The family took a quick trip to the Smokies over the last few days…  We had a great time, thanks.  While we were there, we agreed to go to a Time Share Sales Presentation Tour.  Hey, $100 is $100… and the other inducements (I’ll report about them in the future…).

I’m not going to be specific about the name of the time share company… in fact I am going to be quite vague… but the points I am going to mention should apply across the board.

The new “Time Share” is actually quite different from the old “Pick a Week” concept that many think of with time shares.  Now you get to buy points.  The points can be exchanged for a variety of vacation options.  Maybe you could spend 10 days in Orlando… maybe a couple of days in Gatlinburg and a few days in Branson.  Or… a cruise… all without regard to which week you have and trying to find someone else that wants that particular week in your particular resort.

We were first introduced to the system by the Disney Vacation Club.  We have never purchased a DVC membership, but we have stayed in a DVC resort using points rented from a member.  Personally, I think it is a pretty cool system for vacation planning…

But… there is always a “but”…

While the DVC has a very strong ROFR (Right of First Refusal) which functions to keep resale prices stable, other time share companies do not.  What this means is that the price you can sell your timeshare for can be quite an ugly shocker…

Last I looked, new DVC points were about $100ea.  Resale points were about $80ea. in the same resort (same time frame).

On this trip (not to Disney), we were offered a package for $60,000 and another package for $30,000.  Tonight on Ebay I watched two sales from the same company go off…  The $60,000 package sold for $2025 (there was an additional $1904 in fees and closing costs).  The $30,000 package sold for $860 (add an additional $524).

In the interest of fairness, there are a couple of perks that come with buying from the developer… I can’t really detail them without giving away the name of the company… but I don’t see them worth 10x the cost.

And there is another thing… the “Secondary Offer”

After we said “no” a few times and they were pretty sure that we weren’t buying, we were sent down for an exit poll.  The pollster asked a few questions and then pitched the last ditch offer.  Honestly, we might have done it if the kids weren’t climbing the walls… but we didn’t.  After looking and researching, I would still say that the LDO (last ditch offer) wasn’t that bad.  It wouldn’t have been a money loser…

But, I’m glad we didn’t.  If we were to decide to buy the time share, which is a thought, we would be buying resale.  And we would be spending about the same amount of money to buy the time share as to rent the points…  Of course, if we bought it we would have to pay the monthly maintenance fees…

****Just as a disclaimer… I am a licensed real estate agent, but I do not sell time shares (new, resale, whatever).  In this case, I’m just a guy that went to one of the presentations tours.****