Report Abuse

Re: Timeshares is good investment or not.

LoL, I think most everyone who said timeshares are not a good investment were people who bought from the developer, where you lose tremendous value when you sell. Most everyone who said it was a good investment bought resale where, aside from bad economic years like the last 9 months of 2008, you can sell your timeshare close to or more than you bought it for. Both arguments are fairly correct in their context, but people rarely make this distinction when discussing the investment merrits of timeshares. I am annoyed maintenance and special assessments rise as fast as medical premiums. I feel the resort manager has less incentive to run an efficient operation since the more they can bill the more they earn. I just made a pretty general statement, but one example: - DRI (Diamond Resorts) this year increased most owner transfers from $0 to $250. Supposedly this was to cover the cost of processing transfers. Fine, why then did my maintenance fee not get reduced since previously that's where the cost of transfers were funded? And why did DRI reduce the transfer staff from 3 people to 2, and when (currently) the 2nd person went on maternity leave are they running the department with only 1 person? There are a few exceptions to my example (Polo Towers properties for example are handled by a separate group). But my point should be clear: There is ALWAYS an explanation as to why the fees are increased so dramatically but when you look at the detail and the overall picture, a very large portion of the increase is not actually benefitting owners the way we are told it is.