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Timeshare: Why did I buy, and should I keep it?
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Sherri Hoefling of Santa Rosa owns a timeshare, and she’s looking to sell it. She hears me on Michael Finney’s Consumer talk show on KGO radio and asks me the question I’ve heard dozens of times. Companies have called her, and since “they already have a buyer for her timeshare” should she pay them the “refundable $1,396 fee for closing costs”, they are asking for upfront?
The inquiry brings several issues to mind. One has already been written about. YOU DO NOT NEED TO PAY AN UPFRONT FEE TO SELL YOUR TIMESHARE. Whew!!
But it drives home the point. It can be said in this space, it can be repeated on the radio, they can say the same thing at the Timeshare Users Group, or the Timeshare Beat. But if the message isn’t being delivered when you have the need to hear it, its just trees falling in the forest when no one is around to hear. Like the old sales strategy, “Tell em what you’re gonna tell em; tell them; and then tell them again.
Part of the problem is the same readers interested enough to be checking Timeshare Beat or TUG, probably already know they don’t need to pay the upfront fee to sell – talk about preaching to the choir.
It also begs another question. “How long have you owned your timeshare?”
“Three years” was Sherri's reply.
“Why did you purchase, and why do you want to sell so quickly”.
Sherri got it so I would have something popular to trade; but the annual expenses are close to $1,000, and to her that feels like a lot to pay for a week of vacation, whether she uses it or not. “I think I can probably find someplace to stay for a thousand dollars each year, don’t you?”
She was surprised, somewhat, when I agreed with her. I do not believe that owning timeshare saves the owner much money. (In fact I’ve written a timeshare owner may actually spend more).
One of the prisherri benefits of timeshare is a likely upgrade in accommodations for the money. That thousand dollars that Sherri was speaking of works out to about $160 per night for seven nights. Certainly, in most markets, you can find someplace to stay for $160 per night.
Not Five-Star, but clean and comfortable Shilo Inn type of place. On the other hand, timeshare puts her in a one-or-two-bedroom suite, with a living room and kitchen. Even if you never cook a thing, having a thousand square feet is certainly more comfortable than a few hundred square feet, and the kids having their own bedroom is certainly different than both boys sharing the queen size bed two feet away from yours.
Then there is the increased likelihood that you are going to take a 7-night vacation if you own timeshare, vs. spending $200 per night, so the same thousand dollars only covers a five-night hotel stay.
But that’s not where the real value starts to come into play. “What about Bonus time”, I asked her.
She had no idea what I was talking about.
