Every year, people like you and I take much-needed vacations to beautiful vacation destinations around the world. We all seek change from our daily lives in places that allow us to find peace and quiet with enough exciting activities to lift our spirits and bring joy to our lives.
Your dream vacation can be a financial nightmare if you fall prey to buying an expensive timeshare over the holidays!
During these glorious respites, many of us encounter high street hawkers and hotel lobby kiosks offering free or low-cost sports adventures, theater tickets, or the like. The offers are real and can be a lot of fun. Who wouldn’t want to take a helicopter ride to a remote waterfall in Maui for $29? But be careful, there is a catch!
In exchange for these deals, you must give up 2-6 hours of your primary vacation time to visit a timeshare resort and engage in an organized timeshare sales pitch with fun emotional tugs on your heart, champagne toasts, and pressure social not so obvious. . Your experience is choreographed from the moment you arrive with the goal of making you feel thrilled that you paid $20,000 to $50,000 or more for the right to spend a week or two a year for life at your glorious resort, not to mention all the extra features and benefits that add up to seal the deal.
With respect to Winston Churchill, Never, never, never, never, never, never buy a timeshare in Retail during one of these sales pitches! Go ahead and partake of their free or low cost snippets to get into their presentation, but I implore you to NEVER purchase a timeshare in Retail during the holidays.
A real world example of a friend who didn’t take my advice and lost $19,000!
My friend, let’s call him Keith to protect his true identity, and his family of four headed to South Florida for a well-deserved vacation near a well-known family entertainment complex. Keith and his wife, who wanted to give their kids a good time, stopped by their hotel’s activity center and offered them a great deal on top-notch local activity parks that the kids would really enjoy. They agreed to the “2-hour presentation” the next day.
You know the story; they bought the pool view timeshare at a very nice local resort. Excited, they were already planning their visit next year and all the things they would do again while enjoying their stay at this fabulous resort.
Keith now knew that I owned several timeshares, and upon returning home, he immediately tells me about purchasing an award-winning timeshare. My first words to Keith were, “If you do nothing else, I ask that you use your statutory grace period and cancel your timeshare purchase today, in fact right now, please please please!” “. In our discussion, I discovered that Keith paid cash for the timeshare (from an inheritance) and that he and his family still had that cherished spotlight on all the joy their $25,000% 2B retail purchase would bring them. And they got the unit with a pool view!
Suffice to say, Keith wasn’t listening very well when I explained that I was sure I could find him a similar timeshare to buy, if not the same timeshare complex, for pennies on the dollar. Keith at least agreed to mention our conversation with his wife that night, but I knew in my mind that he bought the hook, line and sinker for the choreographed performance.
That night I did some research online and within 10 minutes I found a resale unit at the same resort for around $6,000. Do the math. $25,000 minus $6,000 equals a cash savings of $19,000. Keith could buy 3 more weeks at the same resort and have a full month for his $25,000. So I emailed Keith the details and to my dismay but no surprise I got the reply, “Well we talked about it and I’m sure you found a good deal but the family was really excited and we got the view of pool, and we had the money, so we’ll keep what we bought. Thanks for your help anyway.”
No amount of logic was going to change Keith’s emotional decision. With a little more digging, I’m convinced he could have found you the same or a comparable resort for $2,000 or $3,000. Sad but true, I lost yet another battle. You will see this scenario play out over and over again every day and feel the millions of dollars being spent on retail timeshare purchases when, down the street or online, you can purchase the same or comparable timeshare units for pennies. per dollar. .
Buyer’s remorse is your best chance to save thousands of dollars.
In a couple of years, circumstances change for a high percentage of timeshare owners. These changes cause these owners to reassess their need for a timeshare, especially if they financed the retail cost. They soon discover that the glorious timeshare they bought 2 years ago for, say, $25,000 can now only be sold for $10,000 tops if they’re really lucky. So if they financed, they’re upside down, owing more than they could get for the timeshare (does this sound familiar in relation to the circumstances of the subprime collapse?).
Distraught with this reality, a high percentage of these upside-down timeshare owners abandon their timeshare obligations and most end up on the timeshare resale market, for sale by lenders, real estate brokers and outside agents. , hence the opportunity for you and me. to buy these same great timeshares for pennies on the dollar.
I know about buying timeshares on the resale market because that is what I have done several times. The islands of Maui, Hawaii, and Kauai, as well as mainland locations Scottsdale, Arizona, Horseshoe Valley, Canada, and other great locations, all NOT purchased at retail. In fact, I bought them for $2,000 or less and as low as $99. That’s pennies on the dollar! Some will tell you that timeshares are a bad investment. I have to agree that they are not an investment like buying real estate. As a vacation tool, timeshares are a great investment if, and only if, you buy them for pennies on the dollar.
Save your cash and buy on the resale market!
Make wise decisions as you seek out the ultimate vacation delights in fabulous locations around the world. Pack up your emotions about timeshares while you’re on vacation and keep your wallet closed. Wait until you’re home to look for opportunities to buy the same or substantially similar resort properties on the resale market, saving you big bucks or buying even more timeshares. Never, never, never, never, never buy a timeshare from a retail store during one of these sales pitches while on what should be a fun vacation!