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Am I nuts to buy this timeshare???

Carolyn

Carolyn

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
1,236
Reaction score
9
Location
Carmel, Indiana
Resorts Owned
Westin St John
WJL St Lucia
St James Club Antigua
Charter Club Marco
Sheraton Desert Oasis
I have the opportunity to get a really good deal on a timeshare in the Caribbean. If I bought it, I would just rent it out and probably sell it for a profit in a couple of years. With the economic downturn and high airfares, am I nuts to do this? Thanks!
 
I dont think its possible to give an accurate answer without knowing what resort, where and how much.
 
unless you are buying it for a REALLY REALLY LOW PRICE.. i wouldn't count on making a profit, and as far as renting goes.. with the economy the way it is right now, my ARUBA t/s DID NOT RENT THIS YEAR and i had thanksgiving week for a GREAT price at one of the marriotts!!! SO BE VERY VERY CAREFUL.
 
Carolyn said:
I have the opportunity to get a really good deal on a timeshare in the Caribbean. If I bought it, I would just rent it out and probably sell it for a profit in a couple of years. With the economic downturn and high airfares, am I nuts to do this? Thanks!
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I don't see the issue. If you believe you can rent it out and sell it for a profit, what difference does economic conditions and high air fares make?? It's still profit no matter what the intervening economic conditions might be.
 
Good deal + timeshare = oxymoron:rofl:
 
EZ-ED said:
Good deal + timeshare = oxymoron:rofl:
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Well it's actually free...a friend wants out (doesn't really understand the whole timeshare thing) and I would just need to pay $400-
$500 closing costs. This is why it's so tempting. But I am hearing "irish" loud and clear (see post above).
 
If its free its for me. LOL. If you are sure you can at least break even renting it and/or sell for more than the closing costs I would buy it.
 
gmarine said:
If its free its for me. LOL. If you are sure you can at least break even renting it and/or sell for more than the closing costs I would buy it.
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I agree :D


I think you have been around long enough to know the 'good' from the bad' - as long as it is a desirable resort in a very desirable season, take it.

not Club Land Or or whatever in the Bahamas, is it???? :eek:
 
What island, what time period (season/week, float), what are the annual dues, and how many bedrooms?
 
Nuts Is As Nuts Does.

Am I nuts to buy this timeshare?
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If you like it, mox nix whether anybody else thinks it's a great deal.

If it's a resort you like in a location where you personally enjoy vacationing, so much the better.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​


 
I would not call you nuts, but I would say that you are "differently motivated" than I am. I would not buy purely to rent out, but, if that's what you want to do and will commit to running that business, then, why not?

Sell for a profit in a few years? Well, maybe, given how little is going into it. Selling at all is never a guarantee. Are you willing to hang to it for more years than planned if it won't sell??

Take a hard look at resort mgmt/hoa to see if they are conducting business in a prudent manner. If it all looks good, why not? People are still travelling, high fuel prices be damned. I'm on my way to Florida with 3 friends tonight.
 
Renting a timeshare for profit is not as easy to do as it is to type it.
 
No, of course not, but plenty of us have been successful in it and can still type about it. It is Work. If you commit to it, you can be successful. if you play at it, well, uh, maybe. If you sit around and ignore it for most of the year, chances are good that you won't get a renter.
 
Be careful that there is not litigation in the works or a big special assessment. Bluebeards has been having trouble, Pelican has big maint fees, and the beat goes on...
 
Blondie said:
Be careful that there is not litigation in the works or a big special assessment. Bluebeards has been having trouble, Pelican has big maint fees, and the beat goes on...
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With three Hurricanes active in the Bahamas right now....sadly there may even be more assessments in the near future.
 
I would not buy a TS as an economic investment. I purchased all my points at HGVC for personal enjoyment. If this TS is in a good location and you would use it or if it gives you more II or RCI points that you would use, then it would make sense to me.
 
pianodinosaur said:
I would not buy a TS as an economic investment. I purchased all my points at HGVC for personal enjoyment. If this TS is in a good location and you would use it or if it gives you more II or RCI points that you would use, then it would make sense to me.
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There's no reason not to buy a timeshare as an economic investment. If you know what you're doing it's easy money when the right opportunities present themselves. Over the years I've bought and sold several as investments, making money every time, ranging from 50% profit to 150% profit, with holding times ranging from six months to 18 months.
 
Buy for profit

I've purchased 3 timeshares specifically to sell for a profit, and each one sold quickly for about 3 times what I paid. I've also purchased 3 to rent, one just this summer, and the other two rented for about 2-3 times the maintenance fee. I have many others that I purchased to use, and sold one for 95% of what I paid, and rented 2 others I couldn't use for slightly more than the maintenance fee. Still, I have others that I couldn't use the full week, couldn't rent them, and used them for 3 day weekends.

Make sure you have seen others, like you are buying, sell for more than you paid, or rent for more than the maintenance fee. It most likely needs to be a very prime week or location.
 
pianodinosaur said:
I would not buy a TS as an economic investment. I purchased all my points at HGVC for personal enjoyment. If this TS is in a good location and you would use it or if it gives you more II or RCI points that you would use, then it would make sense to me.
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As others have stated it can be done and I have done it many times. Either I'm lousy at the stock market or really good at buying and selling timeshares but based on % of return on investments I have done much better at buying, selling and renting out some of my timeshares than in the stock market.

The four that I can't make money renting out we use for exchanges and have done very well on our vacation as well. Even if I don't make money on my four weakest timeshares I paid so little for them that I can't loose any money on all four and still take great vacations.

The rentals all give me about 10-20% return on my investments. My sales have all been for a substantial profit where I have at least doubled my money on all of the sales.

I am always looking for great deals that I can turn for a profit but since I'm not looking to flip weeks for just a few hundred dollars It seems to be taking more time to find those great timeshare investments in the areas that I specialise in. :crash: :shrug:
 
Larry said:
I am always looking for great deals that I can turn for a profit but since I'm not looking to flip weeks for just a few hundred dollars It seems to be taking more time to find those great timeshare investments in the areas that I specialise in. :crash: :shrug:
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That's the issue that comes to the fore when you decide to try to make more serious money buying and selling timeshares. If you know a particular market, you can pounce on a good deal when you stumble across it. You have no investment of time in that. But when you start scouring around for those super deals, the amount of time you need to invest to find those deals starts to make things unattractive pretty quickly. I suppose that's why some people who know the market decided to go the postcard company route - when you know what you can't even giveaway just go out and get people to pay you to get rid of timeshares that you can get some money for.
 
irish said:
unless you are buying it for a REALLY REALLY LOW PRICE.. i wouldn't count on making a profit, and as far as renting goes.. with the economy the way it is right now, my ARUBA t/s DID NOT RENT THIS YEAR and i had thanksgiving week for a GREAT price at one of the marriotts!!! SO BE VERY VERY CAREFUL.
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I wouldn't consider unless it was a platinum week because as this Tugger suggests above, off season weeks even at top resorts are not easy to rent. So far I'm still renting my plat weeks at the same rate I've had in the past. Its seems to take longer but mine at least are still renting. I also just rented my 2 GO Gold weeks, but that is a domestic location that is less likely to suffer.

Regards.
Joe
 
Teach Me

Larry and Troglodyte have given me an education. How can it be that it is so much cheaper to buy a TS resale but then make a profit selling the resale property? Is the price of TS resales going up? I guess I have alot to learn.
 
pianodinosaur said:
How can it be that it is so much cheaper to buy a TS resale but then make a profit selling the resale property? Is the price of TS resales going up? I guess I have alot to learn.
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I don't understand your rationale? Why do you assume TS resale price has to go up to make a profit???

In simple terms here is how I make a profit. I only look for timeshares where I know the market values. If I see a timeshare I can sell for for a profit by buying low I will go for the deal. Let's say I know I can sell for $5-6k on a resale at a specific resort at a specific season and I see one for sale that I can purchase for 2-3K I will buy it and resell it for a nice profit.

The hard part is finding someone looking to sell at my asking price but I have done it several times over the past five years.
 
pianodinosaur said:
Larry and Troglodyte have given me an education. How can it be that it is so much cheaper to buy a TS resale but then make a profit selling the resale property? Is the price of TS resales going up? I guess I have alot to learn.
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Buying and selling timeshares isn't like gasoline stations, where there are lots of outlets, prices are posted out front, and there isn't a whole lot of difference in regular 87 gas no matter what station you buy it from.

Timeshares are much the oppositie - it's an illiquid market, where sellers and buyers can't easily get together, actual selling prices aren't readily available, the value of the same unit in the same area can differ depending on the resort, or even within the same resort depending to season and location.

All of that means that the same unit can sell for different amounts of money. A desperate seller might sell to the first legitimate offer they receive, just to be rid of it, while the person in the next state might actually be willing to buy that identical unit for 10 times as much, if they could only find it.

That means that if you know what you are doing, you can buy timeshares at "distressed" prices, and then sell them for more if you can find the buyers willing to pay more.
 
"Am I nuts to buy this timeshare???"


Absolutely. But, that's what a lot of people consider all of us timeshare owners!:D

If it's right for you, then it's no concern of others. Best wishes.

Marty
 
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