Tips for surviving a timeshare presentation

[Duke03]

I've only done a time share once.  We had a long vacation planned and had some down time one day so why not get some free stuff.  First they will try every hard sell bs tactic known to man.  After turning down their great offers at least 10 times I just laid it on the line.  I explained to them that I haven't paid for a vacation or flights in over 6 years thanks to credit card churning and if I can stay at their resort for free why would I pay 10k to come back.  The guy then claimed I was taking advantage of the system and I should buy the time share out of guilt.  Yea ok buddy I laughed in his face.  The best part was they had a cattle call of people ready to sign up in the lobby.  I've never seen so many suckers in my life.  I kept reminding him that he was wasting his time with us and that his next sale was waiting in the lobby....  Well not that one because your buddy just got to those people first.  Man they look rich and I bet they buy the diamond package.... After about 5 mins of comments like this we got our free gift and left.

[frugaliknowit]

This is probably not the MMM answer but I wouldn't go.  Not worth the hassle and BS.  These salespeople are worse than the worst car salesmen.

+1

My vacation time is too precious for this BS:)

[CCCA]

***Update on our Trip***
Thanks everyone for your tips.  My wife and I went to the presentation in Sedona and it was actually pretty fascinating.  It ended up at 2.5 hours total, but mostly very pleasant and interesting, and we learned alot about Diamond's new timeshare business model (which is very different from our conception of a traditional timeshare). We had a fairly young guy who did our sales presentation and it became clear to him early on that he probably wasn't going to convince us. This is a fairly detailed rundown of what happened:

• We prepped a little to make sure we had our discussion points set.
• We started out by telling him that we weren't really interested and were there just because of the freebies.  He mentioned that most people say that, but just wanted to have the opportunity to tells us about their program and to see if it made sense for us (and that he thought it might).
• He then explained what their program was all about, which was enlightening for us.  Instead of buying a condo unit in a fixed location at a fixed time (a traditional timeshare), you are instead buying points (e.g. 4000 points per year).  With those points you could book in any of their 300+ locations anytime of the year (and many other locations that weren't a part of their network).  Points accrued in a year could carry over if unused for up to 3 years.  It reminded me of an airline frequent flyer program.  He didn't immediately tell us how many points a particular unit costs.
• We then went through our travel habits and he asked us questions about what types of vacations we did, for how long, etc.  The goal of this part was to understand our travel patterns so that could see if their program made sense. We start to discuss our travel: that we typically roadtrip and camp when possible, staying in hotels, only when we need a place to sleep (like on our drive from Arizona back to California), or in inclement weather.  Or we stay with family and friends when we can.  We also said that we don't aspire to stay in more hotel rooms or nicer resort-type places (and that it's not a cost thing).  We spent a fair amount of time on this part.  We talked about places we'd like to travel to and places we'd been.  i.e. "How many times a year would you like to go to Hawaii?"  Uh, maybe 1-2 times per decade?  It was actually kinda fun, though I think we spent too much time talking here and probably why our presentation ran longer than expected.  At this point, it probably became clear to him that their program wouldn't work for us. 
• At one out his manager came by to introduce himself and he was much more of a typical salesman, a bit smarmy. He said, we will see the value in their program.  Maybe not now, but sometime when we pay $10000 for a vacation we'll wish we had bought into this program.
• We went to visit on of their condo rooms in the resort where the presentation took place.  Seemed nice enough (we were staying at a different location about 10 min away).
• We start to go through developing our travel lodging budget (ignoring camping costs), based on how much we typically spend on hotel rooms when we travel and we settled on a number that our budget is about $1000/yr in hotel rooms/yr.  He said that was pretty low, and even told us that maybe it wouldn't work out for us. He then multiplied that number by the number of years we said we'd like to continue to travel/vacation (40) and he came up with a number of $45000 for our travel over the next 40+ years. 
• Then he brought out two offer sheets, one with a upfront cost of $30k and an annual maintenance cost of $1700/yr (fixed forever (i.e. no inflation)) for a package with 7500 points.  They were a little cagey about how much that would buy since obviously it depends on the location and it's amenities.  But he implied it might be up to 4 weeks of condo stays per year in any location in any increments we wanted.  Our eyes bugged out at the numbers, which he acknowledged was expensive for the travel we do.  We said no way, that's crazy.  He also said we could finance the $30k upfront fee at a crazy rate of 16% over 10 years!
• The 2nd offer was for an upfront cost of $20k and maintenance costs of $1100/yr for 4000 points.  We still said "that's literally insane!". 
• Then they said you could do a trial program for 10 year instead for life ($13k upfront and $800/yr).  I can't remember the number of points.  Still no way.
• At this point our salesman was like yeah, I didn't think so.  I'll just go talk to my manager and try to get you out of here.
• The manager said fine they can go and get their gift, so we were happy (this was about 2.25 hours in) but then 2 super closers came by just to make sure we were sure about our decision and if there was anything they could do to change our mind.  He started asking us questions about why we weren't interested, and I said "we really have to do this all over again?"  He said if cost was the issue, he could make all costs go away, and offered some 2 year trial but it still sounded expensive and I sort of wanted to hear what the deal was, but then realized we just wanted to get out of there, so stopped myself from asking anything and we got out of there in about 5 more minutes. 
• Went to their gift department and got our gift card and got out. 
• Went for a hike then later out to dinner with a view of the red rocks and had fun talking about the process

Overall, we actually enjoyed the process, except for the last part with their closers.  Our sales guy was young and he seemed to understand our life/work/travel philosophy.  He chimed in that he was interested in living in a tiny house.  We gave him some financial advice about not inflating his spending too much as he made more money.  He said their closing rate on selling people into their program was about 17% as a company but his rate was higher. 

I would probably do it again, because our guy was pretty nice.  However, I could imagine that having the manager as our seller instead of the guy we got would make the process a bit less pleasant. Not sure if the primary guy is normally "the good cop", or if we just got lucky. 

I could sort of see how this program could make sense for some people if they spent enough money on travel or aspired to, especially if you didn't buy from them but bought with little to no upfront cost.  It seemed a little bit like Costco.  You could potentially get good deals out of a club program if you used it alot and actually wanted that much stuff.  However, because points are some nebulous thing and you have to book everything through their website, I'm assuming they can tailor your cost to book a place in a very non-transparent way, so that your 4000 points will get devalued over time (even as they claim your maintenance fees will never go up).  It's not like airline miles, where everyone knows the # of miles for a domestic flight (e.g. 25000) and it's a big deal when they up the # of miles needed for a domestic flight.  Instead, it's very non-transparent.  Our guy said if we were frugal and booked studios instead of one bedrooms we could stretch our points and maybe get 4 weeks instead of two weeks out of them, but we never really did get a concrete sense of how many points a typical stay would cost (and what the variability was and what factors affects the cost (e.g. booking early, etc)).

Overall it wasn't an unpleasant experience and we were glad to have done it and gotten a very highly discounted trip (maybe $500+ worth of accommodations for $50) and we used our southwest miles to book our flights to PHX.  We got stuck with a minivan at the rental car place but still only used about $38 worth of gas for the 4 days. 

Sedona was awesome by the way.  Hot (in the 90s most days) but hiking in the morning or around sunset wasn't too bad.  There are lots of beautiful hikes that are short and high impact, like 1 mile hike to the top of huge red-rock tower/mesa/butte thing.  Town was cute and lots of touristy but interesting shops.  Restaurants weren't too cheap but not crazy expensive either.  We spent about $35/meal for two and we don't drink.  Luckily breakfast was included in the hotel.  Great views of red rocks from the hotel and lots of restaurants.

thanks again for the interesting discussion and tips.

[boarder42]

are you being sarcastic about the time share being different than other b/c most time shares now basically run on points systems now backed by deeds at properties. Marriott, Hilton, Blue Green, etc. are all points based systems you're deeded a week somewhere still as the underlying " value" but they arent new and different they are the status quo for the large timeshare outfits.

[CCCA]

are you being sarcastic about the time share being different than other b/c most time shares now basically run on points systems now backed by deeds at properties. Marriott, Hilton, Blue Green, etc. are all points based systems you're deeded a week somewhere still as the underlying " value" but they arent new and different they are the status quo for the large timeshare outfits.

No, my only experience with timeshares was with my parents attending a talk 30+ years ago.  As stated early, we've never done this before and didn't know anyone who did recently. Thanks for the additional info.  I'll assume we aren't the only ones who were clueless about the new style of timeshares.

[I'm a red panda]

I could sort of see how this program could make sense for some people if they spent enough money on travel or aspired to.  It seemed a little bit like Costco.  You could potentially get good deals out of a club program if you used it alot and actually wanted that much stuff.  However, because points are some nebulous thing and you have to book everything through their website, I'm assuming they can tailor your cost to book a place in a very non-transparent way, so that your 4000 points will get devalued over time (even as they claim your maintenance fees will never go up).  It's not like airline miles, where everyone knows the # of miles for a domestic flight (e.g. 25000) and it's a big deal when they up the # of miles needed for a domestic flight.  Instead, it's very non-transparent.  Our guy said if we were frugal and booked studios instead of one bedrooms we could stretch our points and maybe get 4 weeks instead of two weeks out of them, but we never really did get a concrete sense of how many points a typical stay would cost (and what the variability was and what factors affects the cost (e.g. booking early, etc)).

Glad it worked for you, and glad you didn't buy.  Because this is exactly why they want butts in the seat.  It sounds like a great deal that makes sense. By and large, they never do.

What you describe is how almost every timeshare works.

[Davnasty]

are you being sarcastic about the time share being different than other b/c most time shares now basically run on points systems now backed by deeds at properties. Marriott, Hilton, Blue Green, etc. are all points based systems you're deeded a week somewhere still as the underlying " value" but they arent new and different they are the status quo for the large timeshare outfits.

No, my only experience with timeshares was with my parents attending a talk 30+ years ago.  As stated early, we've never done this before and didn't know anyone who did recently. Thanks for the additional info.  I'll assume we aren't the only ones who were clueless about the new style of timeshares.

Ya, this seems to be the norm now. Of all the advice given I can't believe no one brought this up.

And $1700 annual fees? Holy crap.

[boarder42]

are you being sarcastic about the time share being different than other b/c most time shares now basically run on points systems now backed by deeds at properties. Marriott, Hilton, Blue Green, etc. are all points based systems you're deeded a week somewhere still as the underlying " value" but they arent new and different they are the status quo for the large timeshare outfits.

No, my only experience with timeshares was with my parents attending a talk 30+ years ago.  As stated early, we've never done this before and didn't know anyone who did recently. Thanks for the additional info.  I'll assume we aren't the only ones who were clueless about the new style of timeshares.

Ya, this seems to be the norm now. Of all the advice given I can't believe no one brought this up.

And $1700 annual fees? Holy crap.

its all relative - after extensive research i decided to inherit my grandfather's time share which is 2k in annual fees - i inherited it with my dad so it will either be solely mine when he dies or we can pay 450 to remove me from it and it can die with him if the fees increase too much - but as i stated earlier - if the up front costs are avoided or minimized buying on the second hand market you can really get some good deals with time shares - My wife and i are taking her parents to Kauai for the first time(for them) in May of next year - we have an ocean front 3 bedroom condo for 700 bucks for a week(equated points to dollar ratio) - you arent going to get that deal without a timeshare i travel a ton and no Air bnB or VRBO is going to be that cheap.

[Goldielocks]

are you being sarcastic about the time share being different than other b/c most time shares now basically run on points systems now backed by deeds at properties. Marriott, Hilton, Blue Green, etc. are all points based systems you're deeded a week somewhere still as the underlying " value" but they arent new and different they are the status quo for the large timeshare outfits.

No, my only experience with timeshares was with my parents attending a talk 30+ years ago.  As stated early, we've never done this before and didn't know anyone who did recently. Thanks for the additional info.  I'll assume we aren't the only ones who were clueless about the new style of timeshares.

Ya, this seems to be the norm now. Of all the advice given I can't believe no one brought this up.

And $1700 annual fees? Holy crap.

its all relative - after extensive research i decided to inherit my grandfather's time share which is 2k in annual fees - i inherited it with my dad so it will either be solely mine when he dies or we can pay 450 to remove me from it and it can die with him if the fees increase too much - but as i stated earlier - if the up front costs are avoided or minimized buying on the second hand market you can really get some good deals with time shares - My wife and i are taking her parents to Kauai for the first time(for them) in May of next year - we have an ocean front 3 bedroom condo for 700 bucks for a week(equated points to dollar ratio) - you arent going to get that deal without a timeshare i travel a ton and no Air bnB or VRBO is going to be that cheap.

How does $2k translate down to $700 for the week?  is $2k for 3 weeks of use?

Also check out tug2.net....  lots of options for hawaii, some by owners renting their week for the value of the maintenance fees alone, so no need to commit to having one.  *

* I am not putting down your choice, as I own a timeshare myself for the past 15 years, but now would like to get out of it after much previous use, as I can find the 2nd market rentals of them for cheap and I only use it the years that I choose to fly somewhere, not every year.

[CCCA]

its all relative - after extensive research i decided to inherit my grandfather's time share which is 2k in annual fees - i inherited it with my dad so it will either be solely mine when he dies or we can pay 450 to remove me from it and it can die with him if the fees increase too much - but as i stated earlier - if the up front costs are avoided or minimized buying on the second hand market you can really get some good deals with time shares - My wife and i are taking her parents to Kauai for the first time(for them) in May of next year - we have an ocean front 3 bedroom condo for 700 bucks for a week(equated points to dollar ratio) - you arent going to get that deal without a timeshare i travel a ton and no Air bnB or VRBO is going to be that cheap.

Yeah, as I mentioned.  From my quick math at the presentation, if you want to resort it up, and you don't have the upfront outlay, the maintenance fees seem to give a decent nightly rate.  So the value is potentially there, but only if you would use it.  We didn't so we passed. 

How does $2k translate down to $700 for the week?  is $2k for 3 weeks of use?

Also check out tug2.net....  lots of options for hawaii, some by owners renting their week for the value of the maintenance fees alone, so no need to commit to having one.  *

* I am not putting down your choice, as I own a timeshare myself for the past 15 years, but now would like to get out of it after much previous use, as I can find the 2nd market rentals of them for cheap and I only use it the years that I choose to fly somewhere, not every year.

Do you have to join tug2 to see the deals?  I looked on their website but couldn't quite figure it out. Just curious as to how much some of these deals might be.

[boarder42]

its all relative - after extensive research i decided to inherit my grandfather's time share which is 2k in annual fees - i inherited it with my dad so it will either be solely mine when he dies or we can pay 450 to remove me from it and it can die with him if the fees increase too much - but as i stated earlier - if the up front costs are avoided or minimized buying on the second hand market you can really get some good deals with time shares - My wife and i are taking her parents to Kauai for the first time(for them) in May of next year - we have an ocean front 3 bedroom condo for 700 bucks for a week(equated points to dollar ratio) - you arent going to get that deal without a timeshare i travel a ton and no Air bnB or VRBO is going to be that cheap.

Yeah, as I mentioned.  From my quick math at the presentation, if you want to resort it up, and you don't have the upfront outlay, the maintenance fees seem to give a decent nightly rate.  So the value is potentially there, but only if you would use it.  We didn't so we passed. 

How does $2k translate down to $700 for the week?  is $2k for 3 weeks of use?

Also check out tug2.net....  lots of options for hawaii, some by owners renting their week for the value of the maintenance fees alone, so no need to commit to having one.  *

* I am not putting down your choice, as I own a timeshare myself for the past 15 years, but now would like to get out of it after much previous use, as I can find the 2nd market rentals of them for cheap and I only use it the years that I choose to fly somewhere, not every year.

Do you have to join tug2 to see the deals?  I looked on their website but couldn't quite figure it out. Just curious as to how much some of these deals might be.

The value is not there from an initial purchase plus fees perspective.  And it's not necessarily resorting it up it's a beach front condo in Kauai for 700 a week. You can't hardly stay in a hostel there for that price. Plus full kitchen so you don't have to eat out etc. If you travel a lot it's actually  worth exploring the second hand market.

[boarder42]

are you being sarcastic about the time share being different than other b/c most time shares now basically run on points systems now backed by deeds at properties. Marriott, Hilton, Blue Green, etc. are all points based systems you're deeded a week somewhere still as the underlying " value" but they arent new and different they are the status quo for the large timeshare outfits.

No, my only experience with timeshares was with my parents attending a talk 30+ years ago.  As stated early, we've never done this before and didn't know anyone who did recently. Thanks for the additional info.  I'll assume we aren't the only ones who were clueless about the new style of timeshares.

Ya, this seems to be the norm now. Of all the advice given I can't believe no one brought this up.

And $1700 annual fees? Holy crap.

its all relative - after extensive research i decided to inherit my grandfather's time share which is 2k in annual fees - i inherited it with my dad so it will either be solely mine when he dies or we can pay 450 to remove me from it and it can die with him if the fees increase too much - but as i stated earlier - if the up front costs are avoided or minimized buying on the second hand market you can really get some good deals with time shares - My wife and i are taking her parents to Kauai for the first time(for them) in May of next year - we have an ocean front 3 bedroom condo for 700 bucks for a week(equated points to dollar ratio) - you arent going to get that deal without a timeshare i travel a ton and no Air bnB or VRBO is going to be that cheap.

How does $2k translate down to $700 for the week?  is $2k for 3 weeks of use?

Also check out tug2.net....  lots of options for hawaii, some by owners renting their week for the value of the maintenance fees alone, so no need to commit to having one.  *

* I am not putting down your choice, as I own a timeshare myself for the past 15 years, but now would like to get out of it after much previous use, as I can find the 2nd market rentals of them for cheap and I only use it the years that I choose to fly somewhere, not every year.

the 2k is for a pool of points the points necessary for the week translate to 700 dollars give or take.  its not a single time share for one week its the points style.  does that make sense.  so essentially we're getting this place for the cost of the maintenance fees. just like we would on tug2.net.   I'll check it out for future and to determine if we should keep this.  We can make money selling it about 3-4k based on what i've seen.  Its not a single hawaii resort they have 60 resorts nationwide we can use.

so i just checked it on tug and pono kai the resort we have a 3bedroom (its a 2 bed with a loft sleeps 8) has an add for 1 bed 1 bath for 900 bucks so we're still coming out way ahead here using this timeshare for kauai.  other locations probably dont have as high a return but its a super deal to use this for hawaii and its not hard to get you just have to plan a year ahead.  if we were in the same week as the 1 br on there it would come in at around 1k in dollars so still quite far ahead.

[Goldielocks]

https://tug2.com/timeshare-rentals/




It is in the "timeshare marketplace". "timeshares for rent" on the left menu.   Open to all to view and contact for the rentals and resales. Only need a membership (less than $10) to post.

Right now for Kauai, the cheapest unit that is at least 3 bedrooms or more is $1800 for a week.  The cheapest 2 bedroom units are under $1000 for the week. (One in November for only $225 due to short notice/ low season).

[Goldielocks]

the 2k is for a pool of points the points necessary for the week translate to 700 dollars give or take.  its not a single time share for one week its the points style.  does that make sense.  so essentially we're getting this place for the cost of the maintenance fees. just like we would on tug2.net.   I'll check it out for future and to determine if we should keep this.  We can make money selling it about 3-4k based on what i've seen.  Its not a single hawaii resort they have 60 resorts nationwide we can use.

so i just checked it on tug and pono kai the resort we have a 3bedroom (its a 2 bed with a loft sleeps 8) has an add for 1 bed 1 bath for 900 bucks so we're still coming out way ahead here using this timeshare for kauai.  other locations probably dont have as high a return but its a super deal to use this for hawaii and its not hard to get you just have to plan a year ahead.

Okay - I am asking because I am looking for ways to get more value out of my own timeshare "points" (RCI).
If you have any suggestions??

For mine, I get annual points that cost me just under $800/yr maintenance plus RCI fee of $135/yr = $935/yr CDN.  The value of the points when resold are 1 cent USD per point, so my annual week's worth of point is valued around $USD 550 per year= $740 CDN.  Right now, a net loss of about $200/yr, which is not so bad, if I get that value and more in the years that I use it.   I would just only use it 1 out of 3 years, however...

I agree that the value is there for the years that I use it, although the initial "investment" is pretty much a loss.

But.. I am having trouble selling off my points this year,  I did get one interested person calling who then bought points from someone else when I took a bit too long to reply.  I have sold points once before, and rented it out to a guest before, too.

[boarder42]

the 2k is for a pool of points the points necessary for the week translate to 700 dollars give or take.  its not a single time share for one week its the points style.  does that make sense.  so essentially we're getting this place for the cost of the maintenance fees. just like we would on tug2.net.   I'll check it out for future and to determine if we should keep this.  We can make money selling it about 3-4k based on what i've seen.  Its not a single hawaii resort they have 60 resorts nationwide we can use.

so i just checked it on tug and pono kai the resort we have a 3bedroom (its a 2 bed with a loft sleeps 8) has an add for 1 bed 1 bath for 900 bucks so we're still coming out way ahead here using this timeshare for kauai.  other locations probably dont have as high a return but its a super deal to use this for hawaii and its not hard to get you just have to plan a year ahead.

Okay - I am asking because I am looking for ways to get more value out of my own timeshare "points" (RCI).
If you have any suggestions??

For mine, I get annual points that cost me just under $800/yr maintenance plus RCI fee of $135/yr = $935/yr CDN.  The value of the points when resold are 1 cent USD per point, so my annual week's worth of point is valued around $USD 550 per year= $740 CDN.  Right now, a net loss of about $200/yr, which is not so bad, if I get that value and more in the years that I use it.   I would just only use it 1 out of 3 years, however...

I agree that the value is there for the years that I use it, although the initial "investment" is pretty much a loss.

But.. I am having trouble selling off my points this year,  I did get one interested person calling who then bought points from someone else when I took a bit too long to reply.  I have sold points once before, and rented it out to a guest before, too.

ours is with blue green we get the most value just using the points in the system they have and using some cool hacks to make points go farther - for example weekends are typically 3-4x as many points as weekdays - but they have something called bonus time(only bookable 45 days out) - so what we do is we book our stay 11 months in advance then 45 days before we go we call and ask to cancel the weekend days and rebook them with bonus time if the costs work out which it usually does.  i dont really know how to leverage other timeshares all my focus has been on ours.

[Goldielocks]

Thanks.  I have ways to leverage for more time (and cheaper time), but trying to scale down from 1x per year to 1x every 3 years is harder.

[NumberJohnny5]

Told my wife that if we ever buy a timeshare, it'll be with Disney. That's the only one that could, possibly, be considered an investment. That said, they have the lowest pressure presentations of any I've been to. If you sign up for one of their presentations, make sure you go to the one at Key West, particularly if you do it on a day you're not visiting the parks. Kids have fun at their kids' club thing, there are free snacks, and free ice cream at the end (we're talking the good kind, with toppings).  The incentives are low and change, sometimes a $15 giftcard is offered, all three times we chose the super fastpass (don't know the official name, but it's loaded with like five fastpasses per card; there's no time restrictions, you can literally walk up, get a fastpass ticket, then go straight to the fastpass line). They even picked us up and dropped us off at our (Disney) campsite.

Every other one though...our experiences have varied from "annoying" to "awful". It'd have to be a really good deal to do another. And I agree, don't give them any objections they've already heard that day. I just keep quiet until it's getting close to time (most claim 90-120 minutes, I start looking at my watch at the 90 minute mark and give a ten minute warning at the 110 mark, something like "let's hurry and do the tour, only have 10 minutes left").

[MrsPete]

My parents loved time share presentations, and I've done a couple as an adult.  It's easy to "win" the game: 

- They have great places for your kids to play.  When we were teens, we loved for our parents to drop us off where we could play video games. 

- First they'll give you a small meal.  Note that this is NOT part of your 90 minute commitment; however, the salesperson will chat with you during your meal.  Reality:  He or she is sizing you up -- do you have kids? do you vacation with your elderly parents?  do you want a place with tennis courts, or a place right on the beach?  This is when he or she decides just which tactics to use.  If you want to eat, by all means, do.  If you want to minimize your time, skip the meal.  Casually mention your restaurant reservations or your tee time, which is -- of course -- 90 minutes + 1 hour away. 

- The first portion of the sales pitch will be about the importance of vacations, family time, time away from your job and stress.  Agree.  Agree.  Agree.  It's how you move on quickly; in fact, be proactive and jump right in by explaining that you're completely devoted to your family's vacations and how you don't need to be convinced that "promising yourself" a vacation each and every year is a great idea.  The more you agree, the faster things move.

- The second portion will be fuzzy math:  Buy in, get a condo for the price of a hotel room ... have a kitchen ... several bedrooms so the kids can spread out ...  Agree.  Agree.  Agree.  Again, it's how you move on quickly.  If you really want to put the thing on roller skates, talk about how you already own one time share and are anxious to have a second -- or how much your parents or your brothers love theirs, and how much money they save.  Start to emphasize your excitement about seeing the condo itself; the sooner you do the tour, the sooner you're done.  Point out the time, and remind your salesperson that you were silly enough to have made that reservation, and you must watch your time.

- Finally you get to the condo tour.  You love it.  Gush over everything.  It's exactly the right size for your family.  Start to talk about your vacation plans, and emphasize your serious interest in getting down to some serious numbers.

- At this point you'll return to the sales office, and your salesperson will finally show you THE COST of the condo you just saw.  At this point, you are shocked. What?  It's THIS MUCH?  But how can this be?  No, no, your neighbor didn't pay anything like this for his time share!  You open your purse, and you show your print-outs of what this time share costs on the resale market (hint, 5-10% of the full price).  You are dismayed.  How can such a large investment instantly drop by 90% or more?  Why should you even consider buying "new" when the resale market is so much lower?  Hint:  The salesperson cannot answer this question.  No answer exists. 

- Your salesperson will bring in the manager, who will attempt to "close you" by emphasizing that buying "new" gives you  some nice benefits:  maybe the first year you'll receive a free week, maybe you'll get two airline tickets.  You point out that these things STILL don't add up to the price difference between "new" and resale.  They warn you that this price is going to increase in only two weeks!  A new portion of the time share will be opening next month, and the prices will shoot up by 10-15% -- buy now!  The manager points out that by purchasing directly from them, you'll be backed by the company.  You are now more shocked than ever -- you don't stand behind ALL your owners? 

- You're so confused.  Thank the salesperson for his or her time, ask for your tickets or gifts or whatever, and leave. 

[NumberJohnny5]

 
Why should you even consider buying "new" when the resale market is so much lower?  Hint:  The salesperson cannot answer this question.  No answer exists. 

Just going to point out that an answer DOES exist. All the major ones (including Disney) offer extra perks to people who buy directly from them, and not on the resale market. Things like priority booking ("real" owners may get to prebook 12 months out, while the lower class has to wait until 6 months out). There's often a way around this though, such as having a minimum amount of points purchased directly and the rest via resale market.

I often agree with them, but in such a way that it doesn't work with their scripts. Saying "yes, vacations are very important to us" and "no, they're not that important" have one thing in common...they're both common answers that can be prepared for. I'd say something like "Travel is very important to us, one of the reasons my wife is a travel nurse is so we can get paid to go to all these wonderful places!" Not a common answer.

I'll even admit that my goto "just be silent and give minimal answers" is common enough that it can be addressed in a script. Such as them asking my wife if I don't allow her to speak (she was being quiet-ish, but not as much as me). The idea is to throw you off balance. Heck, one guy asked if we had a problem because he was black, then he got a white dude to take over. I wonder whether that tactic actually ever worked. Well, I guess it worked in the sense that he could move to someone else.

[OrchardTree]

Please don't compare timeshares to Costco.

[I'm a red panda]

are you being sarcastic about the time share being different than other b/c most time shares now basically run on points systems now backed by deeds at properties. Marriott, Hilton, Blue Green, etc. are all points based systems you're deeded a week somewhere still as the underlying " value" but they arent new and different they are the status quo for the large timeshare outfits.

No, my only experience with timeshares was with my parents attending a talk 30+ years ago.  As stated early, we've never done this before and didn't know anyone who did recently. Thanks for the additional info.  I'll assume we aren't the only ones who were clueless about the new style of timeshares.

Ya, this seems to be the norm now. Of all the advice given I can't believe no one brought this up.

And $1700 annual fees? Holy crap.

its all relative - after extensive research i decided to inherit my grandfather's time share which is 2k in annual fees - i inherited it with my dad so it will either be solely mine when he dies or we can pay 450 to remove me from it and it can die with him if the fees increase too much - but as i stated earlier - if the up front costs are avoided or minimized buying on the second hand market you can really get some good deals with time shares - My wife and i are taking her parents to Kauai for the first time(for them) in May of next year - we have an ocean front 3 bedroom condo for 700 bucks for a week(equated points to dollar ratio) - you arent going to get that deal without a timeshare i travel a ton and no Air bnB or VRBO is going to be that cheap.

You have to pay to not inherit something? How does that work? Why should someone dying obligate you to pay for this?

[I'm a red panda]

Told my wife that if we ever buy a timeshare, it'll be with Disney. That's the only one that could, possibly, be considered an investment. That said, they have the lowest pressure presentations of any I've been to. If you sign up for one of their presentations, make sure you go to the one at Key West, particularly if you do it on a day you're not visiting the parks. Kids have fun at their kids' club thing, there are free snacks, and free ice cream at the end (we're talking the good kind, with toppings).  The incentives are low and change, sometimes a $15 giftcard is offered, all three times we chose the super fastpass (don't know the official name, but it's loaded with like five fastpasses per card; there's no time restrictions, you can literally walk up, get a fastpass ticket, then go straight to the fastpass line). They even picked us up and dropped us off at our (Disney) campsite.

Every other one though...our experiences have varied from "annoying" to "awful". It'd have to be a really good deal to do another. And I agree, don't give them any objections they've already heard that day. I just keep quiet until it's getting close to time (most claim 90-120 minutes, I start looking at my watch at the 90 minute mark and give a ten minute warning at the 110 mark, something like "let's hurry and do the tour, only have 10 minutes left").

Still way cheaper to just buy points from someone else to use their Disney timeshare for a single stay. 

[boarder42]

are you being sarcastic about the time share being different than other b/c most time shares now basically run on points systems now backed by deeds at properties. Marriott, Hilton, Blue Green, etc. are all points based systems you're deeded a week somewhere still as the underlying " value" but they arent new and different they are the status quo for the large timeshare outfits.

No, my only experience with timeshares was with my parents attending a talk 30+ years ago.  As stated early, we've never done this before and didn't know anyone who did recently. Thanks for the additional info.  I'll assume we aren't the only ones who were clueless about the new style of timeshares.

Ya, this seems to be the norm now. Of all the advice given I can't believe no one brought this up.

And $1700 annual fees? Holy crap.

its all relative - after extensive research i decided to inherit my grandfather's time share which is 2k in annual fees - i inherited it with my dad so it will either be solely mine when he dies or we can pay 450 to remove me from it and it can die with him if the fees increase too much - but as i stated earlier - if the up front costs are avoided or minimized buying on the second hand market you can really get some good deals with time shares - My wife and i are taking her parents to Kauai for the first time(for them) in May of next year - we have an ocean front 3 bedroom condo for 700 bucks for a week(equated points to dollar ratio) - you arent going to get that deal without a timeshare i travel a ton and no Air bnB or VRBO is going to be that cheap.

You have to pay to not inherit something? How does that work? Why should someone dying obligate you to pay for this?

there is a 450 dollar fee to transfer the "deed" over just like if someone died and left you a house you'd have to pay to reprocess paperwork.  I am now on the deed - if i don't want to keep it when my dad is close to his death then i will just pay to re "deed" the property in solely his name and it will die with him.  it likely wont happen unless it falls apart.  currently the ownership group is buying points back when people try to sell them for less than 25c per point.  so you can get 30c a point right now on the open market.  making ours worth around 8k if we were to sell.  Obviously much less than the cost per point my grand parents paid but not worthless like most of these are.   

I need to re run my numbers and see if its worth keeping that 8k tied up.

[talltexan]

Told my wife that if we ever buy a timeshare, it'll be with Disney. That's the only one that could, possibly, be considered an investment. That said, they have the lowest pressure presentations of any I've been to. If you sign up for one of their presentations, make sure you go to the one at Key West, particularly if you do it on a day you're not visiting the parks. Kids have fun at their kids' club thing, there are free snacks, and free ice cream at the end (we're talking the good kind, with toppings).  The incentives are low and change, sometimes a $15 giftcard is offered, all three times we chose the super fastpass (don't know the official name, but it's loaded with like five fastpasses per card; there's no time restrictions, you can literally walk up, get a fastpass ticket, then go straight to the fastpass line). They even picked us up and dropped us off at our (Disney) campsite.

Every other one though...our experiences have varied from "annoying" to "awful". It'd have to be a really good deal to do another. And I agree, don't give them any objections they've already heard that day. I just keep quiet until it's getting close to time (most claim 90-120 minutes, I start looking at my watch at the 90 minute mark and give a ten minute warning at the 110 mark, something like "let's hurry and do the tour, only have 10 minutes left").

While Disney is not mustachian--and I spend a lot of money there myself--the secondary market for DVC points is robust. A modest stake in retail points allows you access to that secondary market, where the real value can be found. I'm not aware of any other secondary market for time share points that is..well..genuine.

[boarder42]

Told my wife that if we ever buy a timeshare, it'll be with Disney. That's the only one that could, possibly, be considered an investment. That said, they have the lowest pressure presentations of any I've been to. If you sign up for one of their presentations, make sure you go to the one at Key West, particularly if you do it on a day you're not visiting the parks. Kids have fun at their kids' club thing, there are free snacks, and free ice cream at the end (we're talking the good kind, with toppings).  The incentives are low and change, sometimes a $15 giftcard is offered, all three times we chose the super fastpass (don't know the official name, but it's loaded with like five fastpasses per card; there's no time restrictions, you can literally walk up, get a fastpass ticket, then go straight to the fastpass line). They even picked us up and dropped us off at our (Disney) campsite.

Every other one though...our experiences have varied from "annoying" to "awful". It'd have to be a really good deal to do another. And I agree, don't give them any objections they've already heard that day. I just keep quiet until it's getting close to time (most claim 90-120 minutes, I start looking at my watch at the 90 minute mark and give a ten minute warning at the 110 mark, something like "let's hurry and do the tour, only have 10 minutes left").

While Disney is not mustachian--and I spend a lot of money there myself--the secondary market for DVC points is robust. A modest stake in retail points allows you access to that secondary market, where the real value can be found. I'm not aware of any other secondary market for time share points that is..well..genuine.

what do you mean by genuine you can buy almost all points for any time share second hand. You dont even have to buy points from the parent company first to do this in most cases.