Another Rent or Own Comment

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

My husband and I have sat and looked at numbers several times and we cannot see how a timeshare saves us any money. We go to Branson 3-4 weeks a year, and buying points for that many weeks would be a chunk of money. What really puts it in the "doesn't make sense" column is the yearly maintenance fees. For what we'd pay in maintenance fees, we can easily just rent a condo for our weeks.

We're renting timeshare points both for Spring Break in Branson (Grand Crowne) and for almost 2 weeks in June in Florida (Sheraton Vistana). I guess we'll find out if there's any huge benefit to time shares vs. finding a condo to rent. Right now, I'm thinking renting points from owners seems to be the best financial decision for us.

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

"We're the same way. We have looked very hard at Disney's DVC program. We visit WDW frequently, but buying in still wouldn't pay for itself for us. In our situation, it's close to break-even, but why tie ourselves into something like that just for break-even?"

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

My husband and I have sat and looked at numbers several times and we cannot see how a timeshare saves us any money. We go to Branson 3-4 weeks a year, and buying points for that many weeks would be a chunk of money. What really puts it in the "doesn't make sense" column is the yearly maintenance fees. For what we'd pay in maintenance fees, we can easily just rent a condo for our weeks.

We're renting timeshare points both for Spring Break in Branson (Grand Crowne) and for almost 2 weeks in June in Florida (Sheraton Vistana). I guess we'll find out if there's any huge benefit to time shares vs. finding a condo to rent. Right now, I'm thinking renting points from owners seems to be the best financial decision for us.

If I knew then what I know now, I'd be a renter, not an owner. Email me for a sample of what can be had for less than maintenance fees!

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

If I knew then what I know now, I'd be a renter, not an owner. Email me for a sample of what can be had for less than maintenance fees!

Totally agree with this comment...

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

I continue to be amazed at how many of the Old Guard, those of us who have been hanging around each other for many years, who were once outspoken advocates of timesharing, agree with those comments.

There is no doubt that it is not the same playing field it was 20 years ago, and we have had time to see if the fearful things threatened in order to sell TS in the 80's and early 90's would come to fruition.

They did not. In fact, the opposite did, an abundance of high-quality, fairly-priced vacation accomodations, including exactly the same accomodations that were being passed off as being exclusive to owners back then.

Oh, I'm sorry, we all already knew all of that.

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Things are bleak but the value is still ther if you do it right

I have to agree that unless you want a specific resort and/or use time each and every use period it makes far more sense right now to rent what you want rather than own. That may not continue to be the case but if it changes there are likely to be plenty of deeply discounted or even free timeshare ownerships you'll be able to obtain should the rental market suddenly dry up or become cost prohibitive.

The easy access of the Internet to virtually any resort/time, the disillusionment of retail buyers with their purchaes and their attempts to get "something" from it and the annual fees as well as the unfortunate move to renting virtually all inventory to non-members by II & RCI have led to this crazy situation. While I still believe in owning it is applicable to only a very small subset of timeshare users and there is plenty of existing inventory to supply whatever that limited pool may desire. Paying more than $5000 for ANY timeshare anywhere today is a colossal mistake! Even those few that may seemingly require that today (a few owners till mistakenly think THEIR ownership has a resale value that high) won't be worth that when YOU want to sell. Paying much of anything for even a resale today is money lost. Naturally any retail purchase is a big mistake.

So take advantage of the current situation and rent virtually anything you want and, if you REALLY want it, pay next to nothing for anything you want to own. Those are the only sensible approaches to timeshare currently. It may change but is likely only to get worse for anyone that pays to purchase an ownership today resale or not.

[Ridewithme38 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ridewithme38]

I like most Americans struggle financially, so the big benefit to me and i'm sure most of them to owning is being able to 'finance' or pay off their vacation over time, anything put into savings is spent on necessities that have been put off...There are very few renters who will let me pay for a rental over a 2yr period just $50-$100 at a time

So for, at the very least me, renting isn't possible, so the only way i can go on the vacations i can go on is through ownership and the 'payment plans' the resorts allow

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

I like most Americans struggle financially, so the big benefit to me and i'm sure most of them to owning is being able to 'finance' or pay off their vacation over time, anything put into savings is spent on necessities that have been put off...There are very few renters who will let me pay for a rental over a 2yr period just $50-$100 at a time

So for, at the very least me, renting isn't possible, so the only way i can go on the vacations i can go on is through ownership and the 'payment plans' the resorts allow

I will let you charge anything you'd rent from me, by using PayPal or Mastercard or VISA.

[Ridewithme38 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ridewithme38]

I will let you charge anything you'd rent from me, by using PayPal or Mastercard or VISA.

I may take you up on that offer....

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

"We're the same way. We have looked very hard at Disney's DVC program. We visit WDW frequently, but buying in still wouldn't pay for itself for us. In our situation, it's close to break-even, but why tie ourselves into something like that just for break-even?"

Actually, buying resale at most resorts isn't good for the purchaser because there is no exit plan. If you bought a resale contract and couldn't use it for some reason you would still owe the mf.
Renting is a good option. We went to Marriott Ko Olina Beach Club and rented a two bed ocean view owners unit. The view was fantastic. We rented this for just a bit over MF. The original purchaser paid a large buy in to get this unit and isn't recouping his investment by renting it this way.

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

Actually, buying resale at most resorts isn't good for the purchaser because there is no exit plan.

http://www.timeshareforums.com/forum...big-issue.html

[robertcbordner@gmail.com Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close robertcbordner@gmail.com]

i rented my timeshare out with (REFERENCE TO SPECIFIC COMPANY REMOVED )made it super easy to do