this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2024
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Can anybody explain why someone sell me an apartment in resort ? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by hahattpro@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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It seems sketchy as hell.

They sell an apartment, that apartment in resort. The price is about typical normal apartment.

They said that I own that apartment, and can visit the resort few days a year, enjoying staying at that apartment. Just book your day and they handled the rest. I still not fully wrapped my head about this concept yet, but why not stay there forever but "book" ?

My aunt said this seems good deal. But I feel something fishy.

Is it a good investment compared to normal apartment in residence building ?

Can someone tell me more details on this type of real estate?

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[โ€“] Fosheze@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

It's a timeshare and it is basically a scam for most people. Basically you're buying time to stay at the place that you can technically use at any time year round as long as you book it in advance. The problem is that all of the days that most people go on vacations (spring break, summer, holidays, etc) will already be booked by the 500 other people who also bought the same thing. So really the only times you will actually be able to use the place are when no one else wants to be there.

If you have the ability and desire to drop everything and vacation there on a random week whenever it happens to be available then it can still be a good deal for you, but most people have obligations like work, school, or family that limits when they can just drop everything and leave to spend time at their timeshare.

[โ€“] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

John Oliver - Timeshares

[โ€“] Evkob@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 months ago

This is probably a more helpful TV reference than what I was going to link, which is King of the Hill S09E03 "Death Buys A Timeshare"

[โ€“] Doxanarchy@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Google Time Share. It's a huge con.

[โ€“] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The worst is it's not even like you buy a share of a single unit to share and keep well maintained, it effectively behaves like a hotel you have a stake in and and get to go 1-2 weeks a year for free and they're usually quite poorly maintained too.

For some reason boomers thought it was a good idea, because gotta buy and own properties. I guess the idea was you could buy a vacation home but for only the few weeks a year you really want it.

It's such a con, if you inherit it from your parents it's really hard to get rid of it too, because nobody wants them now that it's well known to be bullshit. You might as well just rent an Airbnb, it's probably cheaper.

[โ€“] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

My parents bought one when I was in high school. I was so mad about it. Thought it was a huge waste of money.

Fast forward many years. I was right. Every year you have mandatory maintenance costs (like paying a subscription to keep something you supposedly own). The next part of the scam is that there are tiers of ownership; pay even more to get in a higher tier. Higher tiers get more "points" for booking rooms, and let you book rooms further in advance (12mo out instead of 11mo). If you don't upgrade, all the rooms you want are booked by the tier above you.

On the bright side, my dad is usually able to book rooms on big holidays, and then sell them for cash to cover the cost of maintenance fees. But the time share organization is aware of this practice and is trying to crack down on it, which seems like a breach of contract to me, even within their own scam.

Meanwhile, any time I travel, we just get an airbnb or vrbo and it's always at least 3x nicer for a similar cost, and I'm not on the hook for a bunch of debt and responsibility.

[โ€“] hahattpro@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Wow, thanks.

So, timeshare is kind of pay all of your vacation (rent) cost for the room in 50-100year ?

Wow, those saleman turn them into real estate and say it is real estate that you can resell for profit.

[โ€“] theit8514@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

In the US they are usually governed as real estate legally. You can resell it, but most people aren't interested in paying the maintenance fees. You'll find all sorts of timeshares out there being resold for 1$ because they just don't want to pay the maintenance fee anymore.

[โ€“] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 1 points 3 months ago

time shares are notoriously things people want to stay away from.

[โ€“] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

That's called a timeshare, and they're not a good idea. Very sketchy, almost impossible to get rid of if you don't want it.

You have to sign up because although you bought the apartment, you're not the only one who bought the apartment.

You buy it and then get to sign up to use it, and then you pay a fee to use it every year even if you don't end up using it.

You don't get to live there.