buying a timeshare on ebay??

[mrsabbott]

So, I was just looking around online (while trying to gain a few swagbucks points!) and I was reading about timeshares. We've talked before about how we'd like to buy a condo in the Orlando area to use as a vacation home or to even rent out occasionally.. then I thought maybe a timeshare might be a more viable option.

I came across timeshares for SALE (not renting the points) on ebay for ridiculously cheap! Has anyone ever done this? Is it too good to be true? I mean, these are obviously NICE looking resorts, and I know you have to use it the same week each year and pay the yearly dues.. Some of them are offering no closing costs.

The yearly dues are around the $1000 or less a year price range.. I just don't know.. it would cost more then that to stay a week at an upscale resort wouldn't it?

 

[erincon23]

I wouldn't do it. We just dumped a timeshare (were able to have the owner - Holiday Inn Vacation Club - Orange Lake - buy it back). Not only do you have the maintenance but you also have the taxes. We owned ours for 9 or 10 years, and I can promise that, purchase price aside, we never got near the value of our maintenance and taxes out of it. IF you're serious about wanting to go ahead, look at buying points on resale instead - find a company you like that has points that you can use to trade in with RCI to go anywhere. It doesn't really matter what the home resort is if you're using points - you can go to any RCI resort (go to RCI.com for more info). They even have DVC available with RCI points.

 

[muirhejs]

I've looked at buying a timeshare as well, and it is incredibly complex stuff. Definitely look out for the maintenance fees, deeded property vs. non-deeded, etc.. IMHO don't buy into a timeshare without actually planning on staying at that property; the value of the points/property will not be as high anywhere else generally. Good general info available at tugbbs.com on timeshare resale.

 

[delmar411]

I have bought multiple weeks off ebay but I did a ton of research before doing so and even.with all that research we realized we didnt want to stay at one of the resorts we had 2 weeks at so I was able.to give them away on the tug board. The other 2 weeks I bought I use.for trading into dvc through rci points. They were/are excellent bargains.

I only bought weeks that I.could easily get rid of if I needed to.

 

[mrsstats]

I would only buy at a resort you wanted to stay at. This way you don't have the expense of joining something that allows you to trade. You don't have to pay the trade fee. All you have is your maintenance and taxes. The taxes are really not the big part of that, it is the maintenance.

 

[JoiseyMom]

I've looked at buying a timeshare as well, and it is incredibly complex stuff. Definitely look out for the maintenance fees, deeded property vs. non-deeded, etc.. IMHO don't buy into a timeshare without actually planning on staying at that property; the value of the points/property will not be as high anywhere else generally. Good general info available at tugbbs.com on timeshare resale.

See this isn't accurate. In-laws have a timeshare. A week for a studio in Atlantic City. They have NEVER used it, always trade it. Her contract allows her to trade in for the largest unit available. Her week trades really high. She has used it for Hawaii a few times, and we used it with her for Orlando, she got two separate time shares for our use one year. We also just used it and are staying at AKV 2bedroom Savannah view for a week! Her fees are low, 500/year. At some point bil and DH will be sharing it.

So depending on what they buy and where, they can get a good deal. They just need to be informed.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

I've bought 3 off of Ebay over the years...best.money.ever.spent. The 2 Foxrun weeks I use through Interval to trade into Marriott Lakeshore Reserve every year, and then I get bonus weeks on top of those! For my $600 a year in maintenance fees, my family gets absolutely insane accomodations for 2-3 weeks a year (depending on how I split the bonus week...one 2 bedroom or 2 1 bedrooms). This June we stayed in a 2 bedroom townhouse at Lakeshore Reserve via a timeshare trade with our Foxrun unit...that place was seriously nicer than my house.

The other purchase was 203K Wyndham points. I think I did spend about $700 on that purchase, but that was like 5 years ago. You could probably get the points for less now. Let's see...this year I grabbed a 1 bedroom at VWL for a week (the week including Labor Day weekend no less), a 1 bedroom at BCV for a week, and a 1 bedroom at VWL for a week that I gave to a friend. Not too shabby for my $71.83 a month in maintenance fees I pay $199 per exchange to RCI, and then $95 once I get to Disney. It works out to under $500/week for a 1 bedroom DVC accomodation

We have been timeshare trading with these Ebay purchases for years, and I count them as the best $$ I've ever spent. We do have some DVC points that I would ditch in a heartbeat if DH would agree. It's way cheaper to trade in through RCI. We pay more in dues on the DVC points than we do for the Wyndham and Foxrun dues combined, and we get so, so much less bang for the buck from them The *only* thing standing in the way of getting rid of the DVC points is that I have never successfully traded into DVC for Thanksgiving weekend. If DH would just agree to stay at Marriott for Thanksgiving, I could get rid of the DVC points and their high maintenance fees.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

See this isn't accurate. In-laws have a timeshare. A week for a studio in Atlantic City. They have NEVER used it, always trade it. Her contract allows her to trade in for the largest unit available. Her week trades really high. She has used it for Hawaii a few times, and we used it with her for Orlando, she got two separate time shares for our use one year. We also just used it and are staying at AKV 2bedroom Savannah view for a week! Her fees are low, 500/year. At some point bil and DH will be sharing it.

So depending on what they buy and where, they can get a good deal. They just need to be informed.

You are correct! And as it stands, I've never visited either of the properties that we bought off of Ebay. DH would like to go to Foxrun as we have a prime summer week, but I get waaaaay too much bang for my buck for my trades to even consider it! It's supposed to be a lovely resort, but I'm not giving up 2-3 weeks of beautiful Marriotts to find out how lovely it is

 

[momof1princess]

I've bought 3 off of Ebay over the years...best.money.ever.spent. The 2 Foxrun weeks I use through Interval to trade into Marriott Lakeshore Reserve every year, and then I get bonus weeks on top of those! For my $600 a year in maintenance fees, my family gets absolutely insane accomodations for 2-3 weeks a year (depending on how I split the bonus week...one 2 bedroom or 2 1 bedrooms). This June we stayed in a 2 bedroom townhouse at Lakeshore Reserve via a timeshare trade with our Foxrun unit...that place was seriously nicer than my house.

The other purchase was 203K Wyndham points. I think I did spend about $700 on that purchase, but that was like 5 years ago. You could probably get the points for less now. Let's see...this year I grabbed a 1 bedroom at VWL for a week (the week including Labor Day weekend no less), a 1 bedroom at BCV for a week, and a 1 bedroom at VWL for a week that I gave to a friend. Not too shabby for my $71.83 a month in maintenance fees I pay $199 per exchange to RCI, and then $95 once I get to Disney. It works out to under $500/week for a 1 bedroom DVC accomodation

We have been timeshare trading with these Ebay purchases for years, and I count them as the best $$ I've ever spent. We do have some DVC points that I would ditch in a heartbeat if DH would agree. It's way cheaper to trade in through RCI. We pay more in dues on the DVC points than we do for the Wyndham and Foxrun dues combined, and we get so, so much less bang for the buck from them The *only* thing standing in the way of getting rid of the DVC points is that I have never successfully traded into DVC for Thanksgiving weekend. If DH would just agree to stay at Marriott for Thanksgiving, I could get rid of the DVC points and their high maintenance fees.

Wow! Is there a class I can take to learn to do this? I would love to buy a timeshare and be knowledgeable enough to wheel and deal like that!

 

[shame711]

I have owned in Orlando, Vistana Resort. Love the resort and have never had a bad time there. With that said I would not buy Orlando, other tan DVC. You can actually rent a week from an owner cheaper than your maintaince costs. Plus Orlando is over built with timeshares which makes it easy to trade into and little trade power.

Go to the timeshare users group www.tug2.net and read up as much as you can. Timeshares work for some and not for others. The one constant rule is always buy resale. Good luck.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

Wow! Is there a class I can take to learn to do this? I would love to buy a timeshare and be knowledgeable enough to wheel and deal like that!

www.tug2.com is the best classroom you will find on the subject. Invest some time reading up on the various forums over there, and you will become very knowledgable on the subject of timeshare trading! There are some great experts on there who are quite helpful for specific questions, lots of good info in the "pinned" threads at the tops of the forums, etc. That's pretty much how I learned the ins and outs of timeshare trading. Tug2 is really a goldmine of information. If it weren't for that website, I'd have no idea about the Interval bonus weeks. They don't advertise it! What fabulous information that was! Also, it's worth it to pay the $10 a year or whatever it is to be able to see the "sightings" board. People post sightings of interesting timeshares that they see come up on Interval and RCI in real time. Anyways, great site!

 

[momof1princess]

www.tug2.com is the best classroom you will find on the subject. Invest some time reading up on the various forums over there, and you will become very knowledgable on the subject of timeshare trading! There are some great experts on there who are quite helpful for specific questions, lots of good info in the "pinned" threads at the tops of the forums, etc. That's pretty much how I learned the ins and outs of timeshare trading. Tug2 is really a goldmine of information. If it weren't for that website, I'd have no idea about the Interval bonus weeks. They don't advertise it! What fabulous information that was! Also, it's worth it to pay the $10 a year or whatever it is to be able to see the "sightings" board. People post sightings of interesting timeshares that they see come up on Interval and RCI in real time. Anyways, great site!

Thank you!

 

[TiggerTails57]

http://www.daveramsey.com/article/the-truth-about-timeshares/
1

 

[disneysteve]

You can actually rent a week from an owner cheaper than your maintaince costs.

I think this is the most important comment.

If you want to stay at a timeshare resort, rent a week. There is a good chance it will cost less than the annual fee that you would pay if you owned there. Even if it costs more, you aren't saddled with that fee year after year after year. We've rented through SkyAuction for as little as $37/night. We've also rented a friend's Marriott unit one year just by paying his annual fee for that year. Lots of timeshares have beautiful properties but owning them rarely if ever makes financial sense (I realize DVC can be an exception).

 

[sweetdana]

1 tug is. Very. Helpful and 2 know exactly what your buying. Rules/ costs/ limitations/ trading power. Everything . Decide where you want to own and then look for that resort/ points and if eBay has it thumbs up.

 

[mrsabbott]

Thanks for the info! I will definately do some more research on this!

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

I think this is the most important comment.

If you want to stay at a timeshare resort, rent a week. There is a good chance it will cost less than the annual fee that you would pay if you owned there. Even if it costs more, you aren't saddled with that fee year after year after year. We've rented through SkyAuction for as little as $37/night. We've also rented a friend's Marriott unit one year just by paying his annual fee for that year. Lots of timeshares have beautiful properties but owning them rarely if ever makes financial sense (I realize DVC can be an exception).

It IS possible to rent timeshare weeks for less than the annual maintenance fees, but bear in mind that for the cost of my one annual MF per timeshare, I'm getting THREE weeks back out in trade. We live local to Orlando, so for us, buying the cheapo timeshares off of Ebay made perfect sense. If you are just looking for a one-off week here and there, definitely rent a timeshare online...there are lots of places like redweek where you can rent directly from an owner. You can rent weeks on Ebay also. If you travel a LOT like we do and don't have the $$ to burn on long weekends in DVC accomodations, buying a cheapo timeshare and trading in just makes sense. It really all depends on your situation.

The biggest key here is that you never buy a timeshare retail! Resale all the way! Let someone else take the "hit" on it, and then enjoy the spoils when they figure out that it just wasn't worth it

 

[DreamChasers]

I've bought 3 off of Ebay over the years...best.money.ever.spent. The 2 Foxrun weeks I use through Interval to trade into Marriott Lakeshore Reserve every year, and then I get bonus weeks on top of those! For my $600 a year in maintenance fees, my family gets absolutely insane accomodations for 2-3 weeks a year (depending on how I split the bonus week...one 2 bedroom or 2 1 bedrooms). This June we stayed in a 2 bedroom townhouse at Lakeshore Reserve via a timeshare trade with our Foxrun unit...that place was seriously nicer than my house.

The other purchase was 203K Wyndham points. I think I did spend about $700 on that purchase, but that was like 5 years ago. You could probably get the points for less now. Let's see...this year I grabbed a 1 bedroom at VWL for a week (the week including Labor Day weekend no less), a 1 bedroom at BCV for a week, and a 1 bedroom at VWL for a week that I gave to a friend. Not too shabby for my $71.83 a month in maintenance fees I pay $199 per exchange to RCI, and then $95 once I get to Disney. It works out to under $500/week for a 1 bedroom DVC accomodation

We have been timeshare trading with these Ebay purchases for years, and I count them as the best $$ I've ever spent. We do have some DVC points that I would ditch in a heartbeat if DH would agree. It's way cheaper to trade in through RCI. We pay more in dues on the DVC points than we do for the Wyndham and Foxrun dues combined, and we get so, so much less bang for the buck from them The *only* thing standing in the way of getting rid of the DVC points is that I have never successfully traded into DVC for Thanksgiving weekend. If DH would just agree to stay at Marriott for Thanksgiving, I could get rid of the DVC points and their high maintenance fees.

O.K. I have to know more. How do you get three weeks a year for one week in another timeshare? Is it a two bedroom lock off with a high trade value? If so how did you get a high trade value resort with low maintenance fees for only a few hundred dollars? How do Wyndam points compare to DVC points in trade?

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

O.K. I have to know more. How do you get three weeks a year for one week in another timeshare? Is it a two bedroom lock off with a high trade value? If so how did you get a high trade value resort with low maintenance fees for only a few hundred dollars? How do Wyndam points compare to DVC points in trade?

My unit is not a lockoff. It's a regular 2 bedroom. Go to tug2 and search "XYZ" and you will see how the bonus weeks in II work. I trade my regular week for 2 bedroom at Lakeshore Reserve. Once that is booked, I am entitled to a 2 bedroom XYZ bonus exchange. I think I paid $159 for that one. The previous year, it worked out to 2 1 bedroom XYZ bonus weeks, and I am pretty sure that they still allow that split if you have a 2 bedroom trade to work off of.

You don't really compare Wyndham points to DVC points. I have an annual allotment of 203K Wyndham points. I think I paid a little over $700 closed for them on Ebay...it should be a lot cheaper now. I pay $71.83 a month in dues on those. My 3 DVC exchanges listed above were 63K 63K and 77K points, so my 203K points right there. I got 3 weeks for the cost of the dues and $199 apiece in exchanges fees. Again, Disney charges $95 in check-in on exchanges, so add that in too and you are looking at around $500 a week or a little less. They are 1 bedroom exchanges.

As for how to get a timeshare cheaply...well, they are all over Ebay. Just do your research before you choose one. You want one that you could easily unload if you choose to do so. People just don't want to pay the maint. fees or don't want to take the time to educate themselves on timeshare trading or whatever...it's not for everyone I guess...I'm glad it's not, or all the good trades would get taken