An infomercial...
An infomercial...
should've bought a property, then rented it out airbnb/seasonally when you don't use it
not hating, just saying. live yo' life man
Had a one week fix timeshare in Florida keys. Destroyed by hurricane Irma 3 years ago. $700 annual maintenance fee still charged. Not opened yet. Needs $5M+ repairs and insurance won't pay that. A mess, timeshares are complicated with so many owners trying to work together. I can't see how using Airbnb for vacation isn't better, makes more sense. Own a house for security/investment. Rent for vacations to give flexibility.
Runfasta wrote:
Had a one week fix timeshare in Florida keys. Destroyed by hurricane Irma 3 years ago. $700 annual maintenance fee still charged. Not opened yet. Needs $5M+ repairs and insurance won't pay that. A mess, timeshares are complicated with so many owners trying to work together. I can't see how using Airbnb for vacation isn't better, makes more sense. Own a house for security/investment. Rent for vacations to give flexibility.
People end up trying to “sell” their timeshares for $1 just to unload them and get out from endless maintenance fees.
Except for Disney, they are another way for crooked people to swindle ignorant people.
It's incredible how naive, conservative and unadventurous and fearful people like the OP are. Locking themselves and their money into a fixed system ("oh, but i can "transfer" the weeks....") for a safe and bland "vacation."
As everyone else has said, this is a sad and terrible way to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you're only going on vacation a couple weeks a year, make it interesting and special. Go different places, go abroad sometimes, see things - don't sit in a gated, amenit-ied compound in FL/MX/CR.
I'm a middle class working person with grad loans and normal financial realities, but I travel abroad 6-8wks a year for pleasure. I'm doing it on the cheap, flying on miles, staying in mellow AirBnb, etc etc, but even for "big spenders" like the OP: You could be booking awesome houses, penthouses, condos, "VILLAZ" all over the world for a fraction of your supposed $2,000/night, and be seeing something different and real.
My wife always wonders how 4/5 star hotels and "resorts" stay in business. "Who pays hundreds/thousands per night to stay in a boring, guarded compound?" But people like the OP are the bread and butter; assuming that by spending more money on something perceived to be safe/stable/inherently valuable that they are doing it right and really succeeding at this.
Live beyond your comfort zone and understand what's beyond your normal. Don't park your money in a dead-end reality and stay flexible with your future, your aspirations and your concept of self.
It's one thing to be dumb enough to buy into a timeshare but it's an entirely different level of stupidity to be bragging about it like it's some sort of great investment.
You're happy with it so I guess that's all that matters but I don't think you're going to have much luck trying to convince rational people that this was a good move.
This is a productive troll post... a nice change.
Thank you for pointing out the utter ridiculousness of a time share "investment". Only soft headed idiots fall for that mess. While I think they are pretty detestable, eventually I chalk it up to "a fool and their money....." It's not like time shares industry is exploiting people in poverty like mobile homes, furniture rental, check cashing.
One of think that after years and years of ripping people off that this industry would have died off a long time ago, but then I guess "A sucker is born every minute."
Not A Therapist... wrote:
$160,000 for a weeks worth of use?
52 weeks in a year...
If they sell just that unit for every week of the year...
The timeshare company just made $8.3 million dollars on that one unit
Now your stuck paying your what, $3000 a year "maintenance fee". Congrats they just made another $150,000 on just your unit
Sounds like a rock solid investment..for the timeshare company.
This. Timeshares are NEVER a good investment. Guarantee that unit isn’t worth 8.3M on the open market. Timeshares are sold to the financially uneducated with aggressive sales tactics.
dreamland wrote:
$2k a night? that's laughable. You own the only time share in Monte Carlo? GTF outta here. Pics and location for proof.
This post got my wife and I thinking and I started thinking about Monaco. We were able to rearrange our schedules and are now trading a week of ours for two weeks in Monaco. It’s only a one bedroom suite, so we’ll have to squeeze the kids onto a couch bed, but the place regularly rents for $10,000 Euro a week. I have to pay a $500 transfer fee and that’s the only additional expense. Thanks Letsrun, you’re really broadening our travel experience.
Still shaking my head....I can find a nice place to stay in Monaco for a lot less than that. Maybe not as 'fabulous', but you are still out $320k plus annual expenses! That money, well invested, would have earned enough yearly to pay for two weeks at the $2000/night stay in Monaco, and a similar vacation every after, and you would still have your $320k principal left. I'm a finance major, a CPA and love to travel, but these numbers don't work for me. Paying up front for a lifetime of vacations, with a steady dribble of additional expenses every year, just doesn't add up. But, if you are happy, what does it matter, right?
I know how that feels. You know, my father left me his timeshare contract as an inheritance. This happened 3 years ago - 5 months before his death. Although I knew the troubles that I was getting in, how could I resist the one who raised me and gave me all that he had? While he was alive, we felt that the timeshare puts pressure on him, and he thinks about it every night before falling asleep, but I was too young to come with a solution. It's only after I was into problems that I found out about the Wesley Financial Group. It's with their help that I get out of troubles and now I can affirm it: I'M A FREE MAN!!!
https://www.mytimeshareexitreviews.com/wesley-financial-group-review-cost-fees-ratings/
why spend so much money on a 2 week when you could have paid for just maintenance fees in a majority of high weeks in most major cities for different timeshares off of resale sites like redweek? and then trade weeks through stuff like RCI?
You can make a lot of vacations for $160,000. That's 5333 per year over 30 years without interest and maintenance fees.
Somebody is living the dream by sucking so much money out of these suckers.
You're celebrating finally paying the full amount into a terrible investment?
I pay ~$3,000 for a week (on season price) for a beach front property on the Florida panhandle in May. Four bedrooms, two living rooms, two full kichens, four full bathrooms.
I pay ~$2,000 for a week (off season price) for beach front property just south of Tampa/St. Pete in October. Three bedrooms, two living rooms, and three full baths.
That's the all in price (including fees, taxes, etc.).
There's also a huge amount of flexibility in that my family and I can switch it up and go anywhere. I know that you say you can also do the same thing, but you also have to work out all of the details and dates with other resorts, which (from friends who bought a timeshare and then wish they never even thought of buying a time share) is a completely clusterf*ck.
Sorry to hear the bad news about your decision making skills.
See also: Queen of Versailles documentary on Netflix.
Living the Dream wrote:
dreamland wrote:
$2k a night? that's laughable. You own the only time share in Monte Carlo? GTF outta here. Pics and location for proof.
This post got my wife and I thinking and I started thinking about Monaco. We were able to rearrange our schedules and are now trading a week of ours for two weeks in Monaco. It’s only a one bedroom suite, so we’ll have to squeeze the kids onto a couch bed, but the place regularly rents for $10,000 Euro a week. I have to pay a $500 transfer fee and that’s the only additional expense. Thanks Letsrun, you’re really broadening our travel experience.
In case anyone still had any question whether this thread was real or troll material, your questions have been answered.
In any case, to continue along with this storyline: Where is the supposed $8.3MM timeshare? You could easily reveal the exact address and still remain anonymous, but a address of a similar property that is your neighbor would suffice as well.
Backpacker wrote:
You can make a lot of vacations for $160,000. That's 5333 per year over 30 years without interest and maintenance fees.
Somebody is living the dream by sucking so much money out of these suckers.
$30.00 per vacation? You know that this is not a relevant comparison in any way. If I go on vacation, I'm going to spend over $30.00 on a meal at some point, and I'm going to enjoy eating it, not cooking it, and not cleaning the dishes at the end of it.
Only your own narcissism and need for attention would allow you to publicly, albeit anonymously, claim that you can "make a lot of vacations" for $30.00 each.
Timeshares: Proof that morons exist
[NBC]...The More You Know...
My wife and I went to a timeshare presentation many years ago. I knew that timeshares were bad news, but even so, I also knew it would be a hard sell with some very seasoned professional sales pros. To prepare myself before I went in, I stopped by the desk and asked if they worked for the timeshare company. As I suspected, they didn't. I then asked if they had a resales bulletin board or similar listing of existing owners who wanted to sell their timeshares. They did. I looked at it and found that I could buy any of several units at 50 cents on the dollar. Note... that was their asking price... it's quite likely that they would have sold for 40% or even less.
Anyway, armed with that knowledge, I was able to resist an incredibly enticing sales pitch from the salesperson and then from his "supervisor" who offered me an even better deal.
Even with a steep discount, the "maintenance fees" were outrageous. Multiply the fee by 52 weeks and it's mind-boggling.