Tags: time shares, vacation homes, vacation, personal finance.
I read a very interesting post on Personal Financial Advice's blog about parting with a time share.
I added a comment about the challenging psychological experience my wife and I had when we attended a time share seminar.
Although having a nice home-like place to rent in an exotic locale sounds very attractive, does paying 10-30 times the value of a property make sense? Does having your vacation options limited to a specifc group of properties (even with exchange programs) also make sense? What about timing restrictions - There are at least 10-26 other owners also hoping to use the property?
Perhaps renting someone else's house might be a more attractive way to spend a vacation (without the constant monthly expenditure and weak guarantee of liquidity)?
I recently heard of www.vrbo.com, where you can directly rent properties from other people? Frankly it sounds quite interesting. Has anyone tried it out? The couple I talked with this weekend, had a wonderful experience in Europe.
Have a great start to your week,
Regards,
making our way
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2 comments:
My wife & I have been considering some extremely cheap Disney deals, but the catch is you have to sit through a timeshare presentation to get them. I have always heard these presentations are extremely hard-sell, and haven't decided if i really want part of our vacation (with two small children) to be spent being sold so hard, despite the discount on the vacation.
Justin,
We sat through the presentation during our vacation. My inlaws looked after our children while we were there.
All in all, I really felt the high pressure experience was a distraction from the otherwise relaxing trip.
Even if you manage to say "no", you'll be thinking about the presentation for hours afterward - time you could be enjoying with your children.
If you decide to say yes, do your best to avoid making a commitment until at least a week after you've returned home. You'll have the advantage of a less pressured environment and a return of everyday pressures and expenses to add a dose of reality to the decision.
Good luck,
m
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