Time shares- the sales pitch
So waiting to close on my house in Fl since moving. The closing date is April 1st.
My company has put us up in a Marriott Vacation Club resort here in Orlando. Nice place- I?d say we are in about 1,500sq ft with 2 balconies over looking a golf course.
So as part of the deal to stay here we had to sit through the Marriott Vacation Club pitch. It was scheduled for 90 minutes and we were there 3 hours. In exchange I received a $200 Amex gift card.
It?s interesting- instead of one property and one week, etc you buy ?points? you then exchange the points to stay at any Marriot property, almost 7,000 to choose from. Also you can exchange points for airfare or rental cars, etc.
There are some problems.
1) You have to buy in to a Trust- the cost of that shown to me was 40 grand- but you could spend over 100K if you are a high roller.
2) This of course financed directly through Marriot- the interest rate for prime credit: 13.5%
3) there are maintenance feed annually which are purely controlled by Marriott. My initial maintenance fees would have been $2000 a year (minimum, forever).
4) If you decide to sell your timeshare Marriott has 1st right of refusal- they can effectively prevent you as an ?owner? from determining the market value of your piece of the trust.
5) I never really figured out how many points would he required to stay at the places I might be interested in visiting.
6) You can just buy the points directly from ?owners? throigh ebay or other sites if you really wanted to stay at a Marriott Vacation Club property.
When I told the closer ?no? he got pissed at me and told me I didn?t understand the math and he tried to explain what a horrible mistake I was making and he was just trying to help my family.
I told him anyone that buys anything at 13.5% interest doesn?t understand math.
Are there any scenarios where time shares are a good deal?
My company has put us up in a Marriott Vacation Club resort here in Orlando. Nice place- I?d say we are in about 1,500sq ft with 2 balconies over looking a golf course.
So as part of the deal to stay here we had to sit through the Marriott Vacation Club pitch. It was scheduled for 90 minutes and we were there 3 hours. In exchange I received a $200 Amex gift card.
It?s interesting- instead of one property and one week, etc you buy ?points? you then exchange the points to stay at any Marriot property, almost 7,000 to choose from. Also you can exchange points for airfare or rental cars, etc.
There are some problems.
1) You have to buy in to a Trust- the cost of that shown to me was 40 grand- but you could spend over 100K if you are a high roller.
2) This of course financed directly through Marriot- the interest rate for prime credit: 13.5%
3) there are maintenance feed annually which are purely controlled by Marriott. My initial maintenance fees would have been $2000 a year (minimum, forever).
4) If you decide to sell your timeshare Marriott has 1st right of refusal- they can effectively prevent you as an ?owner? from determining the market value of your piece of the trust.
5) I never really figured out how many points would he required to stay at the places I might be interested in visiting.
6) You can just buy the points directly from ?owners? throigh ebay or other sites if you really wanted to stay at a Marriott Vacation Club property.
When I told the closer ?no? he got pissed at me and told me I didn?t understand the math and he tried to explain what a horrible mistake I was making and he was just trying to help my family.
I told him anyone that buys anything at 13.5% interest doesn?t understand math.
Are there any scenarios where time shares are a good deal?
0
-
You want the long no, the short no, or the HELL no? 0 -
Take the 2000 a year and spend it where you go on vacation. Take the 40000 and invest it. I hate time shares 0 -
Went to a time share sale many many years ago at Myrtle Beach , SC. Only reason we went was we were in the area that day and could pick up a free microwave and a couple of tickets to Red Lobster. These folks do anything to lure folks in. So I meet this man and wife from Raleigh , NC. We get talking and he has apartment complexes. So I get this big idea to have a little fun at this meeting to sell time shares. So we are all sitting together during the talk they are giving. Finally I speak up to my new friend and tell him.. Heck no, in a loud voice and you could hear a pin drop. The presenter ask me If he could help? I told him you know something is fishy. We ( and I pointed to the man next to me ) came down here to look at the place, see the rent roll, expenses and the review of the cap rates for the property to see if it was a good investment. What the hell are you talking about in this presentation? We come here to buy the whole building. I thought the place was going to riot. They were laughing so hard. The guy says.. these are time shares for vacations and you put money down ( large sum ) to use them. I stood up addressed the whole room and said.... Folks it is a scam. Either you buy a place with money down and get a deed or you don't . Time shares are a pure scam. Rent to own, time shares are pure scams. Take your money and rent a beach house thru a realtor . We picked up the microwave on the way out and already had the red lobster and we left. More than half the folks followed us out the door. 0 -
Time shares are a loser. Ask anyone who bought one. 0 -
Time shares are a great thing!!!
They allow con artists and scammers to legally steal your money.
0 -
The two best things regarding time shares is #1 deciding NOT to get involved in it in the first place and #2 selling and get the hell out of the nightmare.
I know a lot of people that fell into that trap but I never met anyone that was happy with what they had done a year or two down the line.
Time share is like buying a motel room, committing to maintaining it through perpetuity while they continue to rent it out .0 -
I used to go to the sales pitches just to get the free stuff. I closed them down HARD when I demanded to have properties with rifle and pistol ranges. I would ask "do you have shooting ranges at your properties?" The answer was "well no, but". My replies were always the same, no ranges, no sale you are better off trying to get the next folks in line to sign up. We would get our free stuff and be ushered out the back door. 0 -
We sat through one just for the free night and a round of golf. It took us about a nanosecond to realize that anything they push that hard has to be a bad deal. 0 -
Scam!
Nuff said.0 -
Time shares have a lot in common with brothels. People that buy into them get screwed. 0 -
I never did understand where they find the suckers that buy into these places. 0 -
Those things should be ILLEGAL......how time shares get away with what they do I'll never understand. The snake oil salesmen really work their magic on elderly people and scam them out of TONS of money with no way to get out of it. My in-laws are in something called Blue/Green that has cost them so much they actually had a meeting with their kids to let them know they had reach some level of property "ownership" that was concerning. Its bad when the time share is meeting with you to let you know they have scammed your parents so bad they are concerned. Its going to take lawyers to get them out of it. We've tried to stay out of their personal business as much as we can because it aggravates Larry's father when he thinks people are trying to take control of things that are his. They will never get what they've spent back. They have to pay "maintenance fees" that cost enough per month that they could take a NICE vacation every year for less.
Oh.......and their children will "inherit" their Blue/Green property........lucky!0 -
Ours is a good deal.
$700 each week [2] maintenance
Easily rents every year for $1400
Bonus is our all year use of facilities as our beach club.0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
13 comments