I agree with this secret and have used it more than once. The best deal was a one year old "Certified Pre-Owned" BMW 325i Wagon. It had just 7501 miles on it, and instead of a 50,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty, it had a 5 year 100,000 mile warranty and maintenance. I got the car for $10,000 less than the sticker price of the new model and my price included the tax, license and registration. Over $13,000 saved up front, and several hundred in maintenance saved over the 8 years I owned the car. Buying a used car isn't what this is about today.
For those of you that don't know, I am also a Real Estate Agent. I don't do much selling personally, my wife is a full time agent. I got the license to be able to access better information as an investor. Once in a while I get to help someone fulfill the dream of owning a home, or owning their first investment. If you are in Orange County California, look me up, I am always glad to help.
Today, I am going to be counter intuitive and talk about timeshares. I can hear you saying, "What is a real estate agent doing talking about timeshares and getting rich, they are a rip-off!" Like all things in life, it is how you buy it, how you use it and how you get rid of it that matters. Timeshares can be good if you buy right and use them right.
Right off the bat I will say that having access to a second home at your schedule is a great thing. One week a month I am in the Truckee-Tahoe area, and the other three I try to be at my home in Huntington Beach, CA. Admittedly not a bad life, but I still like to go other places. Like Maui for instance. I am planning to go the first week of May, and rented a condo from Jim Casper at mauitownhouse.com. I'll talk about renting condo's in the future for those of you that don't think you want a timeshare ever.
I would have used my timeshare to go to Maui, but it is one of the few places on the planet where I couldn't find a unit I could trade for that I liked. I am planning to go to Nashville or Orlando or both this summer using my timeshare.
Most people think of timeshares as the pressure cooker sales presentation followed by a bottle of champagne and the hangover when you realize you just bought a hotel room for life. Yes this happens.
Wyndham does a good job to make the owners who buy their timeshare second hand, second class citizens. If you have lots of points and paid full price in the pressure cooker, you are in the "VIP" club. If you didn't, well you aren't. I am not. If I want to pay $10,000 or more to feel like a "VIP", I'll join a country club again.
This all started several years ago when I wanted to go to San Antonio Texas for the weekend. After talking it over with my wife, just like parking spots in the movie The Secret, an invitation to go to a Wyndham timeshare presentation and get a free weekend in San Antonio appeared in my mail. We went with the intention of just taking the free weekend. If you are planning to do this, don't wear decent clothes to the presentation. I noticed that people looking like they were auditioning for the "people of Wal-Mart" emails got out quickly and painlessly.
My wife and I sat in the pressure cooker for 3 hours of our "45 minute presentation". That salesman knew I had cash available and wasn't letting go. I finally broke down and bought a "trial" package with just one years worth of usage. The idea being I would like to the program so much that I would come back and buy in. They were half right.
At first I was a little put off by the slightly longer lines for the non-VIP people, but I eventually got over it. My wife being the master at finding a deal treated the Wyndham points like catalog shopping. She managed to stretch the points into three one week adventures. One for the entire family in Myrtle Beach South Carolina where we got a three bedroom unit and had everyone there. Another to Nashville (where I have since bought) and Kona Hawaii.
Once you get used to the Wyndham points system, it is pretty cool. It is a little harder to deal with than the reserved week system from what people have told me. If you are like me, the benefit of flexibility offsets any loss of "guaranteed" time.
The only thing that bugs me about Wyndham as a big timeshare company, is they still look like they are out for themselves and not their owners. You can go online and rent a unit at just about any Wyndham timeshare. I think the owners should get a rebate check for that time, or be able to put their unused time into the pool of open rooms to get paid, but that isn't the case.
That said, Wyndham does have a really nice over all product and the locations might look bad on paper but they turn out to be pretty good. At least where I have stayed so far. Nashville looks like it is in the sticks on Google earth, yet it is right next to the Opreyland area, and an easy drive into town if you rent a car. The location was just out of traffic, and close to everything.
So, now to the secret of buying a timeshare that Wyndham and even other timeshare owners don't want you to know about. eBay. Buying a timeshare on eBay is very easy, however there are some things to know if you want to make it painless. For instance to make the annual fees look less expensive, Wyndham bills every month even if you only get points every other year.
Buying on eBay will consist of several different fees on top of your final bid price. A $1 auction could cost you $4,000 so read the fine print. Luckily with timeshares there is a 10 day right to cancel called a right of rescission. It is better to read the fine print first and not have to cancel. I cancelled two because the fine print and the escrow didn't match. Both companies were very good about it and I believe they were honest mistakes. Either way though, your money is still held up for at least several days.
The first fee is the escrow fee. Some sellers pay this for you, others run $499 to $750 per transaction.
The second fee is the resort transfer fee. Normally $299 for Wyndham, sometimes paid by the seller. keep in mind on eBay you don't negotiate these things. There are several websites where you can make offers, so keep this fee list handy.
The third fee is the prepaid maintenance. If the seller didn't use the points, you will likely pay them for the annual maintenance fee they paid so you get the points. You have to watch this closely. Escrow and transfer at the resort can take 45 days, and the points anniversary might only be 60 days away. You'll have as little as 15 days to make a reservation, get there and burn the points if you can't carry them over.
A fourth possible fee is a "convenience fee". This one is made up for smaller points sales that have prepaid the annual fee and know that you won't pay the entire amount.
Finally add your bid. Add all of that up and you get your final cost. We all know there are shills on eBay and eBay doesn't present it. I don't know if it was the sellers or who, but several times a buyer with zero transactions would snipe me and run the price up, or get the deal. Don't let it bother you, another auction will be open soon for the same number of points at the same resort. Don't pay extra unless the seller is paying a lot of the fees.
As an example, when I bought my 156,000 points at Nashville. The points weren't used so I paid $25.50, (after a zero buyer ran it up with just a few hours to go) for the timeshare instead of the $14,000 the seller paid, $299 escrow (partly paid by seller), $370 in prepaid fees and $299 resort transfer for a total of $993.50. My fees are $138 per month which isn't bad. Even though I paid 25.50 I would have paid $50 since the seller was paying $200 of the escrow fees. Know your price first.
Since I can travel off season, my wife uses the Wyndham website like a shopping challenge and finds great deals for us to see new places. We picked Nashville as our base since it is one nonstop flight for everyone in our family and we can have an annual get together there. It doesn't hurt that we had a great trip out there before.
Lots of user groups talk about getting the best points per maintenance fees deals when shopping. If you are looking at the $1.00 eBay auctions, you are getting such a bargain that the fees aren't that big of a deal. Also I think it is worth it to own at a place you might want to go at least every other year. You can reserve earlier if you own there. I suggest sticking to the 100,000 and higher points ownership. The fees do go up quickly for the smaller points owners.travel
There are two other caveats to Wyndham. Some of the resorts were purchased from another company and were primarily sold as "weeks" not points. In that case points owners can be at a disadvantage when making reservations since not all the rooms are open to points members. The Westwinds in South Carolina is one such resort. Just down the road are two others which aren't limited, and that isn't shown on eBay. If anyone knows where that list is published please share it here.
The final caveat is to read about the points anniversary and usage. Biennial usage can be odd or even years, and the anniversary can make a difference in your first year costs. You might pay for a year you can't use. My anniversary is July 1st. Some are January 1st. That means any points I haven't used by June 30th go into the ether and just like a second home that sits empty, I paid for not using those points.
If you like to travel, a timeshare can be half the cost of a hotel room or less and the added benefits of having a kitchen can save even more. If you don't want to buy on eBay you can go direct to places like discounttimeshares.com. So there is your Secret to Getting and Staying Rich this month, buy a timeshare on the cheap and use it instead of using a hotel.
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Thank you for your insights.