Dear readers:
I was not going to make a blog post today as I am getting lots of material for next Buzz post coming tomorrow Wednesday. I got this email from a colleague of mine who knows my “hobby” and asking for help. I have NO idea about Marriotts period! All I know about time shares is that you do not buy from the seller; you only buy on the secondary market. Timeshares never appealed to me due to its ongoing annual maintenance costs.
Gut feeling is that this is a giant ripoff! Not only the $66k purchase (no idea how many weeks it buys…better be more than just one!) but the ongoing $3.2k annual costs too! Any comments/feedback?
We have a client who purchased a $66k “time-share” last week and has 10 days to rescind his decision. I am not familiar with the Marriott Vacation Club, but it provides points that can be used for airfare, resorts, Ritz Carlton, Marriott Hotels, etc. The points can be rolled over or converted to Marriott Rewards points if not used during the year. Annual cost is $3,200 per year. I’m trying to determine what dollar value the 6,500 annual points give him. These are not 6,500 marriott rewards points. Client is wealthy and has hard time spending money on he and wife and family, so the intangible benefit of taking great upscale vacations is appealing to both he and I from a holistic planning perspective.
Curious if you have any experience with this new twist on a “time share” type of purchase. Thanks.
It’s a timeshare, with $66K buy in and $3200 a year. If you average that out over what, 20 years you are looking at $6500 per year (not calculating upfront payment into the TVM). Question is, what do you get for that?
There is little transparency which is always a red flag, but basically you get to buy in at different price points, an example of someone buying in at the 3500 point level would redeem for 7 days in hawaii once per year. One could therefore deduce the 6500 point level would be 2 weeks in a hotel type place per year, or one week plus some domestic airfare:
http://www.marriottvacationclub.com/learn-about-ownership/vacation-examples-and-pricing.shtml
Executive Summary:
It’s a timeshare – get the hell away from it while you can!
There is a good secondary market for buying these off of people like this for pennies on the dollar once they realize they’ve been conned
I second this remark. See http://tug2.com/timesharemarketplace/
(I admit to snickering at the TUG acronym, which is used in a very different context elsewhere.)
TOTAL Ripoff at that price. Timeshare in general doesn’t HAVE to be a ripoff, but in the primary market 100% of the time it is! Secondary market is the way to go.
Also, that $3200/yr maintainence fee is crazy! I’d get some clarification on that.
As a point of reference, I own timeshare and my fee for a one bedroom with a mid-level company (Gold Key) Memorial Day Week in VA Beach is $550. For a high end property I MIGHT go as high as $1k, but 3? Whoa.
As a brand, Marriott timeshares trade extremely well (into Interval for sure and also RCI I believe, and are easily rented out. Some extra type A people need to be “locked in” and I get that part, but Secondary markets will easily save 30-50% off that 66K.
Here’s a list of realtors I would trust: http://www.licensedtimeshareresalebrokers.org/member-directory.php
Timeshare User Group is a great resource on timeshares too:
http://www.tug2.net/
Thank you for all the feedback already.
I wonder for someone who has the money, wants as less headaches as possible and see the world in luxury, what should we be recommending? We are not talking about the people who will churn cards for the signing bonus, go to CVS for Vanilla Reload cards to load on Bluebird or other things we do 🙂
Maybe a good travel agent can be a good person to deal with? Call them up and say “take us to the Maldives” and arrange everything….travel conscierge type. There are out there, obviously not for our crowed. We enjoy the hunt…I certainly do lol.
ANY comments/feedback/suggestions greatly appreciated!
For this type of client, I would recommend Stacy Small at Elite Travel International.
Terrible deal. Run. Maybe the property he saw is exactly what appeals to him now, but he’s stuck with weeklong blocks of highly restrictive overpriced hotel rooms, regardless of what he needs in the future. He should hire a real luxury travel agent if he wants hassle free luxury with minimal input and research time.
My parents are members of Marriott Vacation Properties and I recently (3 days ago) went to a Hilton time share presentation in Vegas. Timeshares, besides the up front purchase price, seem like decent deals if you know how to use them.
We’re discussing paying $66,000 upfront for a timeshare. That’s a bad value proposition.
(And it’s how the firms pay for the Vegas junkets, which is another story….)
Click on the link I posted above, then select Bargain Basement. People are willing to part with their timeshare property for around $1. Sellers cannot or do not want to pay annual maintenance costs, which the buyer assumes.
Postscript to the original post (supposed client): Marriott Vacation Club points seem to go for about 30 cents per point in the secondary market. I would also bet that the annual cost is variable, not fixed.
The timeshare game functions much like the frequent flyer game – there are deals to be had, and, since selling your points by renting the room you book is allowed, ways to profit from it. (I have a relative who does, and he does very well. No, he won’t share his secrets with anyone, and there are no circles or arrows to help.) But doing so on any scale is a full-time job and makes the most complex award booking plans look like child’s play.
“Any comments/feedback?”
I strongly recommend this person gets the Barclays Arrival Card, SPG Amex (personal and business), Amex PRG and 30K US Airways card
If I were going to spend 66K a timeshare I would actually reach for those 3 cards first, in that order of priority, buying AMEX GC stock to pay. No, I won’t be cancelling Arrival when the annual fee hits.
We all know that timeshares stink on ice, but he is WEALTHY and TIGHT with his dough. For the families sake do it. If it forces him to take the family out every year on a great vacation, I say go for it Mr. Cheapskate.
We went to a timeshare presentation in Kau’ai to get free tickets to – hmm, maybe a helicopter ride?? – and the video they showed us focused totally on making family memories. It was aimed at workaholic dads. We didn’t mind the hour and a half as we got breakfast, helicopter tix, and after refusing their offers repeatedly finally bought a deal to get a week in a Kau’ai condo sometime in the next two years. The price was far cheaper than a hotel room and the condo slept about 10. We were delighted to return 18 months later and were able to host some cousins too. We could have put the money it cost us toward buying – you guessed it – a timeshare. I expect they figured a week there wold seal the deal. No way. But we did get more than our time/money’s worth. Of course this was before I discovered the worth of credit card sign-ups.
Ramsey, interesting that you are the only one who was in favor of keeping this thing and focused on enjoyment in life, not the biggest bang for his buck. Appreciate your feedback and maybe we can accomplsh the same thing with a secondary market purchase. I would imagine there is a $10k commission connected with the $66k up front cost that could be avoided on a secondary sale.
Thanks for posting here. My readers and this blog IS about getting the biggest bang for the buck out of travel through frequent flyer miles and points. It is the reason my blog exists actually!
I definitely empathize with you regarding the life planning aspects of this. And I definitely agree it is so worth it trying to accomplish the same things with a secondary market purchase!
Just booked another family trip, this time to Maui. All on miles/points. It’s an addictive hobby, that’s for sure.
Hope this was helpful. Any questions on this stuff let me know. It’s definitely a passion of mine and has been for many years!
Wow, these are awesome. Thank you so much. If you have more please fire away.
I now need to catch up on the blogs and produce the next Buzz post. A day goes by and bang, the blogosphere exploded with the US/AA merger news…And I got a compliance seminar in Lansing tomorrow….oh boy.
Time to buckle down and get at it!
Thank you again!
If you don’t mind, I’d be interested to know how this ends.
I have 1 timeshare with Marriott and 1 with Sheraton in Orlando and Scottsdale. Very reasonable if you have families and want to go to those destinations. I echo the thoughts that you should never buy from the developer as the price drops about 50-90% should you ever resell. Instead of $66k upfront plus the annual maintenance fee you could probably rent the exact unit and week you wanted off redweek.com each year for 100 years. The reason is the nicer places have higher maintenance fees, so while mine are ~1000 per year for a 2 bedroom timeshare the same chain in Hawaii would be $2000-$3000 per year for the 2br. The “deals” are when you trade into the Hawaii timeshare with your Orlando timeshare which of course is not as easy as they make it sound in the timeshare presentation.
Buy on the secondary market from a licensed real estate broker like Fidelity Resales.com
you can save thousands of dollars!!
here’s the site http://www.fidelityresales.com