Yes and yes.

I've owned a 1 bedroom unit in Kissimmee for 40 years. I paid $3000 for it and my maintenance dues have risen from $400 to just under $600. I've traded it for a weeks in Europe, Vermont, and I traded for a week in Hawaii for our honeymoon, but mostly we've used the week at our home resort because my family liked amusement parks.

Now that we own a home in The Villages, we may rejoin the trading organization and start using the week for vacations in other areas.

If someone buys a timeshare as an investment property, they will be sorely disappointed. Used timeshares are almost impossible to sell, some of them you can't even give away. If on the other hand you find one at a reasonable price in a location that you want to visit on a regular basis it can be a good purchase.

Wondering..................how many years have you owned and what was your estimated annual percentage increase for maint fees??? (increasing maint fees is the biggest complain)

I who says a Timeshare is not a great investment. :pepper2:

Interesting Ebay site.

far too much. we came from the industry and these type of timeshares are nothing but an expense and hassle most days of the week. Sort of like owning a boat (1st and last day) .

With that said, we own 5 BUT they are paid for when we get them. This is a unique deal you buy the unit cash you have maintenence fee every year, and it's yours (and your kids etc) forever (or until the building no longer exists) . Here's the killer part - the units average about $8200 each. I don't have to reserve - just show up, I have an option to trade off for other resorts, however we chose not to. RCI can be a problem at times. We've already made our initial investment back.

Why not buy used
 

You can spend $50 if you want I’ll go to redweek and buy someone’s for cheap

That's another good site.

:coolsmiley:

I bought at Aruba Divi Village in 1988. They had their own timeshare system; the contract was for 40 weeks. I believe I paid just under 5K for a studio unit. At the time Divi had about 7 or 8 locations throughout the Caribbean. They hadn't broken ground yet on my building and then a few years later they declared bankruptcy, but remained in business. I used Divi to visit Barbados and also the Bahamas (two times) where they had their own 18 hole golf course.

If we don't use our scheduled week, we are not required to pay the yearly maintenance fee as long as we notify them in advance. We've used the week in Cabo (3x's), Arizona, Hawaii (2 weeks), Dominican Republic, and Aruba numerous times now. Once the contract is up, the maintenance fee is gone. I think we have 8 or 9 weeks left that we can use.

Over 20 years ago we bought a 2-bedroom week at Hilton Head for $2500 through Marriott's resale office. We have never been there. We just bought it to be Marriott Vacation Club owners. We go to Marriott's Grande Vista in Orlando every year and love it. Even with the maintenance fees, it is still a good deal, and owners often get getaways and other good discounted stays. Our timeshare works for us...

I remember when they sold Hilton Head timeshares and charged a huge premium for the week of the Heritage golf tournament. But, then they changed the date of the tournament.

Timeshares
 

We have 2 timeshares that are weeks and 1 that is points that can be converted to numerous nights or units. We can also move the 2 weeks into the points program and convert to points annually. Have been to many places we wouldn't have gone to without the timeshares. We got pretty good deals on them when we purchased them, mostly 20 years ago. Now they would cost too much.

Question...................do you have maint fees???..............if so, how have the annual increases been???

Very true....................that's the difference between a silver, a gold, a platinum purchase.
Priority as to when you can book..

Have one and enjoy getting a 4 star ski accommodation. Used it for 20 years Starting to loose enjoyment as it is getting harder to use good ski properties. Full disclosure we do not have title to the ski property.

Have one and love it!!!