People who have money to spend these days are often home shopping and why not? The residential real estate market is flooded with homes at rock bottom low prices, supported by the lowest interest rates in decades. And if it is the right time to buy real estate, does this include buying timeshares or timeshare resales?

Yes, suggest Bankrate.com in an article titled, “Should you buy a timeshare now?” that was published on the real estate section of their website. The article starts by pointing to the 2009 decline in annual timeshare sales as validated by ARDA that reported timeshare sales down 8 percent from 2008 to 2007.

But—and this is a valid and unchanging truth about timeshare sales—DO NOT buy timeshare as an investment strategy. Bankrate.com quotes Judi Kozlowski, a broker with Re/Max Properties SW in Orlando, Florida who says, “Only those who want to use the timeshare should get into the market. Timeshare is an investment in your time and family, not a financial investment.”

Lisa Ann Schreier, founder of Timeshare Insights reinforces the message, “Timeshare isn’t a business for consumers; it’s a vacation alternative. A timeshare should only be thought of as an investment in your future vacations.”

Buy Timeshare and Timeshare Resales

I don’t know where you are investing these days; most of us are pretty perplexed by that challenge. But I do know that there are a few things definitely worth your “investment”.

• Invest your time in creating a greater sense of stability and more peace of mind. Buying timeshare today means you lock-in today’s vacation accommodation rates (currently at very competitive prices) for a lifetime of vacations. When you buy timeshare, you make vacation planning the easiest it can possibly be.
• Invest your heart in those people you care about most. Build stronger family bonds and create more meaningful moments and lasting memories. Even young children are affected by the negative news of an unstable economy, a collapsing job market, threats of terrorism, and today’s “reality”. Timeshare vacations afford you and your loved ones a time and place to forget about the daily grind, reconnect, and restore.
• Invest in yourself. Take better care of your health, which often includes both exercising more and relaxing more. Carve out time to recharge yourself in new venues and favorite vacation spots. Not only do you owe it to yourself, you owe it to those who depend on you.

As Howard Nusbaum, president and CEO of ARDA points out, a timeshare has a value proposition that comes from using it. Yes, now is a great time to buy timeshare, especially right-priced timeshare resales, but buy timeshare because you plan to use and enjoy it, and never because you are looking for a financial investment.

The South Florida Business Journal reports that research from Deloitte has found, “45 percent of U.S. consumers planned to take a leisure trip involving an overnight stay at a hotel, motel or timeshare from the beginning of Thanksgiving week through March.”

photo credit: Michal Zacharzewski SXC

In the state of Florida alone, AAA estimates that 2.1 million Floridians will be traveling during this Thanksgiving holiday, marking a 3 percent increase over Thanksgiving travel last year. Across the country, as many as 38 million people will travel at least 50 miles (or more) this Thanksgiving holiday weekend—a nearly one and a half percent increase over 2008.

Kevin Bakewell, senior vice president of AAA Auto Club South says, “We take the projected increase in travelers as a sign that economic recovery may finally be taking root and we believe many Americans certainly share the same hope.”

Your Drive-To Timeshare Resale or Timeshare Rental Destination

While many of us are traveling this Thanksgiving, more of us are driving vs. flying. With increasing costs to fly, add-on charges for luggage and other services, and fewer flights translating to more delays, only 6 percent of Thanksgiving travelers will fly, which is a drop of a staggering 62 percent since 2000.

Thank goodness, the flexibility of timeshare exchange and timeshare rentals makes it easy to plan a drive-to vacation. And if you don’t already own a timeshare that is conveniently located so that travel time doesn’t become the most important aspect of the flight, now’s a great time to be looking at the many opportunities in timeshare resales.

The website InvestorWords.com gives us these definitions of the word, “investment”:

• Definition 1
  In finance, the purchase of a financial product or other item of value with an expectation of favorable future returns. In general terms, investment means the use money in the hope of making more money.
• Definition 2
  In business, the purchase by a producer of a physical good, such as durable equipment or inventory, in the hope of improving future business.

Over the past six years, since Sell My Timeshare NOW was first founded, I have written, stated, tweeted, and probably shouted from a few rooftops, “timeshares are not an investment.”

Timeshares are a fabulous way to vacation, offering ease of vacation planning, spacious accommodations, and amenities to suit every member of the family. But you should not buy timeshare because you expect to be able to resell it at a higher price. And our legal system, including the Securities and Exchange Commission takes a dim view of people who try to tell you otherwise.

Case in point from this week’s Legal Newsline:

This story comes packed with lots of lessons.

• Don’t take tax advice from anyone who is not certified to provide it.
• Don’t transfer your timeshare to anyone or any company on a promise.
• And most importantly, if it seems too good to be true… don’t believe the hype!

Yes, you can resell your timeshare. You can also donate your timeshare, give it away, or use it as a timeshare rental, and these are all strategies for offsetting or eliminating the cost of continuing to pay annual fees on a timeshare you no longer use. But before you take any of these actions, make sure you are dealing with a reputable timeshare resales advertising company or timeshare brokers who are giving you a reasonable and accurate picture about timeshare resales.

Don’t let fear of swine flu (H1N1) get in the way of enjoying Mouse fever.

Let’s face it, there are a lot of people who really enjoy a Disney vacation. The Orlando Disney theme parks alone attract between 25 and 45 million visitors annually, depending upon whose unofficial stats you follow. Any way you look at it, Disney theme parks mean huge numbers of people, many of whom are not vacationing with their kids!

Psychologist Donna Dawson calls it, (appropriately) the “Peter Pan” syndrome. “Unencumbered by kids,” Dawson explains, “couples can selfishly go on the rides that THEY want to, as many times as they want, without anyone dragging them away; they can keep acting like excited children without anyone telling them off!”

According to a media release from Attraction Tickets Direct, specifically studying the holiday patterns of British vacationers, one out of every three adults going on a Disney theme park holiday was not bringing any children along on the trip.

The year-in, year-out and apparently ageless popularity of the Disney parks is one of the reasons Disney Vacation Club (Disney timeshares) are such a success. People who suffer from ‘Mouse fever’ can happily go back to the Disney parks again and again, finding new things to enjoy and re-experiencing old favorites.

What Does Mouse Fever Mean for Disney Timeshare Owners?

The ongoing popularity of Disney theme parks impacts Disney timeshare owners in multiple ways, all of them good.

1. The popularity of Disney theme parks with adults has not gone unnoticed by Disney’s visionaries. They are continually developing new attractions and features to target adults and the young-at-heart of all ages.
2. Sufferers of mouse fever appreciate staying in Disney resorts. They value the convenience of Disney timeshares and the fact that both the Disney themes and Disney customer service keeps the Disney magic going long after they have stepped off the monorail.
3. Disney timeshare sells and Disney timeshare occupancy is strong. It has dips and declines, just like everyone else, but even with a bad economy and public concerns over H1N1 flu, Disney timeshares are still a popular vacation destination.

No one can guarantee you if you buy Disney timeshare you will be able to resell it in the future. No one can ever tell you if, when, or for how much you will be able to resell timeshare, even Disney timeshare. But the popularity of Disney timeshare is proven and surprisingly, that’s not just in a family market… there are a huge number of adults who perennially experience strong bouts of Mouse fever.

Opportunities in Disney timeshare resales:

• Disney’s Old Key West Resort Timeshare Resales
• Disney’s Boardwalk Villas Timeshare Resales
• Disney’s Vero Beach Resort Timeshare Resales
• Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa Timeshare Resales
• Disney’s Beach Club Villas Timeshare Resales

Last week, ARDA’s vacation website, www.vacationbetter.org announced the winners of this year’s “Bring Your Vacation to Life Contest.”

Each year this photo, essay, and video competition is announced in conjunction with the National Travel and Tourism Week in May. Entrants are asked to share a memory of a timeshare vacation that contributed to their enjoyment of life or impacted their family or their health.

This year’s winners received an American Express gift card.

• Sally Lessig received first place for her photo, “Al Relaxing” and the accompanying story, “Thru the Years.”
• Alexis MacDonald received second place for her photo, “Lexie & Dan Love Myrtle Beach.”
• Tracy Dunn received second place for her photo, “For My Next Act.”

Follow this link to read Sally’s story about a lifetime of timeshare vacations at the Beach House Golf and Racket Club in Myrtle Beach.

And remember, you aren’t limited to just reading about the great timeshare vacations other people enjoy. The competitive prices of timeshare resales and timeshare rentals make affordable vacations an option even for travelers on a limited budget.

Lisa Ann Schreier, author of Timeshare for Dummies authored an excellent article last month in Resort Trades making valid points about what the timeshare sales industry can learn from the travel industry.

Schreier looked at research from Chairman and CEO of Ypartnership, Peter Yesawich, which shows that the two greatest influences on Americans who travel are internet technology and feedback from other consumers.

Prodding the timeshare industry to ‘catch up,’ (or perhaps wake up) author Schreier focuses on the scarcity of timeshare sales information on the internet and lack of feedback from timeshare owners and vacationers about timeshare resorts.

“Hotels and motels and other non-timeshare travel services have been forced to become price transparent…as have just about every other product or service available to consumers. And still, the timeshare industry won’t budge on this because they cling to the concept that timeshares are not a sought-after product.”

Why Timeshare Resale Advertising Works

Strong words, but very perceptive. And they explain a great deal about why timeshare resale advertising is so effective.

• Consumers want the best price possible whether they are shopping for a hotel room or to buy timeshare or rent timeshare. Timeshare resales give buyers and renters the opportunity to shop from a large inventory of timeshares for sale or rent, where prices are clearly posted and resort features are specifically detailed.
• Consumers trust other consumers. Many people who buy timeshare or rent timeshare really like the idea of doing business directly with the property’s current owner.
• And as Schreier points out, “If a consumer can purchase a timeshare from the developer for $20,000 or a similar product on the resale market for $5,000 or $6,000…why wouldn’t they?”

Helpful reading: Surviving a Timeshare Presentation by Lisa Ann Schreier

This weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada, bloggers and representatives from all areas of the media are gathering for the BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2009. We’re very interested in this event, as well as all the other developments in business communication and information exchange that are happening today.

Publishing The Timeshare Authority blog has given all of us at Sell My Timeshare NOW a better perspective on the purpose, the power, and the effectiveness of blogging as part of ‘New Media.’ But if you are not sure what the words New Media really include, don’t feel bad, the concept is literally being defined and redefined daily as everyone involved in communications, marketing, and business tries to understand the changes that are happening around us.

The concept we all understood of the media telling the public what is going on in the world today is being challenged, replaced by New Media that is much more about the public telling the media what is going on instead. User-driven, user-defined, New Media is not just new technologies for delivering information; it is a whole new way of engaging and exchanging information.

Sell My Timeshare NOW on Twitter

At Sell My Timeshare NOW, we’ve been blogging on The Timeshare Authority (formerly The Timeshare Owners Blog) for over five years. And you’ll find us on Twitter at two accounts: @JasonTremblay_ and @VacationHotDeal

We are also working to establish our communication channels through other areas of social media, such as Facebook. It is not a matter of Sell My Timeshare NOW “talking” to you, but much more about the opportunity for timeshare owners, timeshare buyers, renters, and sellers communicating with us and with each other and making the timeshare sales and timeshare resales industries stronger , more responsible, and better in tune with people’s real needs.

Thank you for reading The Timeshare Authority and thank you for following Sell My Timeshare NOW on Twitter.

Happy Labor Day to all who have been observing this US holiday that is so welcomed this time of year, signaling for many the end of summer and the return to school and all-too-familiar routines. If you have been vacationing this weekend, good for you! And if you have been on the job this weekend, well, that’s can be a good thing too especially considering today’s economy.

However you schedule your leisure time and days off, just be sure you do work vacationing into your routine. Not just because you deserve it, which you certainly do, but also because you NEED it.

We’ve said it here before, but it bears repeating: Men who don’t vacation regularly are 32 percent more likely to die of heart attacks while women are 50 percent more likely, according to experts cited by the American Resort Development Association (ARDA) at www.vacationbetter.org.

Referencing the research of John De Graaf, editor of the book, Take Back Your Time and frequent speaker on issues of over consumption and overwork in America, VacationBetter.org explains, “Doctors recognize the connection between vacation starvation and heart attacks, high blood pressure, stress and depression. Studies show the risk of these ailments can double or more for people who don’t regularly vacation. Americans are twice as likely to suffer from chronic illnesses as Europeans, who get a minimum of four weeks off each year.”

Timeshare Vacations Make it Easy

Statistics like these remind us that we don’t just need vacations for our mental health; we need them for our physical well-being. And if you are an over-worker and an under-vacationer, timeshares may be just the solution you need to make a vacation happen.

• Timeshares let you spread the cost of vacation accommodations over an extended period.
• If you buy a value-priced timeshare resale, you’ve reduced the headache of paying for a lifetime of vacation accommodations before you even start enjoying that first day of relaxation.
• Owning timeshare lets you skip the vacation scheduling and planning that you didn’t have time to do anyway, and transition seamlessly from “at-work” to “on-vacation”.
• The numerous amenities of most timeshare resorts mean that should you choose to, you and your family can enjoy a fully relaxing, fully entertaining vacation, without ever leaving the property… now what could be easier than that?

Here’s a little more insight on why vacation time is critical, not optional:

Myth #1. Timeshare is a financial investment.

How can this myth still exist? Timeshare is NOT a financial investment; it is a vacation choice. In an age when your personal home may or may not still be an asset, how can anyone think that buying timeshare will guarantee a return upon resell? Not only do timeshare sales people misrepresent the truth if they claim, “… timeshare is an investment,” they also break the law in some states regarding what one can market as an investment. The only time the words “timeshare” and “investment” should appear in the same sentence is when pointing out that regular vacationing is an investment in your good health and that many timeshare owners find planning, scheduling and committing to regular vacations to be easier because they chose to buy timeshare.

Myth #2. Timeshare is worthless on the resale market.

Many of the people who expound this as fact do so because they did not advertise their timeshare resale in the right places and they had trouble selling it. Other people who propagate this myth do so because they want to buy your timeshare from you at lower than rock bottom prices (so they can then resell it for a profit). They try to convince you that they are rescuing you in the process. When it comes to selling timeshare, you don’t need relief, respite, or rescue; you need resale.

No one can guarantee you that your timeshare will sell, but every day around the world, timeshare resales are purchased. Your opportunity to sell your timeshare increases when you choose to advertise it in a large, established marketplace.

Myth #3. If a company charges you to advertise your timeshare resale, the company is unethical.

How are you going to sell timeshare if you don’t advertise it? Yes, there are websites that permit you to advertise your timeshare resale at no charge. How effective are they? Who visits these freebie websites besides other people who have timeshares they want to resell?

Most people are familiar with websites or local print publications that permit you to advertise a timeshare, a used car, a snow blower, or perhaps a wedding dress and they charge you nothing to run the ads. These sites are fine if you think you can find a buyer for that snow blower in your community. But how well does this work for timeshare resales, when what you really need is advertising to a global marketplace of buyers in a medium, such as a well crafted internet website that has been purpose built and is maintained with strategy and deliberation in order to attract the largest possible audience of interested potential buyers?

Timeshare Myth Buster

Here are some timeshare facts you can rely on:

Buy timeshare as a timeshare resale and you are already ahead of the game. You will have spent less money from the onset, and you will have less to worry about when you get ready to resell. Buying timeshare resales offers you the luxury and amenities of timeshare vacations without tying up as much of your hard-earned cash or your credit line.

When you get ready to sell your timeshare, try low hanging fruit first and ask your friends, co-workers, family, and neighbors if they would like to buy your timeshare. But if that doesn’t work, pick a timeshare resale and timeshare rental advertising company that can demonstrate its skill in advertising timeshare resales to a worldwide market of targeted buyers.

Here’s a really fun video of the Discovery Channel’s MythBusters blasting Adam with 20,000 paintballs at YouTube Live.

No news is good news, as Director of Communications Steve Luba explains.

 

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