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Anyone know things about timeshares?
Backstop
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I know the usual criticisms, the hard selling, the high price of entry etc. I don't think that advice is going to apply here because I'm not buying it from the company. Mainly looking for advice and experiences on timeshares and the selling thereof.
A family member offered to sell me his timeshare in Playa del Carmen for $900. The company charges a $500 transfer fee. The annual commitment is one week at $310 per week for the room only (this is not fixed but he says it's only gone up $50 in the past ten years). If I want to reserve additional weeks they are $1600 each week but are all-inclusive (food, drinks, shows).
So as I understand it I'd be on the hook for $310 whether I use the week or not. I don't see myself buying additional weeks because for that price I would just go somewhere else, so I'm not really concerned about the all-inclusive price. In addition, this isn't tied to a certain week of the year, you call and make a reservation for any time they have space available at the resort.
Questions:
From what I've read you can sell your timeshare to someone else, or put it on eBay, just like this person is selling it to me. Anyone had experience that says otherwise?
Seems as though the main downsides to timeshares are (A) same vacation place every year (B) high price of entry takes a long time to amortize into savings. With only $1400 as an entry fee am I ahead of the game?
Feel free to criticize the whole time-share thing but remember in my situation I am not going to be facing the salesman and the contract terms are already set with a much lower initial fee than was originally paid.
A family member offered to sell me his timeshare in Playa del Carmen for $900. The company charges a $500 transfer fee. The annual commitment is one week at $310 per week for the room only (this is not fixed but he says it's only gone up $50 in the past ten years). If I want to reserve additional weeks they are $1600 each week but are all-inclusive (food, drinks, shows).
So as I understand it I'd be on the hook for $310 whether I use the week or not. I don't see myself buying additional weeks because for that price I would just go somewhere else, so I'm not really concerned about the all-inclusive price. In addition, this isn't tied to a certain week of the year, you call and make a reservation for any time they have space available at the resort.
Questions:
From what I've read you can sell your timeshare to someone else, or put it on eBay, just like this person is selling it to me. Anyone had experience that says otherwise?
Seems as though the main downsides to timeshares are (A) same vacation place every year (B) high price of entry takes a long time to amortize into savings. With only $1400 as an entry fee am I ahead of the game?
Feel free to criticize the whole time-share thing but remember in my situation I am not going to be facing the salesman and the contract terms are already set with a much lower initial fee than was originally paid.
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It's a nice central city on the Yucatan coastline... you can definitely make up several week-long vacations worth of travel there if you really want to explore the area... so it's not the worst time share you could buy, I imagine.
I don't really know much about the business end, though.
Caveat: I know dick-all about timeshares, thinking about this as if it were a condo.
Supposedly, this is how tons of timeshares get you. Good luck finding availability.
Were you to really consider doing this I would make damn sure there are no hidden fees or anything else nefarious going on, and definitely inquire about availablity and so on. As said above, it seems like a nice hotel room would cost you about the same and you would be stuck having to make payments on the thing either.
I mean, that's you, perhaps his relative is not so honorable. He may be having a hard as hell time trying to get rid of the thing and is trying to pawn it off on a trusting relative.
Not all timeshares are scams(No matter what the general PA poster will have you believe), get reviews for the place online and see if perhaps you can talk to people who have stayed there.
Tell him thanks, but if you want to blow money and get jack shit for it, you'll look at booze, drugs, and high-quality hookers first.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
That doesn't mean that they're universally great. As you say in your post, the downside is that this would be someplace you'd go to each year, to the same place and for the same things. If you like it, then it's awesome, as a lot of timeshare locations are rather nicer than what you'd get just staying at a resort for X dollars (usually suites if in a hotel, or small houses/duplexes/apartments, which means it might have kitchen amenities).
For example, plenty of people have 'vacation homes' that are essentially just timeshares. A lot of people like the consistency and it gives them something to look forward to. I've got a friend here at work who goes on a cruise every year, generally to the same locations but likes being on the boat and on a vacation, and he looks forward to it. My parents are occasionally tempted by timeshares because they have no qualms with going to essentially the same place. But they have the vacation time as well as specific vacation money for this.
The other reasons are generally bunk -- don't buy timeshares for investment purposes or for, well, any other reason than you want to vacation there every year.
My family has a time share and it's never been a problem for us. But the one we have is pretty great mainly because the company has multiple resorts and we can stay at whichever one we feel like.
Honestly, do some research and see if other people like it or not.
And that way YOU get to decide when to take the vacation, not whatever "week" you own.
If it were me, I wouldnt take it even if he offered it for free and you just had to pay the yearly "upkeep".
What I was getting at is it would behoove him to figure out the "market" rate of the timeshare and see if what his relative is asking is competitive; if it's not it may be indicative of some defect/issue*. When selling to a relative or friend I wouldn't necessarily offer them a sweet deal, nor would I gouge them; I'd offer them the "what I'll take" price, not the "what I'd ask for" price.
Personally, I balk at selling anything "major" to friends or family. If the buyer encounters some random unforeseen expense relatively soon after the sale (or even down the line), that could put pressure on the relationship. Shit can happen even if no one's trying to screw anyone over. If it's a stranger, well caveat emptor.
I don't see any particular value in a timeshare, particularly one that does not appear to have kitchen facilities (what's the "all-inclusive" stuff about?). Will it be cheaper then renting a condo?
*Unless this relative owes you a favor or something, and a cut-rate price is a way of making it up to you.
I wouldn't be paying the $1600/wk ever, only the $310 for the week (I wouldn't opt for the all-inclusive food, I'd rather find places to eat in town). I guess if we use it four years, adding up the yearly, and the price, and the transfer, would add up to about $100 a night anyway. Hrm.
We have been to the area before, but not this hotel. I know the beach wasn't so nice because of the hurricanes, but I thought they had dredged up a bunch of sand to expand them back. It's not like a condo where we'd be renting the same place every time, they'd give us any studio-level room available.
So, while this looks like a decent deal it's not much better than just getting a room through travelocity or something. The only advantage being it would get us into the trading scene and maybe we could use it to score inexpensive weeks at other places.
How so? it sounds like a family person offering a slightly better than normal deal to another family member to get out of a time share.
Time shares are forever or at least long enough to be a problem.
Also I got lice just looking at one once.
I know neither of those are helpful advice but at some point both sayings will echo in the head of a person involved in a time share.
Personally, I don't know how he does it.
I'd totally do a timeshare in Maui. So long as the fees remained constant, it had a kitchen and was walking distance from a beach I liked. I just never found one that was cheaper then securing a condo. I can always tack on a stay at a nice hotel at the end of the vacation.
They are trying to sell as a vacation type deal, but legally you own 1/52th of an actual physical unit . That's so you are legally bound and can't try to get out without facing legal recourse.