Saturday, 9 April 2011

Want To Buy A Timeshare? Get The Facts First

By Emil Benjamin


For several decades now since 1960's, the timeshare industry has been growing with about 5,000 timeshare resorts around the world making sales in the billions every year.

How did the timeshare industry grow so quickly? Because the benefits of owning a timeshare are attractive and can be a great added benefit for certain lifestyles. One of the main benefits is that:

It is a real property

Timeshare came about during the 1960's when a ski resort developer devised this method to increase his revenue. He realized that the "renting" vs "owning" concept could apply to vacation resorts and presented this new concept of vacation real estate. Thus, the timeshare deed was born.

This developer ended up increasing the occupancy of his ski resort. Any guest that came to his resort was presented with the "rent" vs "own" opportunity, and many guests were attracted to this opportunity, even if the ownership was only a week a year. This made for happier repeat customers as well as a happier ski resort owner.

These guests became owners when they purchased their deeds. They purchased what is often called a "timeshare interval", which later became known as "deeded weeks". These are deeds of actual real estate property in the resort. The owners are then free to do whatever they want with their deed whether to rent, use, or trade.

It is flexible

Owners can choose what type of ownership they want. Over the years, timeshare ownerships were developed to cater to all sorts of people. Owners can now choose between these varied types of ownerships:

1. The Fixed Week Ownership

In this type of ownership, you own a deed in using a unit for a specific single week.

2. The Floating Ownership

For this kind of ownership, you have a choice as to what week you will use your timeshare. This would transpire within a defined season. For example, the Winter season has a number of weeks, you have a choice or you must compete over a week that you prefer to have.

3. The Rotating Ownership

This type of ownership provides the owner with a week at a property which is rotated on a subsequent basis. If you have week three one year, you would then receive week four the next year. Eventually the owner would end up having each week of the year over the course of his ownership.

4. The Deeded Ownership

This is probably the most expensive type of ownership which also gives the owner the most flexibility. These deeds are partial ownership in the timeshare and let the owner have a lto of power over what they want to do with it.

5. Right to Use ownership

This is not so much ownership as it is membership in a club which expires after a fixed number of years as determined in the contract. This is popular with hotel resorts where you can purchase a week every year for a limited term. After the term is finished or contract expires, then there is no more "ownership".

6. Ownership by Points program

The Points program is another type of ownership available for timeshares. It is an attempt by the timeshare resorts to be able to reach the Class B and C market. The points program aims to entice guests to obtain timeshares by collecting points in the program. When guests reach a number of collected points that is equivalent to the level of ownership, the clients are provided with a corresponding timeshare. These new owners of the timeshare would have an option to schedule their accommodation in the resort if they wish to avail their timeshares.

Those are some of the most popular timeshare opportunities. And timeshare opportunities continue to evolve all the time to try to be more accommodating to the many different lifestyles out there. The best thing you can do is stay informed and keep an open mind. We did not find the perfect timeshare ownership opportunity until our fourth presentation. And we love our current timeshare.

So just make sure to keep an open mind. Just because one timeshare presentation presents an opportunity that is not for you does not mean they're all not for you. Realize this so that one day you are ready when the perfect ownership opportunity comes your way.




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