My timeshare experience.

[phil1ben]

Yep I am a Tugger...

+1. Learned about the resale market on TUG.

 

[workmyfingerstothebone]

We bought one week in South Lake Tahoe. We were young and could only afford a second tier Lodge but since we got married there it was worth it. Enjoyed it for over 20 years before we gave it back to the developer. Tahoe has changed so much in that 20 years that we no longer enjoyed going there, never did any exchanges. Lots of good times with friends. Now our friends have a timeshare and we use that as well as tag along with them. For us, it forced us to take a vacation every year but it is not an investment.

 

[capjak]

Maybe the others but not the DVC - and certainly not the Beach Club. Disney would not have allowed the purchase/resale at 20 cents on the dollar...likely not even for 50 or 60 cents on the dollar.

Correct, should have stated all but DVC.

Beach Club purchased for $70 per point when retail was I think $92 per point direct. Today resale is around $130 per point and direct from Disney is $185 (but they typically do not have inventory of Beach Club for sale)

 

[kcowan]

I read somewhere that the sales and marketing costs for a timeshare were typically around 35 percent of sale price.

That was true when they were selling you a share in the property. Now they sell you points and those can inflate without limit! You are buying air that can only be used with great effort, planning and sacrifice.

 

[SmallCityDave]

That was true when they were selling you a share in the property. Now they sell you points and those can inflate without limit! You are buying air that can only be used with great effort, planning and sacrifice.

That's simply not true at least for my timeshare, I can't remember the last time we tried to book a vacation and weren't successful.

 

[bclover]

My understanding is you can not make your beneficiaries accept an inheartance. Many are deeded back to the resort.

However, getting a first rate timeshare free would be great as long as they can afford the $1,200 maintenance fee yearly...a Marriott/Hilton/Disney/Westin/Hyatt/Worldmark/Wyndham etc..

otherwise it has value on the resale market.....look on redweek.com

Good question, I've wondered about that too. If nobody wants it what are they gonna do? After the estate is closed there's no one left to sue.

When my parents died, our attorney wrote a letter to the HIlton basically saying that the inheritors (my brother and I) were rejecting this part of the inheritance.

Easy peasy, the hilton sent a letter of condolences to our attorney and haven't heard from them since.

 

[bclover]

That was true when they were selling you a share in the property. Now they sell you points and those can inflate without limit! You are buying air that can only be used with great effort, planning and sacrifice.

Absolutely not true.

I own 200 points at the Beach club resort in Walt Disney world. My husband and I purchased in 2001 since we were both disney fanatics and we had small children.


I have gone on vacations with as little as 1 week notice. NOW I will say that I don't always get to stay at my first choice (Disney has about 8 time share properties on site) of resorts but I have never ever been told there is no room in the inn.

My resort the beach club is a very popular resort due to it's location and it's amenities so if I want to stay there I generally book asap but I'm a pretty easy going gal so if I'm going last minute I don't sweat it.

WE love, love, love our DVC membership. I've taken a variety of different vacations. This past August, my 2 sons and their 3 cousins went down for a graduation celebration.
We stayed onsite at OKW and had a ball (see pictures)
In April I went down with 3 of my best buds. We were celebrating one of them reaching the 5 year cancer free anniversary.
I've taken family and friends on wonderful vacations.

lol and now you know what my user name stands for. bclover. Beach club lover.

 

[bclover]

Lastly let me say that I agree that timeshares are not good investments but I didn't buy mines for a growth investment. lol, if any thing we knew that buying one would cost us MORE money because it probably has forced us to take way more vacations that we would have without it.
It's a prepaid vacation club.

 

[zinger1457]

That was true when they were selling you a share in the property. Now they sell you points and those can inflate without limit! You are buying air that can only be used with great effort, planning and sacrifice.

That's not my experience. Now if you're a family with young kids and the only time you can travel is during the kids school vacations then you might have some issues because you're dealing with peak season weeks but they usually can be overcome by long term planning. One of the keys in getting maximum benefit from your TS is having some flexibility in your travel dates and/or planning well ahead.

 

[Retiree_Having_Fun]

I fail to see how renting your home to someone when you aren't using it causes your neighbors a problem.

How about shared access condo and distribution of front door and or garage keys? Or noise from people that will "only be there for the weekend"

Or a lake house that has a party with a hundred people invited?

 

[SmallCityDave]

Lastly let me say that I agree that timeshares are not good investments but I didn't buy mines for a growth investment. lol, if any thing we knew that buying one would cost us MORE money because it probably has forced us to take way more vacations that we would have without it.
It's a prepaid vacation club.

I also agree however if I tried to vacation as often as we do with the same type of accommodations we have paid for the timeshare a few times over.



I just looked and we've used the TS 58 times (maybe 300 days?) in the last 10 years.

 

[ivinsfan]

How about shared access condo and distribution of front door and or garage keys? Or noise from people that will "only be there for the weekend"

Or a lake house that has a party with a hundred people invited?

In fact you can have this type of disruption from owners and people that live there full time. All VRBO renters aren't disruptive and noisy just like all owners and regular renters aren't polite and considerate. If you buy into a building with rules about sub-letting or weekend renters you should abide by those rules.

 

[Retiree_Having_Fun]

If you buy into a building with rules about sub-letting or weekend renters you should abide by those rules.

Except many people "bought in" before overnight renters. And agreed that you can get disruptions from owners, renters and guests but that's the order in which I would prefer to take my chances. So back to the OP - let the timeshares and hotels rent out their rooms daily. Owners that want to rent out nightly should buy up their buildings and turn them into a hotel if they want to. If it's a single family house - compensate their neighbors for running a hotel.

 

[skipro33]

My dad and his 2nd wife bought a time share in Branson MO. She passed away and Dad has Alzheimers and in a memory care facility. Neither my brothers or I want it, even if for free. Fees are around $700 a year. My brother tried to unload the thing and can't give it away. The management of the timeshare told him to quit making the payments and it will eventually go into default and back into their hands.

I know my dad paid a lot for that time share, much more than it was worth. They used it twice in 10 years. While Dad had his Alzheimers at the time he bought, it wasn't diagnosed. To the time share folks, he was just a dotty old man who didn't know if he was over charged or not and with too much money he shouldn't have so they did the favor of relieving him of some of it.

 

[Huston55]

I also agree however if I tried to vacation as often as we do with the same type of accommodations we have paid for the timeshare a few times over.



I just looked and we've used the TS 58 times (maybe 300 days?) in the last 10 years.

Sounds like you’ve thoroughly used your TS. When you add up the all-in cost, what is your average cost/night for those 300 nights? If you had an up front payment, just use a reasonable IRR to calculate its value in your calculation.

 

[Crewer]

I figure it was a bad decision to buy but we bought before the internet made getting similar accommodations so easy so access to all those places for long weekends seemed great at the time. We've probably done better than break even using it or giving it to friends every year. We have points (Bluegreen) and I was able to book 4 or 5 nights in Orlando so my (adult) daughter and a couple of her friends could stay there during a conference. It was very convenient for the conference and saved them a huge amount in hotel or VRBO costs. I am happy to not have to deal with it for another couple years.

 

[Crewer]

I've started thinking about how our kids will not want to inherit it. Maybe I can find someone about to declare bankruptcy and deed it to him/her before the judgement. Only cost to get out will be the unusually high title transfer fee. LOL

 

[brett]

Both of our timeshare presentations had the same result after it was clear that the timeshare pitch was not going to work.

The final pitch was a 'vacation club' that promised so called huge savings on AI's, airlines, etc. This seemed to me even a less advantageous offering than the timeshare. At one point, the salesperson (a Brit with no apparent knowledge of the US) in Thailand pulled up a wonderful resort in Minnesota. The problem being that it was for a Feb. visit. We wanted warm weather...he had nothing in Fla. The pitch at the Daytona timeshare was equally as bad.....she was trying to tell us that we would get a twenty percent discount on airline fares. Probably only applicable on full fare business or some such. It was a load of nonsense.

My spouse disliked the whole process. She actually felt bad. Me? I spent my career in high end sales and senior management. My goal was to see and hear the pitches since I had heard but never attended. In any event, this was the end of our timeshare shopping/presentation activity. These folks are all on 100 percent commissions. They have bills to pay like anyone else. I have no doubt that most will say anything, imply anything, promise just about anything to close a deal.

 

[SmallCityDave]

Sounds like you’ve thoroughly used your TS. When you add up the all-in cost, what is your average cost/night for those 300 nights? If you had an up front payment, just use a reasonable IRR to calculate its value in your calculation.

It's hard to say because we bought 3 different times & the maintenance fees changed.





If I did that same calculation with prices I've recently seen going out over 10 years with 28day per year the cost would be about $70 per night or just under $20k all in ownership cost.

 

[bclover]

I've started thinking about how our kids will not want to inherit it. Maybe I can find someone about to declare bankruptcy and deed it to him/her before the judgement. Only cost to get out will be the unusually high title transfer fee. LOL

your kids will not have to inherit.

this is from market watch.

3. Heirs can disclaim the timeshare
If the timeshare is the “right to use” type, the heirs should direct the executor to inform the resort that the owner died, so the resort can take steps to take back the timeshare, Finn says.

If the timeshare has a real estate deed or there’s a specific bequest in the owner’s will — “I give my timeshare to my daughters Sally and Simone,” for example — Finn recommends the heirs file a written disclaimer of interest with the probate court handling their parents’ estate.

“You’re letting everybody know, ‘I do not have or want any interest in this property. If I ever did have any, I am disclaiming any interest now,’” Finn says

My parents timeshare took all of one letter from the estate attorney to say I did not want it.

 

[capjak]

Absolutely not true.

I own 200 points at the Beach club resort in Walt Disney world. My husband and I purchased in 2001 since we were both disney fanatics and we had small children.

WE love, love, love our DVC membership.

lol and now you know what my user name stands for. bclover. Beach club lover.

Welcome home! we own there as well as Saratoga Springs, agree love the timeshares and never have an issue booking DVC. Just booked Bay Lake for March 2019 stay.

 

[brett]

No doubt there are good timeshare contracts and not so good timeshare contracts.

One thing we learned is never, ever buy retail as it were. If you do, you are paying far too much. A quick check of the timeshare re-sale market will verify that. We have seen them for sale for as little as 10 cents on the dollar right up to 40 cents on the dollar. These low resale prices give us pause to ask ourselves why this is.

Clearly there is far more supply than there is demand. Are there any resells that sell at cost or at a premium?

 

[bclover]

No doubt there are good timeshare contracts and not so good timeshare contracts.

One thing we learned is never, ever buy retail as it were. If you do, you are paying far too much. A quick check of the timeshare re-sale market will verify that. We have seen them for sale for as little as 10 cents on the dollar right up to 40 cents on the dollar. These low resale prices give us pause to ask ourselves why this is.

Clearly there is far more supply than there is demand. Are there any resells that sell at cost or at a premium?

Disney pretty much holds it's value or actually increases in value. LOL problem is, while you can go all over the world with your DVC membership it loses value if you "trade out". You really have to like going to the mouseworld at least every other year.

Now also Disney has what they call "right of first refusal" meaning when I sell my ownership lol, I actually have to get "blessing" on the sale. So no way in heckdom is Disney going to allow any sale of it's property to sell for 10 cent on the dollar.

I purchased in 2002 and I think I paid around $89 bucks a point. currently if you buy resale the price is ~130 per point.

lol every year I say I'm going to sell and every year I end up going back.

 

[bclover]

Welcome home! we own there as well as Saratoga Springs, agree love the timeshares and never have an issue booking DVC. Just booked Bay Lake for March 2019 stay.

I'm trying to hold out until Star wars land opens up.

 

[kcowan]

Disney pretty much holds it's value or actually increases in value. LOL problem is, while you can go all over the world with your DVC membership it loses value if you "trade out". You really have to like going to the mouseworld at least every other year.

Here are some other options in mouseworld where the free market is at work:
Orlando resales