Timeshare Buyer or Victim?
Yesterday, I spoke to one of my friends after a long time. I found out that he had just purchased one of those Hilton timeshares that I had mentioned in an earlier post.
He was taken in by the high pressure tactics and the temptation of exotic vacations! He’s now suffering from buyers remorse.
Like they say, “Invest in haste, repent at leisure“.
Well if any of you are interested in spending $20,000 on a hotel room, let me know. I’m thinking of putting together my own version of a timeshare.
We buy a small house in Nicaragua for around $120,000. Its atop a mountain next to a nature preserve with lovely ocean views. It has running water and solar power. Its no Hilton with conceirge, but instead of 52 partners, you might only have 12. Plus you get to deduct the cost of your surfing vacations, because you’ve bought an investment property! It should rent out sporadically to cover the cost of maintenance. If Nicaragua does a quarter as well as Costa Rica, it should atleast double in value!
Or if you really want to buy your own timeshare for as low as 1 cent on the dollar, check out my Timeshare store for the cheapest deals.
If you found this post helpful, consider donating to my coffee fund!![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
-
Fancy Watch Update A couple of readers thought that an expensive watch was a waste of money and that a similar looking or similar functioning watch could be had at a fraction of the cost. I totally agree with them. Someone rightly said "Spend money on experiences, not material things". And I don't...... - Tax Breaks For New Home Buyers According to The American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, passed by Congress in July, first time home buyers who purchase homes between April 8th 2008 and July 1st 2009 are eligible for a tax credit. They can get $7,500 tax credit or up to 10% of the......
- How Passive Is Your Passive Income? I've been lumping in my online income with my passive income, but it isn't really passive. It may not be very strenuous and it gives me geographic flexibility and I don't have to show up for work every day, but there is some effort involved. Unfortunately I'm not as clever......
Related Websites
- Crossfit Tampa Keeps Messing With Me Okay. So, I'm super excited to try Crossfit for the first time. I do some Googling and come up with a few Crossfit results here in Tampa, FL. One of which is Crossfit Tampa. I contact the guy and he gets back to me so that I can take my......
- How much does it really cost to raise a child? I have been trying to research this, but all the websites I find seem unrealistic - they say it will cost over 0,000 to raise a child from birth to 18. So my question to you is how much does it really cost for you to raise your child? And......
- George Soros Soon to Profit from Run on Dollar? WASHINGTON: George Soros is positioning himself to set a new record in profits, thanks to the Obama administration. Due to the profligate spending of congress the US is well on its way to defaulting on its current obligations, possibly within the next 12 months. How is that possible, you say?......
[All content is copyright of Living Off Dividends & Passive Income]
November 11th, 2006 at 10:48 am
So who maintains the property, deals with Nicaraguan bureaucracy etc? We have a PhD student here who wants to do research on the trend for expatriates to invest in Nicaraguan property. Her husband is Nicaraguan and she spent much of the last two years there. I think she doesn’t approve of the trend though
November 14th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
I absolutely hate timeshares, they are the worst investment.
November 24th, 2006 at 3:22 am
funny post. I have had a few friends who make these mistakes.
People should learn that investment is something you expect to get money from. Anything else is just an expenditure.
(Nothing against expenditures, just we have to label and understand them correctly).
November 24th, 2006 at 6:20 pm
I still contend it’s not always a bad deal. If you are justifying it as an “investment” as Jose says, then yes it’s bad. However, I buy food and clothing and they are not investments either. When I go on vacation, it’s not about the investment.
However, if it saves money that would have been spent elsewhere (and that’s debatable) that’s valuable to consumers. Since it’s a deedable property, it has the POTENTIAL for appreciation as well. If you were to go spend money on a hotel room, it doesn’t have that potential.
That said if you are looking for a timeshare, look into the resale market. I think you can usually get something at 60-80% of the price of the chains’ price. Another idea is look at RedWeek.com where you can pick up other people’s timeshares on the cheap.
December 10th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Timeshares are the worst of the worst. You can say there’s no investment value, and that’s absolutely true, but there’s also no enjoyment for 90% of TS owners, either. It’s never what the sellers say they are, facilities and locations are awful, maintenance doesn’t happen despite all those maintenance fees, and you’re still paying local taxes for something you can’t even use much of the time because your week is unavailable. I know all this because I once sold timeshares — I know, it’s horrible, and I’m saying all this right now to try to absolve myself. A lot of timeshare owners get so sick of it that they try to sell it and can’t, they have to pay TimeShare Relief to take it off their hands, which is better even than donating it because if you donate one you’re still responsible for all the fees.
So I hope that was a joke about starting up a TS in Nicaragua. You could probably do it and rake in the cash, but you probably won’t be able to sleep at night, either.