WALK AWAY FROM TIMESHARE

clemn wrote:

You can't give them away. No one will take them for free at least I haven't found one. Only scammers will offer to buy and take your money to Venezuela

Not necessarily true; it depends on the particular timeshare and its' location, season, unit size --- and maintenance fee amount.

That being said, it is certainly true that many (maybe even most) timeshares have little or no resale value. Even giving it away for free is often not good enough. Some owners offer to pay closing costs and a year of maintance fees themselves in order to rid themselves of their unwanted timeshare ownership --- and even that effort often does not succeed.

"Deedback" to the resort is sometimes an option, but the resort must be willing to accept it back. Most are not willing, some are.

The last resort (no pun intended) is to simply stop paying and just walk away. That choice will ultimately result in a foreclosure, but unless there is also a loan default involved, there are usually no consequences to timeshare foreclosures. Defaulting on a loan is another matter entirely and defaulting on a loan (ANY loan) will almost always have negative credit report consequences (which will remain in place for 7 years).

Sadly, timeshares are very easy to acquire but, more often than not, extremely difficult to get rid of later.

You'd think that after all these years of negative press, horror stories, worry about your credit score, etc., etc. people would finally wise up and avoid ALL timeshare presentations, no matter what enticements they may offer at the resort. I know that some of you will say my timeshare purchase has worked out great for me and my family. Good for you. But for every satisfied customer there's probably 10 times or more that regret that decision with every fibre of their being. Simple, basic advice. DO NOT get involved with timeshare. It will haunt you for years, decades, maybe the rest of your life.

danl33 wrote:

You'd think that after all these years of negative press, horror stories, worry about your credit score, etc., etc. people would finally wise up and avoid ALL timeshare presentations, no matter what enticements they may offer at the resort. I know that some of you will say my timeshare purchase has worked out great for me and my family. Good for you. But for every satisfied customer there's probably 10 times or more that regret that decision with every fibre of their being. Simple, basic advice. DO NOT get involved with timeshare. It will haunt you for years, decades, maybe the rest of your life.

I do not disagree with most of the above comments or observations. I will note however that in the acquisition of any timeshare, there is certainly a world of difference between someone falling for absurdly overpriced “developer direct” prices (and their offensively aggressive sales “presentations”) vs. a cheap (or sometimes even free) acquisition on the “resale” market, with no hungry, deceitful timeshare sales hyenas involved in any way). Regardless of the means by which acquired, all timeshares of course still have ever-increasing maintenance fee obligations.

It is an undeniable fact that timeshares are very easy to acquire, but usually very difficult to “shed” and the commitment of ownership must be fully understood as being a legally binding contract and a long term commitment; certainly NOT a good choice for everyone. Those timeshare owners who paid top dollar by purchasing developer-direct (and grossly overpaid in doing so) are frequently and understandably bittter and angry when they discover later that they could have acquired the exact same "product" on the resale market for just a tiny fraction of what they unwisely paid to the developer.

Timeshare can be a quagmire that is difficult to navigate successfully; it is certainly NOT for everyone. YMMV; to each their own.

There's one born every minute.

W C Fields

Having said that . . . they are few and far between, but there are reasons to own a timeshare. We are down from our dozen or so to two, both for amenity rights.

danl33 wrote:

I know that some of you will say my timeshare purchase has worked out great for me and my family. Good for you. But for every satisfied customer there's probably 10 times or more that regret that decision with every fibre of their being.

That's the key, though. There are some happy timeshare owners out there. And yes, there are many more unhappy owners. But should the whole timeshare industry be shut down because of this?

Hey Lance, answer to your question.....YES!

Legacy resorts near Branson, MO, are being taken over, however they are able to do that, by developers, without any compensation whatsoever to the interval owners. They are being rebranded and sold as full-ownership nightly rentals. Eventually there will be around 1000 nightly rental condos within 2 miles of the Kimberling City bridge on Table Rock Lake. So, it is not about the design of the condos, or the area, since resales are going amazingly easy, and very highly profitable.

I don't quite know what to make of your posting NoOneYouKnow, but, okay.

If I sound a little down on timeshare companies/resorts, it's because of my own personal experience with one. First, the high pressure. I won't elaborate, since anyone who's been through it knows exactly what I'm talking about. When I booked back in the late 90's, I could get March Break as late as January. Then I couldn't get it as early as Sept. Then, I saw that week, and others, advertised on a National Hotel chains' website after I had been told there was no availability. Then, ah yes, the infamous maintenance fees. Mine were based on the Mexican & American Cost-Of-Living combined. That was an eye opener! Since I had paid off my entire initial purchase of the timeshare lease, I just had those maint. fees to consider. I hired a lawyer and got out of my contract. He was good. He made it look like if they didn't cancel my contract bad things were going to happen to them. I have people I work with, a big company, who purchased timeshare with the same resort at about the same time. I don't know why a few of them still have their timeshare with that resort. The maint. fees are off the charts now. They still have trouble getting the week or weeks they want. They keep pressuring them to purchase upscale units because the type you have now are being phased out. They lose sleep over this.

So, again, why put yourself through that kind of grief? If you go on someone else's week, great! Enjoy the week or weeks, just calmly say "No Thanks", to the 90 minute (it will 5 or 6 hours, a lost day) presentation. You will thank me!

All I do on RCI now is get weeks for friends, $300-ish.

( I don't know what is not clear about my last post, unpopular local developer somehow taking over timeshare resorts, then selling the units as full-ownership vacation rental condos, at a great profit, and not compensating the interval owners in any way.)

I've followed some legacy resort dissolutions, and that is not how it's done.

Okay. I see your point. That's the way to do it. Find a week or weeks that belong to someone who wants to rent it out, usually, as I once did, just to cover the maintenance fees and maybe make a little profit.That way you saved a ridiculously high purchase price to buy in, tens of thousands of dollars, and then be on the hook year after year for those ever rising maintenance fees. Reminder. Stay away from those presentations!!!

Actually, no, that's not what I do. I don't rent weeks from timeshare owners.

I maintain our RCI subscription to get Extra Vacations and Last Calls from RCI. Last Calls are $300-ish. I'll go get an example:

Branson, MO USA Club Wyndham Branson at the Meadows #3294 833 Reviews Sale! USD 339.00 - USD 969.99 19-Jan-2025 - 26-Dec-2025 142 available units 1 Bedroom 339.00 USD

Of course, this is RCI renting out deposited inventory, which the Class Action lawsuit of 20 years ago made a SOP.

The friends I get the weeks for pay a Guest Certificate Fee or have a 5-year Guest Pass, so don't have to.

One of them got several condos the same week for a group of college students he was debate coach for.

Interesting. When I got involved long ago, RCI & Interval International were the big players in this sort of thing. If someone wants to get go that direction, seems fine to me. Before you do, research it thoroughly. It may, or may not, be for you.

I forgot an important issue with regards to joining RCI. You have to have timeshare somewhere to deposit/exchange with RCI. That kind of defeats the purpose of us telling people to avoid timeshare at all costs. If you do have timeshare already, you had better read up on RCI. It might not be all it's cracked up to be. Your timeshare may not be in a desirable location, so that will create problems with exchanging it. There are fees etc., that maybe you didn't know about. Make sure to read the fine print.

pretty much the same thing that was being warned 20 years ago.

You may need to own a timeshare to "join" RCI, but you don't in order to continue subscribing to RCI, nor do you have to deposit anything in order to get benefits.

As I have said many time, the best benefits are their outright rentals, Extra Vacations and Last Calls, and they don't require a deposit.

I don't believe there is anything about RCI I need to "read up" on. If there was, I'm sure Inside Guy would let me know.

If you can get the benefits from RCI without joining RCI, Super! This is something I found on a RedWeek Forum. "I have read some disturbing comments especially on (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/rci.html). The consensus in RedWeek forums is that I should just try to rent the particular timeshare I want from current owners instead of buying into the program."

Make sense to you? I'm no expert regarding RCI or Int. Inter. I do know what I'm talking about when it comes to dissuading people from buying from the resort. Very simple. Don't do it.

As the original writer of this thread, back in the day, I still get inundated with “Get Rid of your timeshare” type calls and spam. When I talk with the spammer, and shut them down, they get upset when I tell them, that I just walked away. I owed nothing on the timeshares so, no effect on my credit score. This industry just wants to keep you hooked. Good luck folks

danl33 wrote:

If you can get the benefits from RCI without joining RCI, Super!

I didn't say that, but people can, and my friends do through me.

To further mansplain it, I/we belong to RCI because we owned, and still do, timeshare(s).

& back in the day, when it made sense for us, we did more than 150 exchanges.

Sounds great, but enough about RCI and exchanges. This thread is about "Walk Away From Timeshare". That's our focus. Getting out of what we now know was a very bad choice. Back in the day, looked great. Little did we know what was in store for us. Like the fellow (SM) mentioned a few replies ago, if you have paid your buy-in, whatever it was, you now only owe your maintenance fees. BUT YOU DON"T. Stop paying and see what happens. Nothing.

I suspect that in most cases nothing will happen if you just stop paying the maintenance fee, but in 36 years we have never not paid any of ours, so I'm just guessing, like the majority of people on the Internet.

&, I have successfully gotten rid of a dozen or so weeks. I could figure out how many, but it doesn't matter. - - - - - - In an unrelated matter, we are in the midst of a resort just about destroyed by Helene/Milton. The building is still standing, but that's all. It will involve total remediation, including asbestos. On board is a independent public adjustor (because you cannot trust Florida insurance company adjustors), attorneys, engineers, et al.

The 2025 budget is still in the formative stage, but the resort will not be open at least the first six month of 2025. We own Week 1, now past, and have not had to pay anything.

A sister resort, across the beach road from ours, is still dealing with Ian's 2022 damage, which rendered one of three buildings toast. It's been more than 2 years and they still don't have a path to move forward.