Time Shares - Live and Learn

This post is a result of a commercial I saw last Saturday, that piqued my interest.

Last August, my wife and I got stopped at a movie theater by an elderly lady with an offer. Spin the wheel, maybe win a prize. Sign up for 50 minute presentation and get a free 3 day cruise to Mexico. We spun, we lost. We signed up, for the presentation and got our 3 day cruise.

For those of you that haven't found themselves in such a scenario, it's a lead in to getting sold on a Timeshare. This particular company was Worldmark by Whynham. Turns out they sell a point based time share. Points that can be redeemed at any of 50 resorts. Long story short, we buckled. 3 hours after the 50 minute presentation was done we walked out of there with a new mortgage and a time share.

Here's the rub, we've used the time share. Spent a great week in Mexico. Gave a sister in law a two night stay at a resort as part of her honeymoon. I don't regret purchasing it. I do however regret the price I paid for it. Turns out there is a glut of private sellers trying to unload their timeshares online. I found a few different websites that serve as timeshare brokers for private sellers. The site i spent most time on was www.timesharesonly.com. Turns out if we had purchased a our timeshare from a private party, for the same price we could have bought 4x more points.

Moral of the story? Two fold:

1. Don't fall for the whole "buy now or you don't get the sweet deal" push.
2. If you're going to buy a time share, buy it from a private party and get more bang for your buck.