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Timesharing

2-5-01 (be sure to check updates at bottom of page)
You may have heard about timesharing before. You get a vacation offer in the mail "3 days 2 nights in Hilton Head or Myrtle Beach or Florida, all for only $49.00" Not only do you get the 2 nights, you might get a dinner coupon worth $50.00 at a nice restaurant and in some offers additional $40.00 gas money. All for only "90 minutes" of you and the wife's time to look at a presentation about our fine resort. Well, let me tell you, I have taken advantage several times of these great offers. Several times I have said NO, NO, NO, No, till I was blue in the face.

But I can tell you timeshare is great. In July 01 we will be going to Williamsburg Va. to visit friends and see some history. We will be staying in a 3 bedroom 1350+ sq ft luxury condo with 3 outdoor swimming pools 2 hot tubs, full kitchen, Jacuzzi, big screen tv, Washer/ Dryer and much more all for only $350.00 for the week. Yes, I said only $350.00 the entire week.

The concept is simple. You buy a "week" at one resort but you can trade it to stay at another resort in a different area or different county if you want. You pay a maintenance fee for each week you own to your original resort. Most resorts in Myrtle Beach area run from $300-500 per week. You only pay the maintenance fee once a year. There are thousands of resorts worldwide. Places like Hawaii, Mexico, Greece, Florida and my favorite Virginia Beach, VA., just to name a few. The trick is to (1.) Buy somewhere you like to go to every year or (2.) buy at a resort that has good trading power with low up front cost along with low maintenance fee's. With this timeshare you can go somewhere different every year. I have owned my South African timeshare "week" for 3 years now. The first year ('99)we went to Atlantic Beach NC. (PepperTree Resort at Atlantic Beach) Last year("00) we did "Disney" and stayed in Lake Buena Vista at Cypress Pointe Grande Villas located less than a mile from Disney Downtown area. This year ('01) we are going to Historic Williamsburg. Next year we may try something in NC mountains during summer or Myrtle Beach or Aurba or Cancun. The possibilities are endless.

Simple Sounding, but somewhat hard to do. Luckily, I found a site on the net several years ago called "Timeshare Users Group" TUG for short. Through "TUG" and the great BBS's they have, I was able to figure out what makes for a good "cheap" resort to own at and some of the insiders tips for getting great exchanges through RCI (Resorts Condo International). RCI is the largest Resort exchange company in the world. They manage all the trades I and hundreds more request and complete from one resort to another.

One "great trader" resort I found is called Dikhololo. Another one is called Mount Amanzi. There are more, but I was most familiar with these two. Both are in South Africa, both are great traders with low yearly maintenance fees. There are several brokers selling weeks in south africa some are located state side and other are in SA. Best place to find out about the different brokers on on TUG web site. Once you join the BBS you can go into the south africa section and search on brokers.

What makes DIK or Mt A. such a great buy?? First was the price. Most weeks in a place like Hilton Head or Florida can cost $10-15,000.00+ for a prime red week. (Prime means high time, like summer in Myrtle Beach or Feb in Colorado ski areas.) My South Africa week cost a total of $2300.00. (they can be gotten for $500-700 a week now!) Second, the low maintenance fees. Dik and other South Africa resorts have low maintenance fees due a strong US dollar. The yearly maintenance fees run $115-$160.00. Third, this resort has great exchange power. Exchange power is relative to your home resort. If your "home" resort is popular (ie, Hilton Head, Hawaii, Myrtle Beach) you can get better exchanges due to the fact that others exchangers want to trade into your area. South Africa is very popular with Europeans wanting to experience the game land or bushvel experience as they say in SA. I have heard of other SA owners getting exchanges into Hawaii, Cancun, St. Marteen and other great resort areas world wide.

You can find other low cost timeshare units in places like Florida and Mexico. You have to be careful of buying in Mexico. Why you ask? Most Mexican resorts operate on a 'right to use" plan the runs for 15-25 years. After the time is up the unit goes back to the developer. Most resorts state side and in other area's have the phrase "use of property is in perpetuity". That means it yours until you sell the unit or don't pay the maintenance fees and the unit is foreclosed on. This is real property, you can will to your kids sell it or just use the week every year having some great vacations along the way.

The concept of timesharing is a lot like computer usage in the early days. Most people or company's could not afford to buy or did not have a need for a computer on a full time basis. So, companies would buy a "share" of the computing time. In this way its more affordable. Timeshare is very similar. You get to spend a week at a luxurious resort but not have to pay for the other 51 weeks of the year you are not there. Timesharing has come a long way in the past 10 years. You how have big name players entering the arena like Disney, Embassy, Fairfield, Marriott, Ramada and more are getting into timeshare all the time. The resort themselves are getting larger and more upscale. Its nice to check in and have all the service of a 5 star hotel your entire stay. One of the great features of becoming a TUG member (cost only 15.00 per year.) is a database of resorts rankings. (click here to see actual reviews.) Here can read comments from others Timeshare traders whom may have stayed at a resort you are think about trading into or maybe somewhere you would like to trade into in the future.

Another Great resource:
I also subscribe to TimeShare Today. This 6 issue yearly magazine gives up to date info on the timeshare trends, great resort focus articles and a large classifieds ad section if you are looking to buy more weeks or your first week. I strongly recommend getting a year subscription. You can get a trail subscription for only $10.00. This will get you 3 issues, access to the online "subscribers only gateway" and lots of great info.
If you do take the trial or a full subscription please put my name as the person that referred you. (Carl Newton)
click here to subscribe. This is a secure link.

The options on both TUG and in TimeShare Today magazine are by people just like you and me. You get the good, bad and otherwise about these resorts. Want to know the best resorts in the world? You can find out on TUG. To see a listing of the Top Ten Resorts in the world click here. I appreciate these fine reports and make sure I submit mine when returning from my vacation. RCI also sends me a report card of sorts to fill out. This is there way of making sure a "Gold Crown*" resort is living up to "GC" standards.

All in all, I believe timeshare is a great way to vacation at a low cost. If only once a year you get to pretend you are a millionaire and live the life of the rich and famous. I could get used to that. The resorts are luxurious, with most having activities planned for every day making a great vacation as simple as going to a class, sitting on the beach, heading to the golf course or just doing nothing at all.. I hope you will be intrigued to find out more about this great opportunity. Visit the sites I have links to and call me is you want to talk about timesharing. Life is short, so live it to the fullest for the least amount of money out of pocket.

Hope to see you at the beach, the golf course or ski slopes some day.

peace, Carl

2.5-01 *Gold Crown Resorts are equivalent to 5 star hotels

(Update 7-6-01. I found a really good article on Timeshare, how it started how it works and more. Click here to see the entire page. Be sure to close the window that pops up when you are finished reading this great article.)

(update 7-24-02 To find a list of timeshare resellers follow this link. Not all resellers can get South African weeks. a couple of names like TimeshareSpecials.com and TimeShareCheap.com are highly rated brokers in the TUG community.

(update Nov 2002) Bought a another week of South African timeshare for a total cost of $637.00 that included the week, maintenance fees and 10 yrs of RCI membership. I have already traded it for a week at Mossy Creek at Sugar Mountain in Jan 04 in a 3 bd rm condo unit. (My SA week is only a 1 bd rm white (off season) week). Go figure...

(updated 9-30-03) This year we stayed for a older resort on the Gulf coast at Englewood. The resort "Sea Oats Beach Club" was a great place to spend the week. We had a two bedroom unit overlooking the gulf with heated Pool and hot tub all out our rear view. Located below Sarasota, above Naples we had a great location to do none thing all week. (I did get out to play golf once or twice) This place was older but in great shape and right on the beach. We did not have to deal with the "red tide" thing at all. All in all it was a great "no stress" week at the beach.

In Jan we are heading up to Sugar Mt for a week of snow and ski at the Mossy Creek Resort near the lodge at Sugar. (see above) Its a three bedroom unit with hot tub and fireplace. Once again another great trade with a SA timeshare unit.