Post asking for timeshare buying advice!

[PHILL12 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PHILL12]

I see post all the time from new people asking for advice on a timeshare and the price they might pay. Seems most of these people are new to these sites like here or Tug or Redweek. Many will show this being their first time on a forum and asking pricing questions about a price they are thinking of buying or renting a unit for.

I have no problem trying to help others but try and give fair advice. Many people come on these forums and after a while think they are a expert and just throw advice out there without thinking.I have been around timeshares since early eighties and feel I have knowledge but also learn more every day from these forums and other members.

The reason I bring all this up is that there is just to many people that will jump on a post and answer a new person only here once with don't buy or offer only half or what ever without knowing anything about the deal except maybe they found a listing on e-bay for a dollar and now feel this is only price that should ever be paid.

Problem with this is you might be stepping all over a member trying to sell or rent in these hard times and offering a very good deal and bad advice kills the deal.

Many of us members run ads on forums we are members of to rent or sell and try and offer fair deal. All it takes is couple people to just throw their advice out to back out or offer much less and this can hurt other members of our forums.

I'm not trying to say we shouldn't try and help new people but need to also think about the owner before just throwing the dollar price out there or 10% of asking price. How many times have most of us seen a posting like this and the last time you see this person posting again and your advice might have killed the deal for one of our members.

I give advice but try and be very careful with my opinion and also try being fair to owner running ad.


PHIL

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Reminds of the time I told someone they were paying too much for a week and found out later I squashed the deal for a friend of mine. I hope you are not suggesting that we mislead people where someone we know is the seller and hope you are suggesting instead that we be more vague with our helpful suggestions.

[BWolf Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BWolf]

This topic came up on another site. My view is that a price is fair if both the buyer and seller decide it is fair. Somebody with ten million posts on a timeshare website may disagree and point to ebay sales or other data to suggest that the price is too high. But that approach is flawed. What if the sales data is based solely on dog weeks that no one wants and the week under discussion is attractive to the buyer?

My wife and I bought a week at what we thought was a fair price and we got the seller to agree. Had we asked a self-appointed timeshare guru we would likely have heard the price was too high and not to buy if we couldn't get it lowered. So, had we taken such advice, we would not have bought at a timeshare we wanted, a week we wanted, and a unit we wanted. Luckily, we didn't ask and we now have a great timeshare that we visit every year. Just booked the flights this past weekend even though we are 6 months from our visit.

My thoughts on some sports blog posters tends to apply to some self-appointed timeshare gurus:

Confucius say: "Diarrhea of the post suggest you are full of sh*t."

[Hobbitess Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobbitess]

My view is that a price is fair if both the buyer and seller decide it is fair.

This. I know some people always say "rescind and rebuy" or "never buy from the developer," but I also know people who, with full knowledge of resales, bought from the developer. Some of them had even bought resales in the past and bought resales again later. It just depends on where you're at and what you're wanting at that point.

I know some people who own Bluegreen prefer to buy direct because the know some of the money goes into development, and they want to have more resorts in the system. I don't like to buy from the developer because you're also paying for the salesforce, and I'm not crazy about the salesforce. With Bluegreen, you can buy resales through Pinnacle, and thus pay for development but not sales. But in this present market, if it weren't for that saleforce, I wouldn't have the option of owning Bluegreen, because it wouldn't exist. And I do dearly love my Bluegreen. So I probably shouldn't hate the sales people so much. But I do.

[PHILL12 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PHILL12]

Reminds of the time I told someone they were paying too much for a week and found out later I squashed the deal for a friend of mine. I hope you are not suggesting that we mislead people where someone we know is the seller and hope you are suggesting instead that we be more vague with our helpful suggestions.

Thought I was very clear on my meaning!

I as a member on here and other forums have my opinion and it isn't always the right one. What I'm saying is many people like to just throw the don't buy or offer less without knowing many details because its the easy answer for many with little knowledge.

As a member I do like to help other members when possible but also help new people and this can be a fine line and should be handled carefully.

If the e-bay pricing is what counts to most so called experts then timeshare pricing will never come back as many of us owners hope.
I read many postings and because I don't just throw answers out to see my name and post in print I keep out of the posting.
PHILL12

[bnoble Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bnoble]

Hoping that some people won't give specific advice---even when it's bad advice---is like hoping the law of gravity will someday be repealed.

That said, in the current market, I'm not sure there is a selling price that is "too low" for all except a very small number of relatively specialized ownerships.

[PHILL12 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PHILL12]

This. I know some people always say "rescind and rebuy" or "never buy from the developer," but I also know people who, with full knowledge of resales, bought from the developer. Some of them had even bought resales in the past and bought resales again later. It just depends on where you're at and what you're wanting at that point.

I know some people who own Bluegreen prefer to buy direct because the know some of the money goes into development, and they want to have more resorts in the system.

I agree with you! I would always tell buyer to be careful when talking to the developer and try and explain the added cost but also recommend checking out resales before buying from any developer. Bottom line is it is up to the person buying and you just hope they were given enough information to help them decide.

We bought our second unit from our resales dept few years ago and yes it cost us about thousand more than resale from owners if I would have found one. Problem was I checked ads for couple years and never found this building for even year for cheaper price. We went back up to our resort and bought the unit we wanted for couple reasons. One was they had what we wanted and owners get a discount price on buying a second unit. Next the resort paid our maintenance fee's for next two years which covers four years as it is a eoy unit. On top of this we got $800 in resort discounts of which we used all and saved more money. The other issue was we had to do nothing but sign and they handled all paperwork We might use them if we sell one of our units someday.

PHILL12

[mas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mas]

A good friend of mine once said, "If someone offers me $x for (name a product) and I know it to be worth less, it is not my obligation to inform him that he is overpaying--IMO--. However, if he asks me what I think it is worth, I will tell him."

I guess I tend to agree with that statement to a point. Obviously if I think a product is worth say $1000 and someone offers me $10,000 or $20,000, I would personally feel dishonest in accepting that kind of money for the product. In reality, I think I would have to do some research and find out why he is offering so much and determine if I really know what I have, or if I have missed something.

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

You should consider that the asking price from a seller is 'advice' to potential buyers about what something is worth. Getting advice that is different than that is not a bad thing. It's up to the buyer to figure out whose advice is better.

I have been looking for a September week at a specific resort for about a year. There are a lot available but I am being picky about the group of units in the resort I am interested in. Asking prices range from less than $2K to more than $18K for the same range of weeks (36-38), same unit size (1 bdr). In that case, offering far less than asking price seems like the right advice. It's the advice I have given myself so it will also be the advice I give to others if they ask.

Every situation is different. The market sets the price. If a seller has to hang on to their property longer because they are not willing to price their property to entice a buyer who will follow through, I do not feel sorry for them. I've been around timeshares for 10 years and I have bought 8, 7 of them resale, and sold 5. Each sale was for what I paid or less than what I paid but only one was sold for a dollar. That was the one I bought from a developer.

[Onelove Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Onelove]

Thank you to the members of this board who do and did share their opinion. I like to hear others opinions prior to making my own choice and being a past member of the DIS forum - I knew the high level of knowledge and insight that people can provide in forums such as these.

My decision was to buy a property that I will use as a RCI points property and may never actually stay at my home property. It is interesting to me that there is such a vast spectrum of opinions of RCI points. I think those who seem to like the RCI points seem to be more up my ally so I'm gonna give it a try.

I decided to sell my DVC property while it still has great resale value. I found myself using RCI through DVC which does not add up well.

Soooooo - I took the plunge. Time will tell and again - thank you for those who shared your thoughts.

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

Read this thread - I think you have to give the appropriate answer for the question that is asked and WHEN it is asked.

http://www.timeshareforums.com/forum...need-help.html

[bjones9942 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bjones9942]

Being a 'newbie' that recently made his own post on this topic, I must say that the responses were supportive and very welcome.

Yes, there were one or two of the 'you still have time to get out of the deal' replies - which would have been helpful to me if I had been so inclined. I didn't give them any less weight because I very well could have purchased on impulse and have had regrets (ok, the 'me' of 10 years ago could have done it that way - now I take my time when making a years long commitment).

Having replies of varying opinion shows that options are available. Doesn't have to be taken in a negative spirit at all. The more information one has, the better decision they are able to make.

As to what deal is best, well now that's a very subjective matter. I find that if I go to bed with a smile after making a decision, then it was good (for me). If I toss and turn and can't get to sleep, I re-think my position the next morning.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

My advice is don't buy . . . well, unless you can find it for a buck on eBay.

[ace2000 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ace2000]

I hate to say it, but people come to a forum like this to get advice and hopefully the best advice possible. Anyone who posts a question can read all the replies en masse and make their own best judgement. If that's a problem, then there should be rules put in place to curtail the issue.

Sorry, I don't believe in the whole premise you are suggesting here. Aren't these forums great, where we can all disagree with each other if we choose?

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Aren't these forums great, where we can all disagree with each other if we choose?

I don't agree.