ben1973
newbie
Hi there. I'm grateful for TUG, as I have already made one mistake, and was about to make another. A couple of years ago, my wife and I bought a Bluegreen timeshare, and soon after decided the yearly fees were more than we wanted to spend. Bluegreen, of course, didn't care about us once they had our money, so we went to Timeshareadventures.com and paid them $600 up front. As people have said here, this was a huge mistake. I felt at the time that it was strange to pay for something before you received any service, but they assured me this is "the only way it's done" in this business. Two years later, they have done nothing for us whatsoever other than put an ad on their web site that apparently no one ever sees.
So now I've been talking to Buyatimeshare.com, and they do seem more reputable. They have a good rating with the BBB, which is one of the main things they emphasize. I would have paid them the $400 if not for this web site's admonition to *never* do that no matter how good it sounds.
We paid $10,000 for 12,000 points, roughly a dollar a point. He assured me we could list it for $10,000, and told me they usually sell for about a dollar a point. He showed me a list on their web site of properties that have recently sold, along with the prices they sold for. Now this is the amazing part... by simply looking at the Bluegreen properties they have sold, I found that they are selling for an average of *10 cents* a point!!
The most amazing thing to me is how these salesmen sleep at night. They lie right to your face, and they somehow know how to say it in a way that makes you feel they are completely sincere. This guy *has* to know that he's lying... if I can look at the site for a few minutes and realize that points are selling for 10 cents apiece rather than a dollar, you'd think a person who has worked in the business for some time would know that too.
(sigh) So we're stuck with 12,000 Bluegreen points that apparently will never sell for more than a couple of thousand dollars. Timeshares are such a bad investment, it's unreal. They promised us it would appreciate just like regular property, but instead we're going to take a 90% loss when we sell it.
Thanks, though, for this forum, so that more people won't get screwed. My basic advice is: don't trust anyone involved in any aspect of timeshares, whether it's selling, reselling, or renting. Just stay away from it unless you want your money stolen time and time again in a completely legal way.
Oh, here are some lies you will hear from the resellers:
-"We have to have the money up front because of all the advertising, etc. we do." [my response: why don't you pay for all that with the money you make at the close of each sale like any reputable real estate company?]
-"Your points will sell for about a dollar a point." [10 cents a point for Bluegreen]
-"You need to hurry because [insert made-up reason]." [all the timeshare people want you to hurry because they know the more you think about it, the more chance you have to become informed and know they are lying]
-"You can't sell a timeshare yourself because of the complexity of the transaction." [get a lawyer or read this web site]
-"Your timeshare should sell in a few months." [but if it doesn't, which it won't until you lower it to the point that any money you receive is a joke, we won't do squat about it except assure you that sometimes these things take time]
-"The reason TUG doesn't list our company as a success is because all TUG users are people who have been burned." [I'll let you guys respond to that one]
So now I've been talking to Buyatimeshare.com, and they do seem more reputable. They have a good rating with the BBB, which is one of the main things they emphasize. I would have paid them the $400 if not for this web site's admonition to *never* do that no matter how good it sounds.
We paid $10,000 for 12,000 points, roughly a dollar a point. He assured me we could list it for $10,000, and told me they usually sell for about a dollar a point. He showed me a list on their web site of properties that have recently sold, along with the prices they sold for. Now this is the amazing part... by simply looking at the Bluegreen properties they have sold, I found that they are selling for an average of *10 cents* a point!!
The most amazing thing to me is how these salesmen sleep at night. They lie right to your face, and they somehow know how to say it in a way that makes you feel they are completely sincere. This guy *has* to know that he's lying... if I can look at the site for a few minutes and realize that points are selling for 10 cents apiece rather than a dollar, you'd think a person who has worked in the business for some time would know that too.
(sigh) So we're stuck with 12,000 Bluegreen points that apparently will never sell for more than a couple of thousand dollars. Timeshares are such a bad investment, it's unreal. They promised us it would appreciate just like regular property, but instead we're going to take a 90% loss when we sell it.
Thanks, though, for this forum, so that more people won't get screwed. My basic advice is: don't trust anyone involved in any aspect of timeshares, whether it's selling, reselling, or renting. Just stay away from it unless you want your money stolen time and time again in a completely legal way.
Oh, here are some lies you will hear from the resellers:
-"We have to have the money up front because of all the advertising, etc. we do." [my response: why don't you pay for all that with the money you make at the close of each sale like any reputable real estate company?]
-"Your points will sell for about a dollar a point." [10 cents a point for Bluegreen]
-"You need to hurry because [insert made-up reason]." [all the timeshare people want you to hurry because they know the more you think about it, the more chance you have to become informed and know they are lying]
-"You can't sell a timeshare yourself because of the complexity of the transaction." [get a lawyer or read this web site]
-"Your timeshare should sell in a few months." [but if it doesn't, which it won't until you lower it to the point that any money you receive is a joke, we won't do squat about it except assure you that sometimes these things take time]
-"The reason TUG doesn't list our company as a success is because all TUG users are people who have been burned." [I'll let you guys respond to that one]
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