Timeshare Companies Report Record Sales Again

Well its all over the papers and online just about every developer is expecting record sales this year and next even in the state of our depressed economy. Westgate Resorts (David Segal) is projecting 1 billion dollars in timeshare sales in the next year. There was another thread on here talking about fraud and well I wonder if selling a $30,000 timeshare to someone and selling the value of the timeshare when the same exact ownership exists on ebay for $500 and sometimes less. As licensed real estate agents (timeshare salesmen) working for a licensed broker (developer) have laws and ethics to follow like any other real estate professional. How can they sell and pitch worth and value and investment on something that currently has not one bid on ebay. The salesmen know, the developer knows, but they leave that out of the picture (sales presentation). Does that constitute fraud? Some would say yes and others, well probably work for the resorts.

I guess what bothers me the most is the entire industry needs a correction. Like I have posted before from the vacation package sales, to the sales presentation, to the after market. The consumer seems, at no time, to be aware of what they are getting into until after the fact. BIG PROBLEM. Everyone on this forum only knows what the do by have being take advantage of or knowing someone who has.

ARDA supports the developers. What about the consumer!! According to ARDA there are 4.4 Million US Households that own timeshare with an expected increase to double that number in the next couple years. Why has there not been a politician or activist group that has picked up on the timeshare industry.

Eventually there is going to be a timeshare bubble bust similar to the housing market and Americans are going to be holding the bag. Imagine record number timeshare foreclosures and absolutely no outlet to even remotely cover the original investment. At least through the MLS we can see the current back logs of homes and run statistics on price trends. Forget it with timeshares, the whole market could come crashing down, and no one would know where to go.

If anyone would like to comment please do. I am very passionate about correcting the entire industry and I strongly feel that the most responsible are the developers and they need to take it upon themselves to correct the entire industry. This will in effect have a ripple effect though all stages of ownership.

Any thoughts?

HI. It is not illegal, immoral or unethical to sell a product for more than someone else is selling the product. It is illegal to describe a timeshare as an investment, because no prospectus is normally provided by the timeshare salesman and the SEC rules on investment sales must be followed. If a timeshare salesman says it is a great financial investment, he then is violating the rules for selling investments established by the SEC, whose authority is determined by congress. I am not an attorney, but fraud laws are quite complicated and what one person considers lying may not be considered so by another person. No one forces a person to buy a timeshare, and every state has a recission rule which is based on the the possibility of mistatement of facts by the selling party. I do not condone some of the tactics used by salesman not only in the timeshare business, but other business areas. However, the buyer must bear some responsibility for actions in purchasing the property. Usually the buyer is enticed to attend the sales presentation by the offering of something of value, i.e. a dinner or show or some other inducement. There is no free lunch, if you accept the inducement to participate in the sales presentation, then you have willingly made yourself available to the salesman. I have bought a timeshare from the developer, I paid much more than I would have paid on the Internet Sales Sites, had I known about such sites. I however do not feel I was cheated because I could get a better price elsewhere. In fact, I have bought additional weeks on the Internet since I bought the developer week. I think in general, I have gotten value for my expenditure. Did I get the absolute lowest price, absolutely not. We are adults, we have to accept responsibilty for our actions. Stan.

I don't know how developers project future sales, but I cannot believe that developer timeshares sales will rise in the future (ie: 1 billion dollars next year). On the contrary, I believe that the coming years will be the worst in developer timeshare sales history. Vacation ownership will be the last thing on the consumer's mind as they're trying to stay afloat financially with the high cost of gasoline and all products delivered by gasoline will pass the higher cost on to the consumer. Just look at the airline industry ... airfares have skyrocketed and layoffs have been numerous. I read just yesterday that Wachovia Bank is laying off thousands of people at the end of this month ... it's all about the ecomony = high cost of gas/oil.

People will not be buying 5 figure developer timeshares ($10,000 - $35,000) since vacations will be put on the backburner. People will be vacationing closer to home and not necessarily in luxury accomodations such as timeshares. There will be thousands of maintenance fees from current owners that will go unpaid in the coming years as people will need that money to put food on the table and buy gas to get to work and those lost maintenance fees will affect all resorts in a big way as maintenance fees are their bread and butter.

Any developer that thinks that sales will continue to rise at the phenomenal rate of earlier years is hiding their head in the sand, period.

With the internet in almost every household in the USA, you would think people would research timesharing backwards and forwards and in and out before committing themselves to a major purchase in the thousands of dollars, but I do realize that salespeople are very good at what they do and many will stretch the truth in every direction in order to make a sale.

Below is a quote I made on another thread here concerning lies in the timeshare industry from developer sales to upfront fee resale company lies and everything in between.

"This is why I would love for an investigative journalist to take on the task of outting all lies told by salespeople in the timeshare industry. It would certainly be a major coup for the journalist's career and a major eye opener for the public."

bobd157 wrote:

Eventually there is going to be a timeshare bubble bust similar to the housing market and Americans are going to be holding the bag. Imagine record number timeshare foreclosures and absolutely no outlet to even remotely cover the original investment. At least through the MLS we can see the current back logs of homes and run statistics on price trends. Forget it with timeshares, the whole market could come crashing down, and no one would know where to go?

Exactly, all bubbles eventually burst and the timeshare industry is no exception. ARDA is also burying their head in the sand along with the developer you quoted above ..... wishful thinking on their part.

The vast majority of timeshares today are bought by babyboomers (born 1946-1964) getting ready for their retirement years, however many of those working people's 401Ks have dropped to less than half (or more) of what they were a year ago. These people will have to keep working until they get their 401Ks back to where they can afford to retire (they're now calling them 201Ks instead of 401Ks .... sad but true).

They are certainly not in the market to buy a developer timeshare.

jayjay wrote:

I don't know how developers project future sales, but I cannot believe that developer timeshares sales will rise in the future (ie: 1 billion dollars next year). On the contrary, I believe that the coming years will be the worst in developer timeshare sales history. Vacation ownership will be the last thing on the consumer's mind as they're trying to stay afloat financially with the high cost of gasoline and all products delivered by gasoline will pass the higher cost on to the consumer. Just look at the airline industry ... airfares have skyrocketed and layoffs have been numerous. I read just yesterday that Wachovia Bank is laying off thousands of people at the end of this month ... it's all about the ecomony = high cost of gas/oil.

People will not be buying 5 figure developer timeshares ($10,000 - $35,000) since vacations will be put on the backburner. People will be vacationing closer to home and not necessarily in luxury accomodations such as timeshares. There will be thousands of maintenance fees from current owners that will go unpaid in the coming years as people will need that money to put food on the table and buy gas to get to work and those lost maintenance fees will affect all resorts in a big way as maintenance fees are their bread and butter.

Any developer that thinks that sales will continue to rise at the phenomenal rate of earlier years is hiding their head in the sand, period.

With the internet in almost every household in the USA, you would think people would research timesharing backwards and forwards and in and out before committing themselves to a major purchase in the thousands of dollars, but I do realize that salespeople are very good at what they do and many will stretch the truth in every direction in order to make a sale.

Below is a quote I made on another thread here concerning lies in the timeshare industry from developer sales to upfront fee resale company lies and everything in between.

"This is why I would love for an investigative journalist to take on the task of outting all lies told by salespeople in the timeshare industry. It would certainly be a major coup for the journalist's career and a major eye opener for the public."

I believe you are correct about timeshare sales heading down in the future. I do not agree that a investigative journalist doing a story will solve the problems that exist. The timeshare developers are billion dollar corporations which spend lots of lobbying money. The only way to change this system is for the timeshare owners to organize and have the resources to lobby, elect congressmen and senators to fight the large corporate interests. There are presumably at least 4 to 5 million time share owners. $50.00 each would raise $250 million dollars with which to lobby and elect officials. However, that is a daunting task to organize and raise the money needed to accomplish what many writers here say they want to do. I wish it would be as easy as having some journalist write a story. Just my opinion. Stan.

I think it very sad when they mislead or misrepresent the facts during the presentation,like saying, buying their timeshare wont show on your credit report , when it will ,or 4000 point will give you alot of vacation time, when it wont, the ARDA wont do anything about it, i guess they're getting some of the profit,Iam searching for other who were mislead at Liki Tiki owned by Club Navigo for a class action suit,check the BBB website for the amount of complaint against them.

ARDA, American Resort Development Association, is an association for developers, not consumers.

bobd157 wrote:

I don't believe that time share sales will increase, people can not afford them, and more and more people are becoming aware of fraudulent companies. When speaking to the Attorney General's office in Florida I was told they get many calls asking about Club Navigo, and they can not tell them anything because they are not sure what to say. Although no one I have spoken to there has anything helpful to say.

Well its all over the papers and online just about every developer is expecting record sales this year and next even in the state of our depressed economy. Westgate Resorts (David Segal) is projecting 1 billion dollars in timeshare sales in the next year. There was another thread on here talking about fraud and well I wonder if selling a $30,000 timeshare to someone and selling the value of the timeshare when the same exact ownership exists on ebay for $500 and sometimes less. As licensed real estate agents (timeshare salesmen) working for a licensed broker (developer) have laws and ethics to follow like any other real estate professional. How can they sell and pitch worth and value and investment on something that currently has not one bid on ebay. The salesmen know, the developer knows, but they leave that out of the picture (sales presentation). Does that constitute fraud? Some would say yes and others, well probably work for the resorts.

I guess what bothers me the most is the entire industry needs a correction. Like I have posted before from the vacation package sales, to the sales presentation, to the after market. The consumer seems, at no time, to be aware of what they are getting into until after the fact. BIG PROBLEM. Everyone on this forum only knows what the do by have being take advantage of or knowing someone who has.

ARDA supports the developers. What about the consumer!! According to ARDA there are 4.4 Million US Households that own timeshare with an expected increase to double that number in the next couple years. Why has there not been a politician or activist group that has picked up on the timeshare industry.

Eventually there is going to be a timeshare bubble bust similar to the housing market and Americans are going to be holding the bag. Imagine record number timeshare foreclosures and absolutely no outlet to even remotely cover the original investment. At least through the MLS we can see the current back logs of homes and run statistics on price trends. Forget it with timeshares, the whole market could come crashing down, and no one would know where to go.

If anyone would like to comment please do. I am very passionate about correcting the entire industry and I strongly feel that the most responsible are the developers and they need to take it upon themselves to correct the entire industry. This will in effect have a ripple effect though all stages of ownership.

Any thoughts?

I don't believe the sales in timeshares will be increasing, anytime in the future, first, many people are aware of the fraudulent tactics from the sales people, look at all the law suits being filed, and the many complaints being filed. In Florida, the Attorney General's office is constantly being contacted in regards to their practices and if they are an honest company, and will be starting an investigation as soon as enough people file their complaints.