Timeshare 101/Annual Fees’

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

Maybe I missed something in the answers, but I didn't see any comparison to renting your week out. The comparisons looked to me like the cost of Maint. fees vs. the cost of paying to rent a week from the resort.
Sorry...No tax breaks. Jean

Thanks everyone for your feedback, it was great to hear all the different angles. By reading most of your posts I gather alot of you compare to what you would get if you were to rent your time share out. But how often do most of you rent out your 1 or 2 weeks a year out. Isn't the whole purpose is to enjoy that selected week or time frame in which you can vacation. Or are alot of you looking at it as an investment over time. Please Please by no means am I knocking having or owning a time share I would love to get involved in this type of ownership but just trying to weigh all the options and see if it would beneficial.

I would like to ask another quick question if I may. By owning a timeshare does that give you any time of tax break come income tax time? Just curious, thanks guys and all take care!

Chuck

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

Maybe I missed something in the answers, but I didn't see any comparison to renting your week out. The comparisons looked to me like the cost of Maint. fees vs. the cost of paying to rent a week from the resort.
Sorry...No tax breaks. Jean

I didn't see that, either. I believe that references to rentals were about obtaining rental units, not renting your own out.

OP, in case it's unclear, the developer can get a lot more for a rental than a regular owner can. Their advertising channels are less limited = there's a ceiling to what I'll spend to advertise one unit. Plus, no one has heard of me so while I may be offering the same product for less, my credibility is way less established than that of a megacorp.

Very few ts owners are in it to become serial renters.

[cbaur88 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close cbaur88]

Clarify

________________________________________
Hey guys just to clarify what I meant with regarding renting vs. owning. I read alot of people’s replies and they mention several times what they could get for their time share if they were to rent out their unit, week, etc... And my question was how often does someone rent out their timeshare week or unit?? Sure you might 4,000 or 7,000 a week at an very expensive resort so my question was do people give up that week cause they can get so much for their resort? To me they could give me 15,000 for my week but I don't want it (well maybe for 15,000) I want my week or unit for vacation. Hope that helped what I meant

Responses have been tremendous and so helpful. I am seeing all different avenues and some of you shed light on different aspects that I didn't see. Thank you so so much.........Chuck

P.S. Could any of you explain what a lockout is and I've seen the AC abbreviation allot, what does that mean? Thank you so much

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

Thanks everyone for your feedback, it was great to hear all the different angles. By reading most of your posts I gather alot of you compare to what you would get if you were to rent your time share out. But how often do most of you rent out your 1 or 2 weeks a year out. Isn't the whole purpose is to enjoy that selected week or time frame in which you can vacation. Or are alot of you looking at it as an investment over time. Please Please by no means am I knocking having or owning a time share I would love to get involved in this type of ownership but just trying to weigh all the options and see if it would beneficial.

I would like to ask another quick question if I may. By owning a timeshare does that give you any time of tax break come income tax time? Just curious, thanks guys and all take care!

Chuck

Chuck,

There is no pat answer for your question. It all depends on what your preferences are. How flexible are you? Do you have kids that would go with you etc.? Do you want to take vacations to get away from where you live because of weather etc.? Do you want to stay at a fixed location for a week or 2?

We have been timesharing for 20 years and have had many very enjoyable vacations that we would not have had without the timeshares. However, we are now selling our timeshares as they no longer suit our travel plans. Yes, I have actually listed them for sale now. I added that comment because many of you know that I have talked about it for some time and I have now finally done it. My reasons for selling our timeshares are not because I don't believe in timesharing. It works very well for many people, especially for families that vacation with their children.

Our reasons are mainly because timeshares just don't fit in where we like to go. We have always taken as many non-timeshare vacations as timeshare. Also we no longer wish to stay in condo type accommodations but instead prefer luxury hotels with all of the amenities and service. We do not travel to get away from home as we love where we live and the weather is great. Instead we travel to see things and rarely stay more than 5 days in one place. For example I just booked a fantastic 2 week trip to Canada this August that includes a deluxe 6 night circle tour on the Rocky Mountaineer train. We are staying 3 nights in Seattle at the Grand Hyatt, 3 nights in Vancouver at the Fairmont Waterfront, 1 night in Whistler at the Fairmont Château, 1 night in Jasper at the Fairmont and 2 nights in Victoria at the Marriott - Inner Harbor. We also have several other trips planned this year and I am working on a big one for next year that will take us all over the country using Amtrak for our transportation. The only reason I am saying all of this is so you will understand why timesharing does not fit in with our plans anymore. However, timesharing could fit your preferences very well. Only you can determine that. As far as the economics of the situation, most of the other posts are quite accurate.

There are timeshares that do offer the same service and amenities as a luxury resort hotel. These are mainly in Mexico. We have stayed at the Grand Mayan resorts in Mexico at Nuevo Vallarta and the Riviera Maya. The Grand Mayan resorts offer excellent service and amenities and will rival the best 5 star resorts for luxury. However, we have been there and have seen about all there is to see. Now if you like to get away every year to a warm climate, nice beach and stay in a luxury resort than the Grand Mayans and a few others will fit the bill nicely.

This has been rather long and rambling but my point is that you need to really evaluate the value of timesharing as it relates to your vacation needs. I realized that it no longer suited our needs when I had accumulated 20 weeks of banked use weeks and bonus weeks and the number keeps going up.

Owning a timeshare basically offers the following income tax deductions with a few exceptions.

1. The property tax on the timeshare is tax deductible if paid or listed separately. In California, we pay our timeshare property tax directly to the county.
2. Interest on the loan if the timeshare is financed.

These are generalizations and you should always check with a tax expert regarding your specific situation.

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

Off Topic to JWC

I hope you and your wife enjoy your travels - they sound wonderful!

I also agree with your post that as our needs and desires change, so will our use of TSs. I have some dietary needs that make having a kitchen a really great thing. I also enjoy havig 2 TVs so DH can watch his "Yelling" shows (political/money shows ) - I am an early riser and stay up later then him, having 1BR and larger units is a must for us now.
We also like to travel with friends....so 2BRs are great!!!
We both can pretty much take off from work when we want and are able to plan a year ahead..another must for successful TSing.

The bottom line is - if it fits your lifestyle - it is great!

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

You can deduct the real estate taxes paid if you can determine them and if you itemize. Other than that there is no tax advantage (other than if you rent timeshares as a business). This is contrary to what some salesmen will tell you, but they do tend to lie.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

P.S. Could any of you explain what a lockout is and I've seen the AC abbreviation allot, what does that mean? Thank you so much

AC is II term that if you deposit one week, you can exchange more than one week. See this for detail term

Lockout see this . Usually, it means you can split one unit week into 2 unit week if you have more than one bedroom, and the unit has doors that can be locked and make it seperated units.

Jya-Ning

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

10 year owner and still don't see the good in a timeshare

I've been trying to figure out how having my timeshare is a benefit for the past 6 years. Someone please help me figure it out.

I bought my timeshare during a presentation in 2001 and we went with the every other year program for $6,000 dollars.
So we have our timeshare everY even year
2002 we paid $450 in maintenance fees and rooms were Originally $160 nightly at that time. So this year we saved $154 night or 1,078 total
2004 we paid $550 in maintenance fees and rooms were Orginally $160 nightly still at that time. So this year we saved $82 nightly or $574.00 total
2006 we put in for RCI $89 to exchange for a place in Virginia exchange fee $129.00 + $650.00 maintenance fees. Rooms in the Virginia resort are
$169.00 nightly. This year we saved $38 night or $266.00 total

So at this point we saved $1,078 + 574 + 266 = 1,918.00
But, we paid $6,000 upfront so we are still behind $4,082.00 at this point.

Now in 2005 since we didn't have our resort we decided to get one off ebay and paid $400 for 6 nights / 7 days in a 2br resort with no timeshare program. That was just bought off ebay and we showed up and had a wonderful time with full kitchen, laundry and everything for less than we pay at our owned resort at NOW $700 yearly.

HOW ... PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME ... CAN ANYONE ... THINK TIMESHARES ARE GOOD?

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

That was just bought off ebay and we showed up and had a wonderful time with full kitchen, laundry and everything for less than we pay at our owned resort at NOW $700 yearly.

HOW ... PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME ... CAN ANYONE ... THINK TIMESHARES ARE GOOD?

You have $700 a year MF. That is pretty high. It means your nightly cost needs to be at least over $150 before you can see any benefit of owning TS (since you pay upfront fee, and loss some of the flexibility). Don't know what you have. But you should decide if your stay in that TS really deserve $150. If so, then you need to shopping aound the exchange company. If anyone gives you 2 for 1 deal and have enough inventories in the place you like to go, then you should try that one. If not you can try redweek to see how many points they give you, and look around their inventories to see if you want to use them.

If you could not find any of these, then you need to exchange only to resorts that will cost you over $200 a night. That maybe hard, since it usually mean prime time, but there are ways to do it, just not reliable and hard.

Not sure why you think the originally room cost $160. Have you try to see if you can rent out your TS at 160? And how easy it will be?

If it is easier, you may want to just rent out and use cash to travel.

Jya-Ning

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

Here's just one example of why I think Timeshare is fantastic:

I bought an Atlantic Beach NC Summer week on Ebay for $1100...maint fees are $440/year. The unit can rent for around $100/night realistically, so I would have the principal paid off in two years if I just rented it. SFX gives me three weeks when I deposit, so for that one maint fee and another $100 or so to exchange I can get two domestic weeks and one week in Mexico...works out to $250 or so a week.

The trick is to buy resale, and then learn how to use it. All is not lost though if you bought from the developer. Tell us what you have....there may be a better way for you to use it that you could take advantage of.

I've been trying to figure out how having my timeshare is a benefit for the past 6 years. Someone please help me figure it out.

I bought my timeshare during a presentation in 2001 and we went with the every other year program for $6,000 dollars.
So we have our timeshare everY even year
2002 we paid $450 in maintenance fees and rooms were Originally $160 nightly at that time. So this year we saved $154 night or 1,078 total
2004 we paid $550 in maintenance fees and rooms were Orginally $160 nightly still at that time. So this year we saved $82 nightly or $574.00 total
2006 we put in for RCI $89 to exchange for a place in Virginia exchange fee $129.00 + $650.00 maintenance fees. Rooms in the Virginia resort are
$169.00 nightly. This year we saved $38 night or $266.00 total

So at this point we saved $1,078 + 574 + 266 = 1,918.00
But, we paid $6,000 upfront so we are still behind $4,082.00 at this point.

Now in 2005 since we didn't have our resort we decided to get one off ebay and paid $400 for 6 nights / 7 days in a 2br resort with no timeshare program. That was just bought off ebay and we showed up and had a wonderful time with full kitchen, laundry and everything for less than we pay at our owned resort at NOW $700 yearly.

HOW ... PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME ... CAN ANYONE ... THINK TIMESHARES ARE GOOD?

[brother coony Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close brother coony]

CBAUR88
most time share owners own more than one timeshare, like I own 8 but only has 4weeks per. year vacation, I gift. to friends and family, and also rent out
at times,
3 yrs ago I got 3 Suites in NYC for my family of 11 people total for new years week with exchange fees of about $300, (one room was direct exchange with owner) NO way could I afford to rent Hotel rooms like those for news years in NYC , I had called the Hilton hotel the year befor and they told me a studio doom was $800.00 per. nite from Dec.19 to the first and they had none avaible,
timeshare is the way to VACATION,

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

...I bought my timeshare during a presentation in 2001 and we went with the every other year program for $6,000 dollars.....
So at this point we saved $1,078 + 574 + 266 = 1,918.00
But, we paid $6,000 upfront so we are still behind $4,082.00 at this point.
......Now in 2005 since we didn't have our resort we decided to get one off ebay and paid $400 for 6 nights / 7 days in a 2br resort with no timeshare program. ....
HOW ... PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME ... CAN ANYONE ... THINK TIMESHARES ARE GOOD?

If you buy your timeshare from the developer, it's hard to break even on it. (Unless perhaps it's a name-brand timeshare like a Marriott or Disney; those are sometimes worth buying from the developer.)

I feel that my timeshares are fabulous deals. I have one with a MF of $560 that lock-offs into two units, each of which gets me an "Accomodation Certificate" (bonus week) in Interval International. I can use it for up to four timeshare trades, including trades into timeshares that would rent for around $2,000 a week.

If you give us details on what you own, we may be able to help you out. Depending on what you own, it may be possible to get two (or possibly more) trades for your timeshare week, for example.