Should I timeshare my house?

I have a house in a recreational area. I've been thinking of selling timeshares in it. What am I getting into?

This is probably a bad idea, but renting it via www.vrbo.com would be much better if you are looking for some extra income. Hopefully it is in a good area like Stowe.

I have not seen too many timeshare homes at 1/52 shares, but there are fractional home ownerships at 1/12 and 1/4 shares, etc. But those require legal paperwork that is probably not worth it.

I highly recommend vrbo.com===I use them for my Bethany Beach area home and it is awesome! I get more leads than when I had it listed with a realtor--so I would try that option--if you do it just make sure to have lots of pictures!

It would actually be very easy to split your home into quartershares or 1/8 shares - any decent real estate attorney could do it. It's quite common in ski areas, especially Colorado, for Denver professionals to buy a home and then split it this way.

To split it 52 ways? Doubt it could be done economically.

If you decide to pursue this, be sure to start with a visit with an attorney. Many states have very strict laws regarding timeshare sales, which could include a requirement for preparation of a prospectus that meets various legal requirements. There is a good chance that the legal and other costs associated with such a project could doom the economics before you even get started.

I recently learned of a person in Kentucky who split their large house into 12 fractional units and is selling them for $34K each.

johnmfaeth said:

I recently learned of a person in Kentucky who split their large house into 12 fractional units and is selling them for $34K each.

Click to expand...

I actually posted about that house a while ago...he was attempting to do it on eBay.

http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55980

I am still of the opinion that trying to timeshare your house is a huge mistake.

I think your best options are:
1. Rent weeks yourself online via vrbo.com and other sites
2. Hire a agency to rent for you
3. Sell your property and become a renter yourself

Hi Bill,

That's where I saw it, couldn't remember. Sorry for the lack of attributing it to you.

I think if you had a house/brownstone someplace special like SF or NYC it might work.

John

As an added thought.... at what point does the house cease to be your "home"? If you sell all the shares, or even most of them, I'd think it'd be a rental property vs. your home. You'd have to actually live somewhere else alot of the time.

My Dad has owned 1/10th of a house in Nags Head for about 20 years, so it can be done. It is legally a condominium and each share owner pays 1/10th of the condo fees on a monthly basis.

Each owner gets 1 week in each season and 1 holiday week that rotate with 2 weeks each year for maintenance. The developer that set it up originally did 6 houses, so I don't know if the sales and set up expenses are worth it for 1 house.

We rented a house in San Diego Beach area once and when we arrived, the owner was still getting some of his things out of the house. Yuuuuuuuk! This was his full time residence and during the summer he rents some weeks out just to make extra money. It was totally creepy and uncozy. Not A LOT of his stuff was around, but it was enough that I really didn't like it. If this is your full-time residence, PLEASE DO NOT PUT IT ON VRBO.COM. But, if this is a family vacation home and you don't keep a lot of personal effects there, then VRBO.com is a good option. Timeshare your home? That just sounds weird.

Applegirl:

Just curious - Why would it be creepy to rent a house that only one person has lived in, as opposed to renting a house that numerous people have stayed in???

In Timeshares there are different people in those units every week!

Plus there is the popular concept of home-trading where two owners trade houses for a vacation, which to me is not creepy at all!

Just wondering what you found creepy about it.

one house is enough efficient to organize as a timeshare. To much overhead over small number of membership