Realty Check
Tough talk on all things housing -- booms, busts, bargains and more -- from "Nightline" correspondent Vicki Mabrey
Vicki Mabrey is a correspondent for "Nightline" based in New York. She covers real estate as well as a range of national stories.
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Realty Check: Are Timeshares Risky?
November 14, 2008 2:16 PM
Tonight on 'Nightline' Vicki Mabrey will revisit the topic of timeshares and the many problems that can come with them. Tonight's report emerged after Vicki decided to blog about the topic a few months ago.
On June 12th, she blogged about her Aunt Liz, who looked into buying a timeshare while vacationing in Daytona Beach, Florida.
"Well, lo and behold, there was a timeshare salesperson just waiting to make that dream come true. So in they went to Wyndham Ocean Walk, and they bought 405,000 Fairfield points. Now here is where all this loses me -- you really do need to speak a Martian language to understand all the timeshare terms. But I'll try to explain as best I can,in English. Depending on the time of year, the popularity of where you buy, the wind direction (kidding), 405,000 points will get you two or three weeks a year at a pretty nice resort. Sounds great so far. Except that they paid about $55,000 for it, upfront, in cash from their hard-earned savings. Those savings were seriously hard-earned -- most of these folks were school teachers, school principals, and civil servants. That's a lot of savings. But that wouldn’t be so bad if you got those dream vacations every year in those beautiful resorts and never had to pay another penny for it. But no, because a timeshare is considered real property, there are property taxes to be paid, on their unit to the tune of almost $500 a year. And maintenance on "your" unit -- $160 a month. For life." [Read more]
OUCH! The next day, Vicki blogged again:
"Wow -- the things you learn when you start digging for info. Because of my aunt’s dissatisfaction with her timeshare, I wanted to know more. That led me to TUG -- Timeshare Users Group. Got off the phone at almost midnight Wednesday night, after an incredibly informative hour and a half talking with Brian Rogers, who runs the site. His father William started it about 15 years ago, wanting to connect with other people to share their experiences, good and bad, about timeshares. Brian took over from his dad two and a half years ago. His dad originally bought a “new” timeshare in Hilton Head and while he's perfectly happy with what he bought, he realizes he could have gotten the same thing and saved a bundle. Brian learned from his dad and buys "used."" [Read more]
Lesson learned! But as you'll see tonight, there are still plenty of people who purchase timeshares without knowing all of the facts. So what are your thoughts? Share your own experiences below.
November 14, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (9)
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Help!!! I have a timeshare in Hawaii,
its all paid for.
But I can I get it off my hands???
Thanks,
Frank
Posted by: Frank | Nov 14, 2008 11:55:20 PM
I had a timeshare I wasn't able to sell for several years. I finally found a charity to take it off my hands. While I had to pay them a processing fee, as well as next year's maintenance fee, it was well worth it and was also tax deductible as a charitable contribution. The charity is the Florida Veterans Assistance Association.
Posted by: Chuck Bloom | Nov 14, 2008 11:56:13 PM
To learn the right way to sell your timeshare yourself, at little or no cost to you...and AVOID being scammed. read the article TUG advice article how to sell your timeshare located on the TUG homepage!
Posted by: TUG | Nov 15, 2008 12:28:42 AM
My husband & I got suckered into buying a timeshare in Cancun. This was 20 years ago, we were young & stupid. Now there's nothing we would absolutely love more than to get rid of it. A friend of ours who also bought one just stopped paying the yearly maintanance fees and nothing ever happened. We're so very tempted to do that but we're affraid of ruining our credit record. Does anyone out there have any advice?
Posted by: Betty | Nov 15, 2008 12:34:34 AM
I was able to unload my timeshare using the TUG site mentioned in the story. I found the site by pure accident and figured I'd take a chance on posting my resort for the meager $15 they charged me to sign up. The post was free and I got a few messages the first week... one of which I was able to turn into a sale. Worked for me, thank goodness.
Posted by: Jim | Nov 15, 2008 12:35:38 AM
As embarrassing as it sounds I got suckered into buying 2, one in Williamsburg, VA and the other in Mexico. I’m also a member of RCI and Interval International where it is impossible to exchange for something you want. To throw more gas on the fire, I paid for 2 timeshare sale companies to sell my timeshares and can’t get anyone to return my calls. There has to be some statutes or regulations to assist the consumer? The sales people who spoke to me all say this is an investment. This is a LIE! Every thing they do is a deception and they have it down to a science. They have the sales script, atmosphere and catching you on a vacation where your guard is down to show you “fuzzy” math giving the impression you’re ahead of the curve. Again, isn’t there any consumer regulation out there? If not, maybe it’s time to petition our electives to do something about this!
Posted by: David | Nov 15, 2008 1:19:18 AM
Sadly you will find this everywhere you go. Most upfront fee companies are in business to get your upfront fee...not sell your timeshare.
If your timeshare can be sold, you can do it yourself...however you HAVE to understand the resale market and that you arent going to get anywhere near what you paid for it...and in most if not all cases...mere pennies on the dollar.
Sure you can be wowed by people who will tell you everything you want to hear. That your timeshare will sell for a huge asking price...or that they already have a buyer for you....right before they ask you to cough up hundreds of dollars.
You can sell your timeshare yourself for little or no cost to you. TUG has proven this for 15 years helping hundreds of thousands of people with knowledge and the truth about timeshares.
Posted by: TUG | Nov 15, 2008 1:33:15 AM
There are different types of timeshares. When we first bought our timeshare, we owned our "week" and were quite happy with it. Then while on vacation though our timeshare, we finally gave in and attended one of the presentations held by Bluegreen (our timeshare company), so they would stop stalking us all week. A slick salesman convinced us to switch to the points system. Unfortunately, we did. The problem: the total points it takes to stay anywhere decent keep increasing and unless you continue to purchase more points, you don't qualify to stay anywhere. I would advise anyone NOT to make the same mistake we did. I just want out. I don't want to profit. I want to be done.
Posted by: Denni | Nov 18, 2008 9:00:44 AM
In terms of the resale market, there is little difference between points and fixed/floating weeks unfortunately.
Posted by: TUG | Nov 23, 2008 6:57:38 PM
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