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Re: Maintenance Fees (by Orville F.):

adahiscout wrote:

joel382 wrote:

jayjay wrote:

I am in total agreement with your statements below, however not everyone is as astute as you are.

Many people go to developer timeshare presentations (mainly for the perks offered), then the salesperson tells them untruths such as; you can exchange to any of the resorts in the RCI and II wishbooks anytime you wish, you can make a profit when you sell your timeshare, buying your timeshare is a good financial investment (the only investment is insuring that your family takes a vacation each year, it is definitely not a financial investment), you can easily rent your timeshare for a profit every year that you don't use it, and the list goes on an on. Salespeople don't mention the yearly rising costs of maintenance fees and possible special assessments.

Most developer salespeople will tell a prospective buyer anything to sell them a timeshare. Then when the buyer finds out that they can't simply exchange for any timeshare in the RCI and II wishbooks anytime they please, or they can't rent for profit (or at all), or they can't sell to break even, (or can't sell at all or take a huge loss), then owners become disillusioned with the concept of timesharing altogether.

This is one of the reasons millions of timeshares are for sale in the marketplace. All the prospective buyer did was believe the salesperson. Now how is the prospective buyer going to know about the above untruths before he buys. You blame the consumer, but the consumer believes the salesperson, so, I ask you, who is to blame here?

jeffr92 wrote:

Jay Jay,

Only own at a place you can drive to and go more often. Research the company a little. Of course nowadays you will have to weed through all of the garbage to see what is factual. Don't buy impulsively. The good FEELINGS wear off.

Timesharing is a wonderful thing if you do it right. Of course you wouldn't know it for all the moaning going on these days.

Jeff

JayJay, As you know I don't always agree with you, but I have to Totally Agree with you on many of your statements here against statements made by Jeff.

Jeff, You are either smokin' some good stuff, or you work for a timeshare company or exchange company. Nobody in their Right Mind that has owned a timeshare for any amount of time, and dealt with RCI believes half of the bull crap you are dishing out here! You state we are all 'negative', well I for one still own SEVERAL weeks and still enjoy my overall timeshare experiences, BUT I for one am STILL not happy with the likes of Celebrity Resorts and others that keep jacking up the maintenance fees AND THEN HAVE THE GALL TO DO A $1000.00 SPECIAL ASSESSMENT ON TOP OF IT! DO THE MATH... For my ONE unit it costs about $700 per year in Maintenance Fees. $700 x 50weeks (not using 52 because many are not fully sold) = $35,000 for my ONE UNIT. $35,000 x let's say 50 units for an average resort = $1,750,000 for that ONE 50 unit Resort. Now, keep in mind, this doesn't include the average $10,000 per week sold, per unit in this 50 unit resort. $10,000 x 50weeks x 50condos = $25,000,000 for initial sales of these condo weeks.

If these HOA's can't properly manage a 50 unit resort on $1.75 Million Dollars per year, they need to be replaced! You can hire a LOT of people and pay for A LOT of maintenance each year with that kind of money AND STILL PUT AWAY SOME OF IT FOR FUTURE RENOVATIONS!!! P.S. By the Way, Are you one of the owners/land developers at one of these sites? This would explain your writings...

You also insinuate that if JayJay would have done her research on the timeshare resort she sold with Full Ownerships that they were 'probably' paying the same assessments. I, for one, can GAURANTEE that if any of the full ownership owners, that is, they owned a unit 52 weeks of the year, had to pay 'the same assessment as the timeshare owners' of let's say $1000 LIKE ME, that would be $1000 x 52 weeks = $52,000 special assessment. Now, how many of those full ownership owners would pay this EVEN IF THEY COULD!!?? Don't state such assinine statements on here and not expect some 'negative' responses! SINCERELY! JoeL

Does anybody reading this own 52 weeks a year? If so, can you answer some of these questions for us?

I would suppose that the full owners are treated more like the owners of a condo who are responsible for their own upkeep and replacement of furniture, cleaning, etc. If so, then they certainly would not be charged the sort of maintenance fees we timesharers pay. Additionally, the full time owners probably do not require reservation services, though they may rent out some of their time independently. They should be paying their fair part of the upkeep of shared services--lobbies, elevators, pools, groundskeeping, and such.

Of course, there may well be some variation on how this is handled in different types of resort locations. Any comments from those with experience?

MD

I don't own full time, but I just bought second-hand a week for $1000 total and the maint. is only $440 week in palm springs, including taxes and utilities!

I'll tell you I wish I could buy 51 more weeks and live there full time. $440 week, with all utilities, repairs, pool boy, maid service. I pay more than that where I live now and my weather is crummy, I have to do all the yard work, clean after myself and I don't live in the nicest of neighborhoods. I would gladly pay more than that to live there year-round. I hope everybody sells their timeshares so people like me can live there full time and have resort-ominiums!