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Re: Timeshares is good investment or not. (by R P.):

davidj166 wrote:

Investment by definition is - the investing of money or capital in order to gain profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value.

A time share unit is absolutely NOT and should never be viewed as an investment.

Before you sit with a sales associate and sign a sales agreement for a new timeshare unit (being sold by a developer) do yourself a favor and check the resale/secondary market for similar properties. You will be SHOCKED.

If you choose to believe that you are getting something in return that exceeds the amount that you paid for your unit - that is a personal choice - you're probably trying to convince yourself you made a good decision - I did the same thing.

Just some "real world" data here - my wife and I bought a 1 BR unit in Myrtle Beach at an "upscale" resort in 2001. Sale price - $10,000. We sold the unit in 2007 for $1,000. When you factor in the maintenance fees, assessments, membership fees to either RCI or II and the exchange fees - these all add up to well over $1,000/yr.

My wife and I could have banked the original $10,000, and used this amount to take similar vacations over the six year period we owned the TS.

Timeshares are NOT an investment. They are a convenience - and an "encouragement" to try to coordinate an annual vacation - nothing more.

Do not enter into to this type of transaction thinking that you will come close to seeing a return on your investment or a positive NPV should you decide to sell your unit. It just DOES NOT happen that way.

We had the same scenario ... bought from developer in 2000 for $11,000, nice gold crown resort in Kissimmee, FL .... decided to sell in 2004 ..... started out asking $5000 with no takers, finally sold it for $2800 ..... at a loss of $8200 which is typical for resales (1/3 to 1/4 of developer price) if the week can be sold at all in this market.

If we still had the week today with all the $1 timeshares on Ebay, I doubt it could be sold at all. We got out of timesharing just in time as we also sold several other resales that we had purchased before the postcard companies and their $1 timeshares hit Ebay.

Postcard companies along with the current economy have devalued ALL TIMESHARES. I don't know if the industry will ever recover.