was in Vegas. They showed us a very high end suite and then had a slick salesman come in and tell us how great it is to vacation. He was pitching vacations which anybody would want but selling timeshares. Notice the disconnect? After that we had to sit with a "consultant."
The deal was crazy. Pay a bunch of cash upfront (4-5K for 2 weeks), pay a yearly "maintenance" (as I recall around 700-800), have limited selection on places to stay, extra cost if you switched out of the country, potentially lose your time if you can't use it, and to top it off instead of guaranteeing you a location/time period they used "points." Which means the company could at any time inflate the cost of units by increasing the point cost (ie each year your points will probably buy less "value"). 20 years down the road when the timeshare was up you would own nothing.
Instead at a young age I took that same 5K plus another 2.5K I had and bought a nice recreational property (back during the 5% down rules). I rented it out. Over the last 7 years it has now averaged cashflow about $125 above costs each month giving me a return of $1,500 a year which I spend on a nice vacation. Also I now have equity of about 100K in it due to property value increases. Instead I could have spent 5K upfront and a further 5.6K over those last 7 years on a timeshare. Guess who is ahead....
The thing about that day that truly blew my mind was how many people around us were succumbing to the terrible deal.....
Posted by: John | Aug 13, 2021 8:13:59 PM
At one time in my past, a time-share company tried to con me into some property. Thank God I didn't fall for it. I have, in the meantime, purchased my own properties on beaitiful lakes, and am enjoying them immensely. My property values have escalated enormously, and people are offering $2,500 per week to use my properties for their own vacations. Screw time-share. I have now retired to one of my estates. Absolute heaven!
Posted by: John | Aug 13, 2021 8:16:27 PM
Damn F**king hell, I have a typo in my last post..... should be .... beautiful..... F**cking hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Minakl | Aug 13, 2021 9:24:34 PM
Timeshares are waste of money - we learned the hard way. The purchase price was disproportionate to the value and now the maintenance fees are nothing short of outrageous. We chose to walk away from our "investment" this past year. Of course the timeshare company wants to be paid for "maintenance" and taxes they feel they are owed. Unfortunately for them, we live in another country and are far beyond their reach. Eventually, they'll figure it out and take back their "property" that was such an excellent “investment”.
In short, DO NOT buy a timeshare unless you have endless bundles of cash you are not fond of!
Posted by: Auctions Government | Aug 14, 2021 3:49:09 AM
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Posted by: LMOL | Aug 14, 2021 4:38:20 PM
If you are not interested in purchasing a timeshare, do not attend a timeshare presentation! The free gifts are not worth wasting a day of your vacation, and putting your hard earned money at risk of being scammed by the timeshare salespeople. If you have already purchased a timeshare there are good articles on how to use timeshares properly.
http://www.timesharescam.com/timeshare-scams-blog/