Time sharing really worth it?

[FoolAndHisMoney]

Since some of you here post questions on if your time sharing will survive bankruptcy, I just have a question about time sharing.

Is it really worth doing? Whenever I would go to those long meetings just for the free breakfast or free tickets or anything else I have always wondered if they increase in value like the sales person says they do. I can't ask the sales person this since they will always say yes.

Just curious if any of you time share holders ever made a dime on it or is it hype.

Thanks!

[FilingOnMyOwn]

Everyone I have known that did it has lost money. And the whole idea is just retarded to me. They are a dime a dozen on ebay - once you buy one you can't recoup what you paid for it. Heres a better idea. Take the thousands you would spend on one, and invest it - stocks, bonds, whatever. Then pay for your vacation every year in cash with your earnings, retaining your original investment.

[FoolAndHisMoney]

Everyone I have known that did it has lost money. And the whole idea is just retarded to me. They are a dime a dozen on ebay - once you buy one you can't recoup what you paid for it. Heres a better idea. Take the thousands you would spend on one, and invest it - stocks, bonds, whatever. Then pay for your vacation every year in cash with your earnings, retaining your original investment.

I totally agree! I was just wondering, but I figured they would be a ripoff.

The reason I thought they were a ripoff is like credit card companies, they give a lot of perks to reel you in and someone has to pay for all those things. I guess it's the people that buy into it.

Thanks for the reply.

[AMISLANDER]

Back in the day in Orlando.....

...when you went to check out the time share, you got super tickets either to epcot, sea world, universal...etc...good tickets but that time share sell was hard!

The sell got easier & the tickets got dumber & there were just too many timeshares & not enough interest...

I agree with the concept of investing & taking the dividends to pay for vacation...it seemed that it was always hard to get the week you wanted somewhere else in the timeshare trade & although they made it sound good, even I knew I could go anywhere cheaper if I made the effort than "owning a piece of Orlando!"

[brokemommy]

Yes, but you have to pay for the good properties, so you start from a position of strength when switching anywhere else. We inherited a timeshare that was almost $30,000 new. No problems ever switching to Hawaii ever.

[willbfree]

We have a very nice timeshare that we should never have purchased because we never used it. Good intentions etc. The cost new is more than triple what you can pick up one exactly like it on Ebay. Our bk attorney says they are such a PITA that the trustees in our locale won't touch them. Trustees will actually give them back because it's not worth their time to try and sell them. Every time the timeshare people call I can hear our bk atty telling us that too. I am waiting to see if the trustee really will just give it to us.

[CompTweaker]

vacation auction sites are very good to shop at and pick up other's time share week that they will not use......many times I have spent 99-350 for the whole week, during the summer, in an oceanview 1-2 or 3 bedroom.....and these are very nice condos in a nice area.

ebay and skyauction.com are my favs

[DebtStinks]

14k into a timeshare and never used it once.... never again. ever ever ever.

[AngelinaCat]

Bad Time-share sales pitch

Once when 'Hub and I went to New Orleans on business in 1989, somehow or other we got lured into sitting in a timeshare promo. 'Hub, when recognizing what it was, whispered to me to 'help him-it was a rip-off-and he was weak in those sort of things'......Yeah, right!! He thought I would be the weakling here......

Little did he know.....

So we go in and get the spiel about how great an investment it was and how you could trade it and you could go anywhere you wanted to, PARTICULARLY Disney World in Orlando. (Mind you, we LIVE in Florida and are within a 2 hour drive of the MouseWorld). The more the woman carried on, the more bored we got.

Then the woman started ignoring 'Hub and concentrated on me by playing on what she thought was my sympathy: "You know, I'm having a really bad day, and I'm not feeling all that well..."

ME: "You're not feeling well? I'm sorry, but perhaps you should have called in sick today."

THAT took her aback, and she then started in on the same canned speech with us that she used when we first came in--two hours ago!

After listening to that for a few MORE minutes, I then said: "Ma'am, I thank you for your presentation, and even though we already told you that we aren't interested at this time [we had, several times], I NOW have to tell you that we are THROUGH, because I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!!!"

We left without the timeshare, thank God, but with two T-shirts, and the script to play when confronted with some unscrupulous ‘process servers’ fifteen years hence.

‘Hub said afterward that he had greatly underestimated me.....

[Flamingo]

Since some of you here post questions on if your time sharing will survive bankruptcy, I just have a question about time sharing.

Is it really worth doing? Whenever I would go to those long meetings just for the free breakfast or free tickets or anything else I have always wondered if they increase in value like the sales person says they do. I can't ask the sales person this since they will always say yes.

Just curious if any of you time share holders ever made a dime on it or is it hype.

Thanks!

Timeshares are only good if you are able to use them or have family/friends that can use them and if you are able to take the time off to be able to go there and take vacation at a certain point in time each year. If one cannot do that and cannot afford the expense involved in doing all that, it's just like going to the department store and seeing the expensive designer dress or outfit marked down that you were dying to have but couldn't really afford it; you buy it (of course it's on sale and the credit card is burning a hole in your pocket!), get home, put it in the closet and never wear it.

We have friends that have had a long-term time share in the Outer Banks, NC. It's within driving range for them so they use it, can afford it and invite family/friends to use it when they cannot. So it is not a waste to them. The ones that are bad are the ones purchased where you have to fly and spend a fortune to get to.

Either do not go to the sales pitch but if you have to go, do not take any checks, credit cards or money and say you forgot your wallet when hit with the pitch and you have to go home and think about it. If you can live without it, you don't need it. The sales folks rely on their hard pitch to make money for themselves and commission. If no one buys, they make nothing extra so they pitch hard.

[AngelinaCatHub]

NO WAY! I knew what I got when I fooled you into marrying me. 'Hub

[fslady]

Timesharing is far far from perfect

Unless you buy resale for pennies on the dollar - you've paid too much. I should know since I did buy at developers prices. That was before I knew about the resale market. On the other hand, we live within easy driving distance to our home resort so it's an easy get away. And having the timeshare available to use or exchange has encouraged (forced?) us to take vacations that we otherwise wouldn't have taken. We've enjoyed numerous resorts in the US, visited Scotland, England, and Ireland. I'm going to a conference in Las Vegas and staying a week in a 1-bedroom condo with a full kitchen, and washer/dryer for less than some of my colleagues are spending for 2 nights in a hotel room.
The main thing is to buy resale and escape the sales presentations.