Location, location, location! Nonsense
Yes, location is important when you want to purchase a timeshare up to a point, but does not necessarily determine where you can exchange. Decide where you absolutely want to vacation, and that will be the best location to own a timeshare.
Regardless of where purchase a timeshare, you will compete with other members when you attempt to exchange into other areas. This can be frustrating when the salesperson sold you a red week on the beach and told you that you could go anywhere at any time. Technically, this is true but only if where you want to go is available.
Supply and Demand is Always the Key to Exchange power
The value of your timeshare and the exchange possibilities have everything to do with supply and demand for the resort where you want to vacation and the supply and demand of the resort where you own your timeshare, regardless of its location. No one can guarantee where and when you can use your timeshare unless it is a fixed week and you vacation at that property during that week. This is the major benefit to fixed week owners, especially in vacation hot spots like Hawaii.
You can purchase a timeshare in the most beautiful and expensive penthouse suite in the area, but if you bought a timeshare in upstate New York in winter, your exchange chances are going to be limited. Why? Because the exchange company must believe that somebody wants to vacation at your timeshare during the time that you own. Even if you bought a floating week or points, it is always attached to a unit and week. Look at your paperwork. This doesn’t mean that you can’t go on vacation somewhere else, but availability might be limited.
One good thing is that many empty timeshare slots around the world need to be filled. There are always possibilities but less if you buy a winter week in upstate New York or any off-season, unpopular time.
The Advantages of Purchasing a Fixed Week Timeshare
My advice is to purchase a fixed week timeshare at a resort and location that you wouldn’t mind visiting repeatedly. You can purchase your timeshare near a beach, at a ski resort, in a city, or even on a houseboat or canal. A fixed week is a guaranteed week that no one can take from you because you own it. Unlike the points system, which is a right-to-use product, fixed-week buyers buy actual real estate. This is why we call fixed week buyers “owners” and points buyers “members” because they don’t “own” anything.
If you don’t want to use your timeshare in any particular year, you can deposit the week with an exchange company. The resort can then rent that week out to generate income and bring in new guests to market their timeshare program.
Even in Cancun, some resorts still sell fixed weeks. Royal Resorts is one of those companies. They have six resorts to choose from in Cancun, Playa Del Carmen, and the Dutch Caribbean islands of St. Maarten and Curacao.
The Timeshare Resale Market
There are thousands of timeshares for sale all over the world. Timeshare owners want to sell their timeshare for a variety of reasons. Many timeshares are offered online for as little as $.077. That’s right. You can buy a timeshare today that costs a timeshare buyer thousands of dollars for under a dollar. Timeshares bought on the secondary market may have a reduction or elimination of benefits. Buyers should thoroughly research restrictions before buying a timeshare from the secondary or “resale” market.
The good thing about the resale market is that you get to choose exactly what timeshare you desire without being pressured during a multi-hour timeshare presentation and paying top dollars. You can get the same timeshare with the same benefits for a fraction of the resort’s asking price. A member of the Licensed Timeshare Resale Broker Association can explain the differences in buying from the developer direct compared to buying a resale. (Sell My Timeshare Now harms many by charging $1,400 or more to list timeshares known to have little to no secondary market.) Timeshares are listed by resort name, country, unit size, and resort photos.
Redweek.com and TUG2.com also have timeshare resales or timeshare rentals on their sites. So do other online sites.
There are many timeshare resales for sale for as little as $1, as the owners just want to be rid of them. This is a great buy because as a member of the exchange companies, you have access to the bonus and getaway weeks, as do other members, regardless of where they own. It is truly an open market for exchange members.
Before you purchase a timeshare, this is what you need to know:
- Is the price negotiable?
- If it is deeded, when, where, and what size?
- If it is a points system, walk away.
- Review the resort reviews and complaints.
- Who pays the closing costs?
- What are the current and past maintenance fees?
- If it is a right to use, how many years remain? Is it perpetual?
- Is there a secondary market?
- Where is the contract enforceable?
- Is it a timeshare or a travel club?
- Why is the owner selling it?
- Who are the legal owners, and do they all agree to sell the timeshare?
Right to Use Warning
With a right-to-use timeshare or a travel club membership resale, you must obtain the documents that indicate when the contract expires. You don’t want to purchase something that will expire in a year or two because the previous owner has used up many years. Most often, the ownership is good for thirty to ninety-nine years and may be renewable for a fee.
Purchasing an All-Inclusive Resort Membership
After working in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada for about thirteen years, I decided to work in the Dominican Republic. I had heard this was a great place to sell. Many Americans and Canadians were buying timeshares (travel clubs), and more companies were popping up to meet the growing demand.
When I arrived, it was not anything like I expected. I was totally unprepared. All the resorts were mandatory all-inclusive. Guests had no other options. In fact, there were no full kitchens like they had in the good ole days. There might be a small refrigerator for cold drinks. All-inclusive resorts include all meals and drinks, including alcoholic drinks, and activities for one flat fee.
As an experienced timeshare salesperson, part of my pitch was saving money with full kitchens. In the Dominican Republic, this was not to be. In fact, guests and timeshare exchangers had to fork out an additional $150 to $300 per day for their food and beverages, and it wasn’t always the best quality food. THIS IS WHAT THE CHARGE AVERAGES WHEN THE GUEST ARRANGES AN ALL-INCLUSIVE PACKAGE. The term all-inclusive has a “free” ring to it, but families should decide if they will really eat and drink what the resort charges. They might be better off not booking an all-inclusive.
As a sales agent, my challenge was figuring out how they were so successful in selling timeshares when people had to fork out an extra $1,000 for their vacations, depending on how many guests there were per room.
Well, it didn’t take long for me to figure this out. They were lying to the guests with more creativity than I had ever witnessed before.
Is The all-Inclusive Mandatory?
If you’re thinking about buying a beach-front property in these locations, inquire whether it is a mandatory all-inclusive resort. If it’s not, it might be in the future, and you’re stuck with it. Timeshare contracts are developer based. This means they can delete or reduce benefits at any time for pretty much any reason.
Unfortunately, most of the resorts in Cancun, Cabo San Lucas, Dominican Republic, and Jamaica have converted to mandatory all-inclusive resorts with no kitchen or the opportunity for guests to bring in their own food. In fact, they will not allow you to enter the resort unless you pay an additional “resort fee,” even after you have paid your exchange fee and the mandatory all-inclusive plan. Do your research before investing in any of these properties. For some, the all-inclusive option might be ideal because you don’t have to worry about your food and beverages, which are available all day and night.
All-Inclusive Plans Lack Flexibility for Dining Options
The all-inclusive package removes the flexibility of tasting the local cuisines, and sadly, the local restaurants cannot compete with the luxury resorts when foreigners purchase a timeshare in these regions.
If the resort does not offer an alternative to all-inclusive, many guests are restricted to the resort’s property. If you like eating at local restaurants and you’re an adventurer or an explorer, it doesn’t justify paying for the all-inclusive.
Although many of the resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean have a mandatory all-inclusive plan, some resorts do provide guests with the option of purchasing the all-inclusive program. Do your homework before booking or buying.
Travel Clubs Are Nothing but Hot Air
When you buy a timeshare at one of the all-inclusive resorts, you don’t own anything. You are buying air with no guarantees except that you must pay for their overpriced all-inclusive food and beverages on top of your maintenance fees if they have them.
Moreover, sales reps would tell the guests that they will receive discounts on airfare and other travel services to justify the costs. This is a lie. They do not get any more discounts than the person who owns nothing. I once heard a top salesperson in Mazatlán, Mexico, telling the guests that if they purchase that day, they will pay only $99 airfare from the U.S. to Mexico every year for life. Surprisingly, people believed this lie and bought it. That timeshare sales agent lives in a beautiful luxury waterfront home with a boat.
One of the new tactics of the mandatory all-inclusive resorts is to inform you that there are no maintenance fees. This is exactly what many timeshare owners are complaining about. This is untrue because the maintenance fees are built into the all-inclusive price. I worked at one resort in Jamaica where the average all-inclusive price, including the room, was about $500 to $700 per day for only two people!
The Travel Clubs; The Newest Kids on the Block
Now, there are traveling timeshare clubs that will contact timeshare owners or members, usually the elderly, and inform them that one of the exchange companies (RCI or I.I.) has an update for them. They will even offer to pay for their dinner at a local restaurant. This is another scam.
The company will purchase a list of timeshare owners in a specific demographic area. They will hire a call center to contact timeshare owners and inform them of the time and place for the meeting. During the meeting, they will offer to take away their timeshare and trade it in for another one that has a lower maintenance fee. Most of the time, this is a cash deal, or credit card accounts are opened to charge the purchase.
Travel Clubs Offer no Guarantees
This tactic is nothing more than taking away one timeshare to purchase another. If there is no loan outstanding, the member’s existing timeshares might have been deeded back to the resort. With these traveling clubs, there really is no guarantee.
The problem is that their original timeshare may not be traded in, so the owner finds themselves stuck with two timeshares and two maintenance fees. The company that sold them the timeshare is usually not from their state. Legal action can be cost prohibitive. Anyone in the U.S. victimized by this scam should file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General of the state where you made the purchase. However, these overnight companies often change their names to avoid being included on online complaint sites or if they have logged too many Better Business Bureau complaints.
Some companies offer an array of accommodations all over the world, but the upfront cost does not guarantee anything. With these companies, you don’t own anything. Some have no maintenance fees, taxes, or surprise assessments. The problem is that there is no security for the up-front costs. The company can fold the next day, and you will lose all your hard-earned cash with nothing to show for it. All they have to do is set up another company or LLC under a different name, and they are at it again.
I would not advise anyone to invest $4,000 or more for a traveling club membership—anywhere, anytime. Consumers should never buy a timeshare or travel club membership on the spot. Always conduct due diligence, regardless of how good the deal seems at the time.
Why Timeshare Sales Presentations Must be High Pressure
As a former timeshare professional, I understand why resorts need to create urgency to make the sale the same day. In fact, “creating urgency” is a strategy employed by most industries, whether car dealers or clothing stores, that often display time-sensitive ads.
The adage, “out of sight, out of mind,” is true. When guests are out of the high-pressure sales presentation and seriously consider their options in a calm environment, most will not buy. A timeshare can cost as much as a house, although the total purchase price increases gradually with each upgrade. Would you ever buy a primary residence if you always had to buy the house the same day you looked at it? If the resort offered a “today only” price, they should stick with it. Most will take the same price a day, month, or even a year later—whatever it takes to make the sale.
If resorts followed through with the promises made during the sales presentation, I believe more guests would purchase later. However, when they return home and begin to sift through the plethora of negative online complaints and reviews posted by others who purchased, they are more likely not to purchase later. If they did purchase while on vacation, then the reality of buyer’s remorse sets in when they read the negative reviews. This justifies their right to cancel the deal with a full refund if they are within the contract rescission period. In the U.S., this period varies by state. Some states are as little as three days.
Always Conduct Your Due Diligence
Conducting your due diligence is crucial when you are considering spending thousands of dollars for a timeshare or travel club membership. There are many out there with lots of options. Decide what you want and stick with that.
I suggest to consumers to NEVER buy a timeshare during a sales presentation at the resort. Use the sales agents as your guide to decide when, where, and how much you want to spend. Then, take it from there.