Is the Cost of A Timeshare Worth It?

By Eric Frey, May 1, 2010

There are many people out there today who definitely enjoy purchasing their own beach front property. While it sounds great, unless you’re rich and wealthy it almost seems like a difficult task to accomplish. However, this is why timeshares are such a huge market today. It allows you to own a deed to a particular unit during a certain week a year, and then if you want to travel outside of that realm you can go through various exchange programs. Even though you won’t have to keep up with the cleaning and maintenance around the resort, you will have to pay some sort of maintenance fees. It’s just something to keep in mind when you make your purchase.

The problem that most people come across is that they believe timeshares are the same as your normal, everyday real estate property. You will find that this isn’t the case, even though it is like an investment. Instead you are able to vacation every single year without the hassles. The only problem is when you own timeshares; you don’t normally reap profitable returns. It’s even possible to lose money.

There is always one question in the minds of those people who are planning to buy timeshares. Is it really worth buying a timeshare? To answer this question you have to go through an analysis of various factors. An analysis should consider factors like comparable rent of alternative accommodation, appreciation of the timeshare property and your finance rate. How do you do it? Here is a simple calculation.

The first thing to do is think about the profitability investment. This should be measured by the comparable rental rate, the rate of appreciation, and the finance rate. When you add them all up and they provide a negative number, you might as well consider that you are losing money in your timeshares.

Suppose if corresponding rent of that vacation timeshare is $1,000 and the buying price is $10,000 then the rental rate is 10%. Now if we include the annual maintenance cost, membership and all other miscellaneous expenses, if it comes around $500. So the actual saving in rent will be $500 now and the rental rate will be the ratio of $500 to $10,000 which gives us 5%.

Keep in mind you can easily get into the negative percentages. Take for instance the appreciation rate is at 10% and the finance rates are 16%. When you add in the rental rate and appreciation, once you subtract the finance rate you get a negative percent. This means you are actually losing 1% each year if you compare it to your rent. However, this is simply a rough calculation as opposed to pinpoint accuracy. It’s basically a start up, because the depreciation rate and finance rates will most likely vary.

The maintenance fee costs will be something to look into as well. The majority of them charge reasonable rates, but there are times when you come across others that are extremely expensive. Listen, you want this to be a profitable setup and in order to keep it that way you may think about renting out your week from time to time.

What it comes down to is you should add up your timeshare costs for the entire year. Considering everything above you could be looking at 520,000. Would you really pay that much if this was regular real estate? The profits end up lining the pockets of the developers and investors that sell the timeshares. If you just take the time to weigh all the factors you will be able to get the timeshares you desire.

If you are thinking about timeshare ownership and desire to learn more Timeshare Information, you should visit We Own Timeshares. Meet and connect with timeshare owners on this Timeshare Ownership social network. It is free to join and you can set up your own profile in minutes. Share experiences and reviews of different timeshare properties and start asking questions in the forum. Visit today.

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