- Joined
- Jan 10, 2010
- Messages
- 6,235
- Reaction score
- 3,856
- Points
- 499
- Location
- Fairfax County, Virginia
- Resorts Owned
- Wyndham VIPF & PresRes, HVC/DRI (Gold), Quarter House (4), Resort on Cocoa Beach (2), HGVC Tuscany Village, HGVC South Beach-McAlpin, HGVC Parc Soleil
This advice is for buying for personal use, not a rental business.
Suppose you are considering acquiring a week at good ol' Mugwump Swamp. You love it there, your family loves it there, you go every year. You've been able to rent that same unit pretty reliably, and you typically pay $2,000 for the week. You find someone who owns a week/unit that works for your annual trip. The current owner is offering to transfer it to you for free. Fees are a steal, only $1,800 a week! Seems like a great deal! You're saving $200 every single year!
In the words of Lee Corso, not so fast, my friend. You are obligated to stay there (or to rent it to someone else) every single year, good times and bad. If the week goes to waste only once every ten years, you will end up paying the same money to just rent it when you wanted it than you would have owning it. What's more, being an owner means that's where you are going most years, even if you get a little tired of it, want to take a break, whatever. If you are a renter, and you want to take a break, you just do.
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I will admit that I am intentionally painting one of the best benefits of being a timeshare owner as a drawback. That benefit is: owning is a use-it-or-lose-it proposition. Being a timeshare owner means you are much more likely to actually take a vacation, because you've already paid for (part of) it. I can gaurantee you that owning timeshares has not saved me money vs. what I would spend on vacations if I was not an owner. But, that's because I take more vacations, in more places, more often. These aren't things I can't afford, but if left to my own devices I might not have done them. It's another example of paying yourself first.
Fixed weeks are like that. Fixed weeks are great if you have great fixed weeks. (I think that's called a tautology.) But, even great fixed weeks can bite you as noted above.
I have eleven weeks -- a mix of fixed and floating weeks -- on top of quite a few Wyndham points. Tax year 2018 my business income was $3,000 because I got stuck with some of the fixed or floating weeks. Either had to rent at super-bargain rates or didn't rent at all. Don't know why, just happened. It is almost impossible for me to lose money on the Wyndham points unless I pull a Rip Van Winkle.
Anyway, $3,000 comes out to maybe $2/hour for my labor. You decide.