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Guide to Purchasing Timeshares

by Lisa Ann Schreier
written by Lisa Ann Schreier

Have you ever been to a Timeshare presentation and wondered if you should buy one? Here are 7 things every consumer needs to know about Timeshares and Timeshare Presentations: Purchasing Timeshares

Don’t believe everything you hear

This rule applies to Uncle Mark telling you that timeshare do not work because he was never able to trade to go anywhere else (perhaps because he owned in Kansas?) to the salesperson telling you that you’ll always be able to trade at anytime for any place. Location is key when talking about week-based timeshare if you want trade or exchange into different locations. This is especially true for high demand timeshares such as Hilton Head in the summer or the French Alps in the winter, etc. You need to own in an area that has high, year round, global demand.

Nothing is Free or Perfect, Always

Avoid anyone, especially a salesperson or a sales manager who uses the words FREE, PERFECT, ALWAYS and/or NEVER. Generally speaking, if things seem too good to be true, they are.

Do your homework ahead of time

Have some general ideas about timeshare and be truthful about how much you spend for vacation accommodations such as:

  • In 2015, the average price of a 2-bedroom timeshare purchased on the primary market was about $21,000
  • That same timeshare can be found on the reputable resale market for around $5,000
  • Most, if not all timeshare resorts allow you to exchange or trade off to another member resort.
  • Location is KEY in determining how “good” any particular timeshare is…unless you are purchasing a point-based timeshare, where location no longer factors into trading power at all.
  • Go back 2 or 3 years and determine how much you spend for your hotel/motel/condo rooms and include the hidden room tax

Keep an open mind

If you are going to go to one of these timeshare presentations for the gift (dinner, cash, theme park tickets, etc.) or just because you are required to go in order to receive the discounted hotel room, then do yourself a favor and at least go in with an open mind and let the salesperson do his/her job. On the other hand, if you have already determined that timeshare is not for you, for whatever reason, then why would you want to waste your valuable vacation time by listening to something you don’t want? After 2 or 3 presentations, you should be able to determine if timeshare is a good idea for you. If so, then purchase one. If not, then just stop wasting your time!

Don’t purchase any type of timeshare as a real estate investment

Even if the timeshare is deeded, it should not be considered a financial investment, but an investment in your future vacations. If you buy a timeshare today for $21,000, use it for the next 20 years and sell it for only $5,000, ask yourself how much you’ll be able to get for your hotel/motel receipts over the same 20-year period.

Don’t assume anything

Many timeshares are deeded in perpetuity. Many are not. Many timeshares operate on a “points-based” system. Often, those points are not inflation proof. Always ask questions and don’t be afraid to say “no” if the product doesn’t suit your needs or wants.

Don’t cave in to high-pressure sales techniques

A high-pressure sales person or sales manager is high pressure for one or two of two reasons: Ignorant or they don’t believe in their own product. Don’t confuse high pressure though with the fact that in all cases, you will be asked to purchase on the spot. Focus on these points:

  • Do you understand the product?
  • Do you like the product and/or the particular resort?
  • If you had it, would you use it? Meaning do you plan or intend to spend that amount of money “anyway” on vacations? (Note the word “plan.” You can’t predict the future of course, but you can and should plan.)
  • Focus on the long-term. In the short-term you will not be saving any money.
  • Compare apples to apples, when talking about cost and value. You may not be saving money even in the long term, but are you having a better vacation staying in a spacious 2-bedroom villa in a quality resort as compared to a 400 square foot hotel room?

For more information and to find out if timeshare is right for you, contact Lisa Ann Schreier at Timeshare Insights (www.timeshareinsights.com)

Guide to Purchasing Timeshares

Guide to Purchasing Timeshares Guide to Purchasing Timeshares Guide to Purchasing Timeshares Guide to Purchasing Timeshares Guide to Purchasing Timeshares Guide to Purchasing Timeshares Guide to Purchasing Timeshares Guide to Purchasing Timeshares Guide to Purchasing Timeshares Guide to Purchasing Timeshares Guide to Purchasing Timeshares Guide to Purchasing Timeshares Guide to Purchasing Timeshares Guide to Purchasing Timeshares Guide to Purchasing Timeshares

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How the Timeshare Industry keeps you from Rescinding
Timeshare

How the Timeshare Industry keeps you from Rescinding

by Lisa Ann Schreier
written by Lisa Ann Schreier
Everyone knows that in the US and most other countries, there are so-called consumer protection laws allowing a consumer to cancel or rescind the purchase of a timeshare and receive all of their money back. In the US, these rescission periods range from 3-10 days. How the Timeshare Industry keeps you from Rescinding
Let’s forget for a minute that most timeshare developers make the consumer follow quite strict and sometimes arcane procedures to actually rescind. Let’s further forget for a minute that at least one well-known developer goes even further and actually hides any and all mention of the rescission period in a ‘secret compartment’ in the myriad of paperwork given to purchasers.
Let’s focus on the absolute absurdity of the short period of time that consumers have to cancel.
To wit:
  1. Purchasers are given either mounds of paperwork or worse yet, a CD/ROM with all the terms and conditions. 99% of the time, the purchase is made while the consumer is on vacation. The odds of a consumer reviewing these terms and conditions are incredibly small.
  2. The Uniform Commercial Code ‘gives a buyer a right to inspect goods prior to accepting or paying for them, and a buyer is not required to pay for goods that he or she does not accept. More specifically, before making payment, the buyer has the right to inspect the goods “at any reasonable place and time and in any reasonable manner.”’ In the case of deeded-timeshare, how many purchasers actually inspect the physical unit they purchased? Worse yet, how does a consumer inspect a point-based timeshare?
  3. Shouldn’t ‘inspecting the goods’ include determining if the timeshare operates as the salesperson said it did? You’d expect this from a watch, a TV, a computer or even a pair of jeans. Not so with timeshare.
  4. The ‘use’ of a timeshare boils down to two options: using it at the home resort or trading/exchanging to another refuel, whether internal or external. Furthermore, the use of the timeshare requires an ‘account’ of some sort, generally Internet based, to be activated. Not surprisingly, the developer is UNDER NO TIME CONSTRAINTS TO OPEN OR ACTIVATE THIS ACCOUNT.
So, the consumer has absolutely no method of adequately inspecting anything. No way of seeing how many points it really takes to get that 2-bedroom condo in Hawaii, no way of seeing just how easy it is to get a studio in Daytona during Race Week. Not even a way of finding out how simple it is to come back to the home resort the following July. How the Timeshare Industry keeps you from Rescinding
Now of course I hear you asking, ‘how is this possible? This isn’t fair!’ The answer of course is that the timeshare laws were written approximately 40 years ago and that the terribly clever people in the industry categorized their nifty little product in such a way that the UCC didn’t pertain to it.
As a matter of fact, those clever people made sure that the laws covering their nifty timeshare product were specific to only timeshare.
And there you have it. A legal rescission period that on the surface, is consumer protection. In actuality, it’s a total farce. Except the only ones laughing at this face are those within the industry. Consumers are crying. How the Timeshare Industry keeps you from Rescinding

How the Timeshare Industry keeps you from Rescinding

How the Timeshare Industry keeps you from Rescinding How the Timeshare Industry keeps you from Rescinding How the Timeshare Industry keeps you from Rescinding How the Timeshare Industry keeps you from Rescinding How the Timeshare Industry keeps you from Rescinding How the Timeshare Industry keeps you from Rescinding
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