Eight Ways to Avoid a Case of Timeshare Buyers' Remorse

1. If you think you might be interested in owning a timeshare, learn what a timeshare is, and what it isn't. Understand the difference between the types of timeshare arrangements (deeded or leased property, points, floating or fixed dates). When you get down to actual contact with a particular timeshare organization, be sure you're absolutely clear about what it's selling.


2. Do your homework about the different organizations selling timeshares. Go online or find another source for reviews and owners' stories. Find out which timeshare sellers are well respected and those whose owners report lots of problems. Try to talk to people you know and trust who have timeshares, and ask them about the advantages and disadvantages. 


3. If you're approached by a publicist for a timeshare, or offered a prize or incentive for attending an "informational" session, be sure you research the organization before you go. If the prize or incentive is a meal, or even a resort weekend, it's likely legitimate; if the prize is something of significant value, or the resort an extremely expensive place, be suspicious. Know that whatever the incentive, you'll be subjected to pressure to buy, and to buy on the spot. Don't succumb to such pressure. NB: Never call a 1-900 number to book a "free" trip; it's likely a timeshare scam.


4. Demand straight answers about maintenance fees and other costs beyond the price of the property or points package itself. Ask whether those fees are fixed or subject to cost-of-living increases. Ask whether you'll be responsible for assessments for improvements or repairs in future years. Be sure you know the length of your contract if you're on a lease arrangement. And find out what the seller offers as options should you need to sell or otherwise divest yourself of your timeshare. Be sure there's some kind of lifeline or exit opportunity should your circumstances change. 


5. Do not feel that you must stay through any presentation that doesn't feel comfortable. If the pressure's too intense, be polite but firm and announce that you're leaving. Be polite about it, but don't be intimidated if the management tries to argue with your decision.


6. No matter how good it all sounds, don't sign up on the spot. Take material home and take time to reflect. Read the contract, and have it reviewed by an attorney BEFORE you sign anything. If the sales person promised you something you don't find in the contract, don't sign. You'll never get anything that's not in the contract. 

7. Ask for references, both for folks who have been satisfied and those who weren't. If these aren't readily made available, consider that a red flag. Go online and see what owners say about the company. If you do get references, call them. And don't depend upon references provided by the sellers; find your own from your own network or go online to seek them.


8. Before making a decision, review your finances (being especially aware of the costs in addition to the purchase price) and current and projected market conditions. Don't kid yourself that a timeshare is an investment. If it fits your needs and vacationing style, that's all you can expect of it.


DON'T SIGN a contract until you've followed all these steps. If it's a good deal, it'll still be a good deal when you've taken the time to make sure it's good by doing your research and getting advice from a timeshare professional. If the deal's too good to last until you can sign with confidence that you've taken every precaution, it's likely not a good deal at all.

Is It a Timeshare Scam or Is It Just a High-Pressure Pitch?

You hear a lot about timeshare scams, but what many people refer to as scams aren't scams, aren't illegal, aren't even necessarily misrepresentation. They're just high pressure.

As timeshare expert Jack Murphy says in one of his e-Zine articles, "Just because a timeshare presentation is high pressure, it does not necessarily mean that it ranks as one of the timeshare scams that are prevalent. The companies that run the legitimate timeshares spend a lot of time and money learning how to make as many people purchase as possible." 

Would-be buyers, he continues, as "being subjected to some well researched psychology." And it behooves anyone who is, or might be, interested in buying into the timeshare experience to do their homework. 

Some of the high-pressure tactics, to be sure, are intense to the point of unpleasantness. Various writers online have reported such experiences with incentives such as a boat trip that went to an island and didn't leave until the participants had heard a hard-sell pitch that lasted hours; a $100 meal voucher that depended on an hour-long tour that actually took four hours; free museums that were actually fronts for the timeshare organization; and setups at bars and lounges. 

Actual scams, and there are many, involve false promises and the offers of rewards that aren't just the meal vouchers at resorts, the boat rides, even the free weekends, but are things like the English scam in which people were told they'd won a sports boat with an outboard motor, a car or a thousand pounds. All they had to do was attend the presentation and pay 50 pounds for delivery of the boat. When the boat arrived, it was a toy dinghy with a tiny motor.

Other scams have included a free vacation (but there was an administration fee attached) or a phenomenal bargain on a timeshare offered by a company that went out of business after the buyer had made a hefty deposit. Some timeshare owners, tempted by the offer of a "better" property with an offer to buy their current timeshare, discovered they'd signed agreements to buy but that the offers to purchase their previous properties was contingent upon the availability of qualified buyers who, of course, never materialized. Some unscrupulous timeshare sellers offer financing with sky-high interest rates or balloon payments in the fine print.

Probably the most frequently encountered scams these days are perpetrated on timeshare sellers hoping to dispose of timeshare properties that they no longer use or on which they can no longer afford to make payments or pay maintenance fees. Scammers prey on these people and their need to sell, promising a ready market but requiring up-front fees. Prosecutors in several states have begun proceedings against such predators, but few of their victims will ever receive recompense. 

To avoid being the victim of high-pressure sales tactics or outright scams is to research the market, avoid making impulse decisions, and to seek competent legal advice from people who know the timeshare world. 

New Terms Convey the Same Meaning: A Timeshare is NOT an Investment

There's likely a reason for the panoply of terms and keywords associated with getting rid of a timeshare.

"Timeshare get out" and "timeshare exit" have become common online vocabulary, along with "sell my timeshare" and even "timeshare escape."

The painful fact is that thousands of people have made unwise decisions to purchase timeshares, and are wishing they hadn't.  Some are the victims of outright scams. Some have been led into their predicament with high-pressure sales pitches.

And many have been convinced that a timeshare is a good investment. Such is simply not the case. A timeshare may be a convenient way to arrange for regular vacations in pleasant places. It may be a good way to connect with loved ones, since many timeshares are purchased in tandem with family members or close friends.

But just as a travel trailer or a motor home may be a convenient vehicle for vacationing but becomes an encumbrance when it's ten years old and well used, a timeshare is a purchase that loses value over time. Even luxurious resorts depreciate.  Facilities age and need refurbishment and replacement.  Timeshare owners have to assist with the costs of refurbishment and replacement.  Of course, the same is true with home ownership, but reselling a home is uncomplicated in comparison with selling a timeshare.

And in the current down economy, when even beautiful homes are not selling well, it's hopeless to think that one can resell a timeshare with ease.  If you have timeshare and need to opt out, don't wait for repossession proceedings, and above all, don't fall victim to timeshare reselling scams; consult a professional timeshare consultant to find out your options.

Timeshare Owners Talk Upside, Downside

Wouldn't you know it?

First day of vacation, unhooked from the house, the antiques shop, and the computer: no record-keeping, no vacuuming, no blogging—and the first conversation I have with fellow travelers (on the shuttle from hotel to airport, no less) is with timeshare owners.

So of course I have to ask.

It's a mother and daughter, and first the mother says her timeshare, with a major hotel chain, is wonderful. "It makes sure I take a vacation," she says.  But her daughter points out that she always goes to the same place, at the same time of year. "I think," she says, "that it gets sort of old." 

"It's comfortable," her mother points out. "And if I'd bought it 15 or 20 years earlier, I'd probably have got my money's worth out of it before I'm too old to use it any more. As it is," she shrugs, "I don't know how long I'll be able to afford the maintenance fees. They keep going up and up."

As for the daughter, she owns a timeshare with one of the big timeshare organizations. She hates it. "I can't ever get the dates I want. They never told me I'd have to deal with still another company to do my booking, and that there'd be fees for that, too. I want out."

They're headed for Hawaii, where the mother's timeshare hotel is located. It's a second, special-occasion trip.  Are they staying at her timeshare?

"Oh, no," they chorus. "We're going to the hotel next door."

Timeshare Owners Air Their Woes

When you ask your friends who own timeshares how they like it, chances are they'll say it's a great way to go. Nobody wants to admit that they walked into a mare's nest. But go to almost any timeshare owners' website and you find a host of woes and grievances.

Here are some of the complaints posted on various online sites:

• The fees are a pain; there always seems to be a fee for everything. Home Owner Association and maintenance assessments seem to go up every year, and you have to pay for an exchange-club membership (about $100) and exchange fees (up to $200) every year.

• Banking your week of use comes with an expiration date; it's use-it-or-lose-it. Often you end up settling for what's near where you want to be, but not where you want to be. The desirable places available to you book up two and sometimes three years in advance. Who can plan that far ahead dependably?

• Even supposedly reputable corporations have been accused of unauthorized changes to property-owner association bylaws, inflating assessments, and skimming the most desirable weeks off available time pools for exchanged.

• Trying to rent your timeshare is next to impossible. Selling it IS impossible, or virtually so. Some timeshare owners end up turning their property back to the resort just to escape the maintenance obligations, and others find that even that solution isn't possible: the resort won't take it. As for resellers, the field is fraught with scammers.

The bottom line: If you own a timeshare and find that it's not working out as you expected, talk to a timeshare attorney and get professional advice about your options.

Timeshare Fraud Tops the List as the Most Common Citizen Complaint in Florida

Anyone who is facing timeshare foreclosure or is plagued by a property they can’t rid of will agree that timeshare scams are common.  But now we have definitive proof that such scams – especially re-sale scams, in which a shady third-party offers to sell a distressed property and asks for an upfront fee – are on the rise.

Just recently, the Florida Attorney General’s Office announced that timeshare fraud is the number citizen complaint in the state, with over 12,000 logged in 2011. That’s 33 complaints a day for those keeping track.

What’s most disconcerting about this news is that attorney generals across the country are going after these scams, and they continue to increase. Either prosecution isn’t making much of a difference, or the prosecutors simply can’t keep pace with the bad guys.

After all, distressed owners are desperate. What may seem like an innocuous $1,000 upfront fee to pay one of these entities may be worth the risk if their timeshare can ultimately be sold.  And for resellers cold-calling, say, 50 distressed owners a day, even if five percent agree to pay $1,000, they’re looking at a net profit of $2,500 a day.

So somebody's getting away with other people's money. Don't let it be yours. Contact a timeshare attorney before you enter into any kind of resale contract.

Timeshare Buyers, Owners Need to Understand Types of Ownership, Membership

Many timeshare owners, hurried into signing contracts by high-pressure sellers, don't really understand what kind of property and membership they've purchased.

When they discover that their timeshare no longer fits their circumstances, they often need the help of a timeshare attorney to help them figure out what it is that they actually own. Too often they discover that they have a property that they can't sell.

There are two forms main forms of ownership in timeshares, deeded or "fee simple" ownership and certificate or leased ownership, which has a specific duration, like a long-term lease. A deeded ownership can be sold or transferred. A leased or certificate ownership, the commonest form of ownership outside the U.S., can be as short as 20 years or as long as 99 years. It is not saleable, and often the contract language disallows transfer of ownership.

There are several forms of membership, as well, and again, these need to be understood by their owners or prospective owners. Ordinarily a timeshare resort will offer a single kind of membership, touting it as the best, but it's a good idea if you're in the market for a timeshare to look at all the options.

The original, and most familiar, form of timeshare is the fixed week. You purchase one or more weeks to be used at the same time each year at your home resort. If you use it every year, it's like returning to a vacation home. Another type is the floating week or time slot: the sale is usually of a particular type of unit, with usage in a given season. It's the owner's responsibility to book the time wanted, and it's often essential to do this a year or more in advance to get the desired time slot.

A relatively new option for timeshare buyers is the purchase of points, rather than a particular property. This offers a wider range of locations and unit size. As with floating time slots, points are subject to availability on a first-come-first-served basis, with popular dates booked far ahead, and the accounting systems are often confusing. Yet another variation, with the entry of many corporate chains into the timeshare market, is the multi-location option, some with a home location and exchange, others with a wide-open system.

With all these options, it's important to involve a professional from the beginning, whether the process is choosing a timeshare that's appropriate for the buyer or determining what to do with a timeshare that has become an encumbrance rather than an advantage. In either case, the answer is to do some thoughtful groundwork with a professional's help, rather than winging it and discovering too late that the wrong choice has been made.