Armenian Trip

Archive for the ‘Timeshare’ Category

Timeshare ownership has been long regarded as a great opportunity to ‘own’ your own little slice of paradise. But with the soaring price of timeshare properties, and the yearly or monthly maintenance fees associated with owning a timeshare, many interested buyers have been looking for a timeshare alternative.

The average timeshare property will cost anywhere from $10,000, all the way up to the more luxurious properties ranging form $70 – $90,000. And this price doesn’t even include down payments for the property or recurring ANNUAL maintenance fees.

These large recurring fees have caused a surge of timeshare owners to sell their ownership rights at well below cost, just to ‘get out’ of their expensive commitment.

Also, the fact that most timeshares are not flexible, meaning the owners are only allowed to use the property at designated time throughout the year (usually just one week), has made many potential buyers shy away from the idea of timeshares in hopes for a better alternative.

And thanks to the internet…that timeshare alternative is now available in the form of Travel Membership Clubs.

Now, instead of being committed to just ONE timeshare property, you can get yourself a LIFETIME travel membership for a low, ONE TIME purchase, usually between $697 – $5,997. This allows you to stay at 1000′s of DIFFERENT resort and hotel locations around the world. Already you can see that travel memberships offer tremendous value for such an affordable price tag.

A travel membership allows you to stay at 3, 4, even 5 star resorts, for as little as just a few hundred dollars a week. Some memberships even have a ‘Hot Weeks’ option where you can find accommodations around the world, often for as low as $100 per WEEK. And those prices are not per person, they are PER ROOM.

One summer almost thirty years ago, a family purchased a second home in a seacoast community where they had vacationed for several years. Their ten-year-old son was disgusted with them. “Do you REALIZE,” he demanded, “how many nights in a hotel you could buy for that much?”

His thinking is something to bear in mind when you’re listening to the sales pitch on resort timeshares. Eager timeshare proponents will repeat the word “value,” and even at its best, with no fraud or scam intended, it’s easy to be misled by the figures.

The timeshare seller’s logic goes something like this: if a typical family takes two vacations a year, and pays even a modest $130-$150 a night for resort hotel accommodation, a year’s vacations with travel, food and entertainment thrown in cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $4,000 to $6,000 a year, more if the destination is at a distance. “And nothing to show for it,” the seller will remind you. A resort timeshare priced at, say, $18,000 looks like a good deal when you think in terms of a decade.

But keep in mind that the purchase price is not your only obligation with buying a timeshare. You also commit to paying annual maintenance fees (about $800 a year is cited as average) and dues, and likely you will discover surprise assessments for future improvements waiting in the wings. And of course your vacations will STILL involve costs for travel to your destination, food and entertainment. The number of timeshare resales on the market, and the number of hapless timeshare owners trying to get rid of a timeshare, tell the story. Do the paperwork ahead of time, and don’t forget the details. The devil is always in the details.

Most of us have heard about a Time Machine at some point of time during our life. It has capabilities to go back to the past or travel faster than time straight into the future. We have also heard that this machine is more of an imagination of some great scientists and is too far away from being a reality. Time travel is possible only in stories and not in real life. Well, after reading this your perception is bound to change.

The most recognized work in this field has come form some of the greatest brains of all times – Albert Einstein and more recently from Stephen Hawkins. As many physicists put it, time traveling is traveling in the fourth dimension. Traveling in this dimension means one is covering distance in Time. It is like you might travel really fast from one point and after some time end the journey at the same point but you have traveled across a different time zone.

The key behind time travel is to understand the fact that like a river, time also flows with different pace at different places. One of the greatest helps in time travel comes from our GPS. The satellites in space are equipped with some of the most precise clocks ever built. But even then they gain around a third of a billionth of a second every day. This needs to be corrected regularly else the entire GPS system might crash. This simply shows that time travels faster in space then on earth. The main reason for this is the massive mass of earth which drags the time. The heavier the object the more it drags the time. This entire thought suggests that time does travel differently at different places and thus opens up the gates for time travel.

Have you already planned where to stay for your coming vacation? Perhaps you have considered treating your family in a posh resort and enjoy the services that would make you experience what is paradise. This is the high time that you deserve to be pampered in a very idyllic spa and enjoy your leisure activities like golfing and skiing. Taste the pleasure of living freely in a fancy resort. Every person needs an off from work even once a year so don’t spoil your chance in celebrating it fully. Have the time of your life in a vacation without draining your budget. You will be surprised to know that renting a timeshare is better than checking in a hotel room for a trip.

Would you believe that you can take pleasure in renting a plush resort with the same benefits of its owner? And here’s a tip for a big savings: deal with an owner who is not going to use his property for a week. Though, it’s rather hard to look for a resort owner who will not use his resort for a week. So you need to check for a company that specializes in vacation services. The renter and the owner need a lease agreement on rental price and dates of accommodation. A lawyer should assist you in your documents so that the whole thing is legally completed.

After the detailed contract is signed by both parties the accommodation details will be forwarded to the concerned through e-mail or fax for compliance and these shall be returned for review. The owner will immediately provide the confirmation number to the renter after the lease agreement is signed. As a renter, you need to pay in full amount through online check or money order. The final step is the issuance of verification number to renter by the attorney. This is the process of getting your own timeshare adventure.

Timeshares are one of those concepts that appear relatively harmless at first glance, but whose industry has been so ravaged by mismanagement and downright fraud that it is highly unlikely to ever enjoy widespread public acceptance ever again. However, about 3-5 million Americans own timeshares, this author included, so it becomes important to recognize timeshare frauds and schemes and avoid losing your money in the process.

If you are looking to resell your timeshare, the process is rife with rip-off artists. Quite possibly the most overused line in the timeshare resale game is “We have a buyer waiting”. For this to be true, you would have to have the ONLY unit available at that particular resort, with the buyer specifically interested in it. This is nothing more than a sales technique designed to get you to sign with whoever is claiming they can sell your unit.

Beware of ridiculous guarantees such as “We will sell your timeshare within thirty days!”. For starters, who can predict when a piece of property will sell? And two, yes, they might sell it within thirty days, even if it means dropping the cost to a ridiculously low level, robbing you of any potential profit (but still guaranteeing their commission).

These “sales people” will not sell your unit. They will list it online and wait for a buyer to come to them. You can do this yourself and save hundreds of dollars in listing fees.

One of the favorite tactics in the world of sales is the high pressure close. If you’re just not willing to pull the trigger and go with it, expect to be handed off to an inventory manager, someone who will make the best possible case as to why they need your property now and you have to sign and list with them. There is no truth to this other than the fact that they want you to close quickly. Don’t fall for it.