Original Message:
Re: Misrepresentations in the timeshare world .... beware (by Eric B.):
How can I be dead wrong John? So the $5 million in offers presented to the people advertising on our site every week isn't effective? I have repeated MANY times that the people you are describing are the people who listed their timeshares with companies they didn't do ANY research on. So of course all you will hear about is horror stories. Trust me, with the clients I speak with on a daily basis, that’s all I hear about as well. All I am trying to say is that you can't label a WHOLE industry on people’s bad investments. You guys are saying "Don't pay a marketing company upfront" yet you don't give them an alternate solution! Why is that? Maybe because Real Estate agents don't invest their valuable time on timeshares. This is not real estate. I mean can you go paint the walls of your timeshare? Can you build a deck? Does it gain equity you can borrow against??? OF COURSE NOT! I am sure you are a great person but I have been a professional in this field going on 3 years and I do know what I am talking about.
Last: Most people over price their timeshares because of 2 reasons.
A. They still owe more than the actual depreciated value. B. They actually believed what the resort told them, that the property goes up in value and they are unreasonable with their price.
So if there was anyone you should be bias against is the salesman at the resort that told all the lies and didn't give the buyer a chance to do RESEARCH in the first place. Or you can blame the person who believes what he is told and doesn’t do any fact finding.
My Dad gave me this advice when I was a little boy: "don't judge a book by its cover"
john1671 wrote:Eric,With full respect, sure you're a great person, but your dead wrong in reality.
I am a partner in a timeshare closing company. I have been active as a owner of many units for a many years. Also interact daily with my Homeowners Associations, Yahoo Groups, and TUG2.NET (which I consider an outstanding information resource).
The last 50 stories I've heard of folks paying fees upfront went like this:
1) Lots of calls and promises from the listing company 2) Owner pays an upfront listing/"appraisal" fee of $500-$800. 3) Owners ad indeed run on the website. Unfortunately 90% of the ads are way overpriced so they never sell. 4) Listing company doesn't call except to offer renewals of ads.
So the net effect is the owner is $500-$800 poorer and never sell their unit.
That's the way it is as seen by someone who's seen a lot in this industry.
John Faeth