Original Message:
Re: Has anyone ever donated a timeshare for a tax write-off? (by R P.):
kekouri wrote:Dave is a CPA who asks nothing in return for his brains* & experiences. He is a moderator at the www.tugbbs.com site. He also helps with advise at the Forums site.Thanks JayJay & Ken for finding & posting the information.
One charity donation site has a list of timeshares they will not take, even for free. I think they may feel if it sells at all, it might take longer than the next maintance fee is due.
Is everyone here SURE the purchase of a T/S is worth it???? Even those one dollar jobs on e bay?
* At least nothing to the general public or timeshare owners when they need help. ( Its probably a different story at his real job)
I respect DaveM a lot. He is the smartest member of Tug and gives of his time freely on that site.
It depends on what someone wants out of the timesharing experience as to whether or not it's worth it, such as people that have school age children or teachers that can only travel during summer or holidays. I can see why they would prefer the security of knowing their own timeshare will be available to them during their vacation time. This also includes people with other types of jobs that prefer the security of ownership (resale I hope).
And there are those northern snowbirds and Canadians that like to go south in winter. Ownership would more than likely benefit them (as it does Redweek member Ken).
I would not recommend people that are retired or have flexible schedules to own a timeshare with exception to the scenario above (snowbirds and Canadians). There are just too many rental sites (timeshares, condos, homes, apartments) on the internet now to be saddled with the ongoing committment of timeshare ownership and all the rising expenses of such. It's much easier to BUY a timeshare than to SELL a timeshare when it's no longer needed or wanted.
When we first started timesharing there were very few timeshare rental sites on the internet ... now there are many. Timeshare ownership before the year 2000 was economically feasible. You could find a resale timeshare at a reasonable price, maintenance fees were reasonable as was exchange company fees. All that's changed in the last few years .
You also have those individuals that buy a timeshare for the sole pupose of trading/exchanging it. This is the absolute worst reason for purchasing a timeshare. When they find they can't exchange that timeshare for anything/something they want, then they become disenchanted with timesharing altogether.
My advice is to buy where you like to go (for us it was the mountains and gulf/ocean front) and use exchanging as a side dish. That way if you don't get an exchange you want then you can go to your owned timeshares where you bought where you like to go (you can search first with II).
However, you have those diehard timeshare owners that wouldn't give up their timeshare(s) for anything. Tug has many of those diehard owners that really don't care to discuss the cons of timesharing ... they'd prefer to discuss the pros but there's plenty of both to discuss.
The above is just my personal opinion on the subject of timesharing, but in reality it's up to the individual regarding whether or not to purchase a timeshare.