If you have considered buying a timeshare to escape the winter blahs in a sunnier clime, you may want to think again. Often, timeshares turn out to be poor investments.
Timeshare units are often hard to sell and they have high annual fees ($200 to $1,000 per year, with several hundred dollars typical) used to manage and operate the resort. Too often it seems those fees are used to pay the manager while the resort deteriorates. As a result, if you get bored with the resort or tired of the annual cost, you may not be able to sell it at a profit or even to sell it at all.
A quick search of the Web shows timeshare resales advertised for 50 percent to 80 percent off the price originally paid and discloses numerous foreclosure, liquidation, and distress sales.
Some buyers may get lucky, but investments should not be based on luck.
Buy a timeshare unit if you are convinced you will use the resort enough to justify the expense (and then, look an earlier sucker, um, buyer, reselling his or her unit.
But don’t buy one as an investment.
