Bumpy Road of TImeshare Ownership

Back in 2005, Jen and I were constantly working, Jen from home as a Project Manager for a private Oncology Drug Trial Management company, and me for a certain Federal Agency responsible for travel by air as a Operations Manager and Program Manager. I worked shiftwork for over twenty-five years of my career, often times some of the most horrific schedules you can imagine. Times were that there was only a single shift in between working. We saw each other in passing it seems more than we had quality time, so when we went on our honeymoon which was a package deal of room and car for five nights in Hawaii, it seemed very enticing to have a vacation that would force us to spend time together. We laughed at all these people who did this and tell youo about how they do it, but this is how I use it myself; these are the possibility stories from the salesman. It was all wasted on us, because all we saw was a chance to force us to do something we didn’t seem able to do on our own. We didn’t care about the various levels and what each would do for us, which really only amounted to priority reservations or an extra month availability to make that reservation. It never changed what you were buying, that was fairly straight forward. It always seems they are guilting you into what you could have if you only spend another $30,000 dollars, and for that money spent they show what a life of locked-in vacation with only their company can look like. Don’t get me wrong, it all sounds wonderful if you live a life of exceptional amounts of money to spend freely. Any time you choose to go somewhere in the RV, you feel guilty or at least feel obligated to look at what you might be able to do with timeshare management versus hauling your trailer somewhere. However, now we set here after twenty years of owning two locations and extra points feeling like it was a trap that we snared ourselves into. Part of the sales incentive is that it is transferrable to your kids for life, or at least the life of that company owning that facility which we have found is often only fifty years. Not considering, do any of my children actually want it later on or manage it by renting it out until someone wants to use it? We have figured out how the maintenance fees can become less burdensome, but you have to not use the vacation and look at it more like a rental investment, much like our house in a day-to-day rental situation for outdoor sportsmen, there is a great dependency that someone will actually reserve and use it. Can my children afford paying the fees in years of not renting. There are ways where it is affordable, but again, you can’t really use it and it is more just another investment portfolio adding another piece to the real estate holdings. Did I mention maintenance fees? The real thing to consider when you buy a timeshare is the cost out of pocket for the fees annually on top of the cost of the timeshare and points. The downside of the downside items, the other being sucked into timeshare meetings to only get some incentive coupons and feeling like that is time lost of your vacation that was a waste.

So that I don’t end on a negative note, I’ll cover the downside of timeshare ownership first. Maintenance fees, maintenance fees, maintenance fees, this seems at times is the only thing you’re doing with a timeshare. When we started out owning in Hawaii, our first, the fees were certainly less than an average cost vacation to Hawaii. In other words, you could have a vacation for a champagne lifestyle while living your life on beer budget. We were experiencing what people with real money casually lived when on vacation. There was an upfront cost that was equivalent to buying a new car at a little higher interest rate. We paid off the loan fairly quick but were annoyed from year one that maintenance fees were due in January. A couple thousand dollars due two weeks after Christmas. Ouch, can’t you spread this out over twelve months, the answer yes, but you had to do it within a certain window timeframe following payment of the previous years fees. At first, this wasn’t too big a deal as we just planned for it and always had the money sitting there when it came time to pay. Then, several years passed and we decide to buy another property due to the company changing over to a points system, but we could still buy a week ownership at a specific location that along with the Hawaii property could be used to trade for points and go somewhere else. We looked at several, settling on South Lake Tahoe because the points versus the upfront cost were in our favor. Problem was that going to Tahoe allowed us an easy way to visit the Napa-Sonoma area stocking Jen’s newfound love of wine. However, there was another maintenance fee added to the January fees. We eventually gave in and added two thousand points to our annual usage portfolio, but again another maintenance fee was added but now we had to pay it just before Christmas. I just hope the managers with this Vacation Club company are buying their kids great gifts. Another point of contention is that our weeks of ownership, when turned into points, aren’t enough to cover the cost of a week stay at any of the resorts they were added from, even in an off-season stay. There are deadlines throughout the year to either use your time a certain way or lose the ability and narrowing how you use your week or points. The company uses inheritance as a positive as if your children welcome the costs to maintain. I can’t think of a more negative issue than my kids being stuck with the fees and having to maintain the reservations or pushing and pulling time into a certain year for use. I think the company expects that we’ll leave some account to cover costs throughout their lives. At best I could see my kids turning to whomever is wanting to use it for the next year and it becoming their responsibility to pay the maintenance fees associated with where they want to go. Again, this isn’t a gift of joy, it’s a gift of burden for life. I don’t see my kids keeping the timeshares more than one year and more expect an immediate sale of everything. If it weren’t for the time and burden of maintaining everything, their best scenario would be to rent it out every year and then invest the money that would free and clear of maintenance fees and split that money annually as an after Christmas bonus. Who gets to claim the expenses on their taxes and maybe it should be left in a trust fund account to be distributed later as the account grows. And lastly, there is the expense of ever-increasing costs of airline travel. Timeshares aren’t a gift in other words; they are purely a burden in annual costs and time management. And then there is the occasional sitting through a sales meeting only to get some kind of incentive. We have the full spectrum of having someone get us out in twenty minutes as he knew we were only there for the incentive we had already spent. And then there are the ones that outwardly show contempt to you because you aren’t spending thousands of dollars so that they can get their recognition for sale. We’ve even been insulted by two of them and then this week was the weirdest of all the meetings we have set through. It took him forty-five minutes to get into one of the three options he told us he would go over. We did hear how he was an entertainer with his family and fairly well known. They actually own two theaters in Branson Missouri and Mesa Arizona. I’m still not convinced he ever went into the other two but we sure heard how he used his and how he met the COO of the company and was asked to speak to other salespeople at some annual meeting of bragging. What I did take away was he like to talk about his favorite subject, himself. I was taken in thought about thinking about family members that might ask a question but interrupt and talk about themselves in respect to their own questions. These type people are the worse communicators in the world, and they all think they are the epitome of communicators, and Jen won’t let me burst any of their bubbles and by a smartass and throw them off their game. They also think they are loved by all. Low self-esteem? I suspect it is the main reason they only talk about themselves cause no one is curious enough to ask them about themselves. All this enduring of those claiming they are soft sellers for one thing only, the incentive being offered. But I have told Jen no more. I will not sit through another one and I will not buy another encore week making it mandatory to sit in on a meeting. These meetings are actually my worse aspect about owning as I’m not in control of my own time.

Benefits or positivity in ownership is an in-the-moment joy. Their aren’t many other reasons to be happy about owning them, but when you’re in the moment of vacation at these meticulously maintained resort grounds you are happy and enjoy every second of being there. You don’t think about the costs and time it takes to maintain, you simply look around and have joy exuding. A smile from every employee wishing you a good day and asking if there is anything they can do to make your stay better or improved. For those that can’t seem to find time off from work, the decision to own certainly will force you to take one from that point of buying on for as long as you own it. There really isn’t any other positive reason for owning a timeshare. I paused here and came up with nothing.

Simply stated, don’t do it. I used to tell people they were great for some and should be avoided by others. Reality is, no one should buy one. The only people benefiting are the corporation that owns the place and makes all the rules to be in their favor. Our only positive thing to do now is rent all of it out in hope that the rental income will always exceed the costs of the maintenance fees. Airline costs will be offset by using our trailer more, but at least I’ll get more days of vacation than we currently do. Somehow, we will try to turn this in our best interest. Ultimately, I think we’ll sell them at a loss of course, but I certainly don’t want this to be a part of our trust handed down to our family, they don’t need and probably have no desire to maintain this beast. If you haven’t bought one, don’t, if you have, I have all the empathy and sympathy or your dilemma.