timeshares

[Jon Holdman]

No, not selling timeshares. A real question about them. I've never seriously considered timeshares. I've worked hard in numerous places to avoid timeshare salesmen. Amazingly, the same techniques that work with beggars in India work with timeshare salesman.

I read a recent article in the NY Times talking about how timeshares have plummeted in value. No surprise there. A little searching on ebay shows this is actually true. Lots of timeshares selling for a few hundred bucks, or even less. Most require you pay closing costs, transfer fees, and, sometimes, 2009 annual maintenance. There are lots of these that could be had, all in, for under $1000. Annual fees vary pretty widely, but $500-600 seems pretty typical.

Now, I always advocate staying away from HOAs for investments. They can suck too much out of your pocket and interfer with renting the place. But for a vacation property, I see some advantages. I used to have a second home in Texas, and always ended up mostly working on the place when I was there. Great for the family, not so great for me. So, I've always figured for another second home, I'd just as soon have a condo and at least have my work limited to the interior.

I have to admit I'm seriously tempted by some of these beach timeshares. Not HI, which I really like but which is too expensive to get to every year. Nor Vegas, since hotels are always cheap and part of the fun. But FL, or southern CA, or some such.

What's the downside? I realize its essentially a lifetime commitment, since there's no real resale market for these. Can these turn into huge money pits?

[Rich Weese]

There are SO many things wrong with timeshares! The maint fee is only one of them. Anoter trick they use is to require you to take all-inclusive(meals) in order to book time. There is a resort in Cancun, couple doors down from my condos, called the Sunset. They sell "weeks usage". Very cheap. They also bought a hotel on the Lagoon, called the sunset lagoon. If you call to book, the first thing they ask is if you're taking all inclusive. In the past , if you said no, you got stuck in the sunset lagoon, which is pure crap.
The other problem is the all inclusive rates keep increasing as well as the actual maint. per week. This is where they make their money.
When Jon quoted the maint above per year it was somewhat misleading. That is for your ONE WEEK per year. He is correct where he stated you can book trips with air for not much less.
Go on search for timeshares and critics of timeshares. You'll probably decide like Jon, not to pursue. Rich