Are they worth it? A friend of mine offered to sell me hers to use this year for $400…I could stay in an ocean-front condo for 7 days. Seems like a great deal, so I am thinking of investing in one for the long term. Any suggestions?
How do timeshares work?
I’d recommend against it. Timeshares work by breaking the ownership of property into shares. In your friend’s case, she own’s 1/52 of the house so she can use it 1/52 of the year.
The problem with timeshares is that you only get the house at a scheduled time and you still have to pay for it if you don’t or can’t use it. There are also problems that could arise if something happened that wasn’t covered by insurance or if you wanted to sell your timeshare and the other owners didn’t approve.
Depends on the time share. I wouldn’t buy into one where it’s the same unit/building/resort for the same one or two weeks a year. We bought into Trendwest now WorldMark and we really like it. Yes there are draw backs. If you don’t use it enough it’s not worth the cost. If you do use it then it is. Do your homework before you decide to buy.
Timeshare at its core is essentially a group of people sharing the cost of a vacation home.
The word “timeshare” has grown over the decades to include a wide variety of vacation products and plans. Also known as “vacation ownership” “holiday ownership” and “interval ownership” , its umbrella covers traditional deeded timeshare ownership, fractional ownership, private residence clubs, points clubs, and more. Some would even broaden the term further to include campground memberships and the ” condo hotel” concept, in which a condo is purchased outright but the owner is only allowed to use it for a specific periods of time and it is rented by a hotel management company for the remainder of the time.
Regardless of how loosely or rigidly you choose to define the term, the basic premise of timeshare is simple. You and a group of other people share the purchase cost of a vacation accommodation, in increments of one week (or more) per year of use, thus guaranteeing your ability to use that accommodation during the period of time you choose, either for life or for a specified number of years. Accommodations range from hotel rooms to condos, from cabins to luxury houses and castles, from yachts and cruise ships to RVs and houseboats.Owning timeshare in the traditional sense means a condominium/villa/house/hotel unit, etc. is subdivided into 52 separate units of time (52 weeks in 1 year), and usually sold to a maximum of 51 owners (leaving one week each year closed down for annual renovations and/or maintenance). Each owner would own 1/51 of the unit. Each share repesents one week of vacation. Each owner is entitled to ownership rights and privileges of the shares that they purchased.
This system makes vacation home ownership possible for many people who cannot afford a second home or who otherwise would not be able to enjoy such resort facilities. It is important to remember that purchasing timeshare should never be viewed as a financial investment with the expectation of gaining a profit in either reselling it or renting it to someone else. Timeshare is an investment in lifestyle, in future holidays, in family time together, and when viewed that way it can be a good investment indeed.