Don’t just take my word on the subject of timeshare resale. Read what this Certified Financial Planner has to say.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

I was reading the North Carolina-based online news edition of The News & Observer, and found a reader who had written with a question for Holly Nicholson, CFP, JD, who writes a financial advice column in the publication. I thought her answer looked so candidly at the topic of timeshares sales presentations and buying new or resale timeshares, that I requested permission to reprint it for you here.

The Q & A that follows is Ms. Nichoson’s March 18, 2007, column (http://www.newsobserver.com/1445/story/554780.html). This article is the copyrighted property (© 2007) of: Holly Nicholson, CFP, JD, and we thank her for permission to reprint it here.

Take Your Time with Time-Share Pitches

by Holly Nicholson, CFP, JD

Q: I have always read and heard from financial professionals that purchasing a time share is one of the stupidest financial moves a person can make. But every time I listen to a presentation, I’m tempted to buy.

The last one we attended sounded so good that I completed the paperwork, even though my wife and I had agreed that we would just go for the free incentives and wouldn’t buy. On the way out, we tore up the contract, but we still feel like it would have been a nice way to commit to a vacation place we liked with the opportunity to trade off locations and weeks in the future.

Do you have an opinion about time shares as either an investment or a relatively inexpensive vacation rental?

A: Thanks for the “free” lift tickets. I received your question a few days before my husband and I were heading off to Utah for a ski vacation. A young man approached us as we were having lunch on the slopes. He was extremely friendly and helped us figure out which trails we could take and avoid injury at our age and skill level. He confirmed that we were married and then launched into the wonderful opportunity his company had for a ski-in, ski-out condo. We could have a free lift ticket at a nearby ski resort just by attending a no-obligation presentation that evening, guaranteed not to exceed 1 1/2 hours.

When my husband and I were dating, we naively found ourselves in a hard-sell time-share presentation in Miami. I thought my now-husband would kill someone if they didn’t let us out of the building immediately, and we agreed to swear off freebie offers for the rest of our time together.

Thanks to you, I convinced him it was a research opportunity and he agreed to attend; that we had nothing planned until dinner and were exhausted from our first day of skiing didn’t hurt, either!

We attended and got our free lift tickets. You are right, it sounded great. We could buy a prime time or “red” week for $67,400 or a nonprime “silver” week for $10,900. Both allowed reward point accumulation, exchange rights to other weeks and other resort properties worldwide (with a membership fee to an exchange club).

Carlos, our sales associate, could not have been more professional; he was very low-key and answered all our questions. He even shared a secret. If we bought two less expensive silver weeks, we could switch off exchange and point accumulation years and would have the ability to reserve a week 13 months in advance versus 12 months if we only owned one red week. Sounded smart to us: a $21,800 investment versus $67,400 allowing the same exchange opportunity with an earlier reservation date. We were actually interested! Carlos then showed us that if we bought two weeks it would only cost us $330 a month for 10 years plus annual maintenance fees that, if we wished, could also be financed. I’m not a whiz without my calculator but that sounded like a lot of money to me so I asked for details. If you select the financing option, you are charged a 13 percent interest rate. We said we’d pay cash or finance elsewhere.

Next we wanted more detail about the maintenance fees. The silver week was $700 a year, the red week was $950. Owning two silver weeks would cost us $1,400 a year in maintenance fees. Suddenly it didn’t seem like such a no-brainer to own two “less expensive” weeks versus a prime-time red week.

We wanted to know the history and annual caps on increases to the maintenance fees. There was no historical information available, and no annual caps were in place. We were assured that they had and always would be reasonable, whatever that means.

It may have been the lack of oxygen at the high altitude but we were still interested and asked for some literature to take home and think about it. Carlos said he wasn’t sure he could do that and made the big mistake of bringing in his boss, Tom.

Tom basically told us we were stupid for not buying now and showed us two letters from satisfied customers. He then told us we couldn’t have any information to take with us with the rationale that only 0.50 percent of people who left came back to buy.

We failed to see how that was our problem and escaped back to our hotel with half an hour before our dinner reservation.

A quick Google search on the computer brought up two time shares in the exact same resort selling for less than $5,000. You’d get the deed and take over the maintenance obligation.

Thanks to the research initiated by your question, my husband and I now think the time share concept is interesting. But we are going to take our time and review what’s on sale on the secondary market and stick with our pact of no freebie offers!

Holly Nicholson, CFP, JD, is a financial planner in Raleigh. You may send questions via her Web site, www.askholly.com, or by mail, P.O. Box 99466, Raleigh, NC 27624.

Vacationing at a timeshare resort close to home is a great way to stage your own battle against the rising cost of gas.

Who can predict what will happen to the price of gas over the next few months? Who thought we’d be paying as much as we are now?

I visited the website for GasBuddy.com and their research shows that the travel plans of 31 percent of almost 20,000 people polled were affected by the high price of gas over Easter weekend. Since gas prices today are 29 cents per gallon more on the average than they were then, I can’t help but believe that high gas prices are going to put a damper on a lot of summer vacation plans.

While I hope gas prices improve, I can’t guess what will actually happen to them over the next few months. But I do have a suggestion for dealing with them. Many people think it’s just not a summer vacation unless they load the kids in the car and travel across country. And while those road trips can be great, sometimes the best vacation is a lot simpler, and in this case, a lot cheaper.

This is the perfect year to plan your summer vacation at a timeshare resort that is loaded with amenities—preferably a timeshare vacation resort within easy driving distance from home. Instead of destination hopping on your summer getaway, pick a fabulous timeshare vacation resort and just relax and enjoy being there. Unlike a hotel that may have only a pool or a golf course, many timeshare resorts have golf, pools, lakes for sailing, tennis courts, playgrounds, biking trails, and organized activities—a wide range of facilities and options for every member of your family. You could have a fabulous holiday by simply enjoying your timeshare rental or timeshare resale as a vacation destination, not just a place to sleep.

A press release issued today by Sell My Timeshare NOW quotes me as saying, “Timeshares have proved to be a good vacation solution for many people. We don’t seem to be able to do much about rising costs in this country, but at least, you can buy a timeshare or timeshare resale and lock in the price of vacation accommodations for a lifetime.”

Exchange your interval timeshare for a timeshare resort close to home. And then kick back and enjoy the fact that your vacation isn’t beginning and ending with a tiresome (and pricey) road trip.

Despite all the bad weather in recent weeks, summer is closer than you think and the sun will soon be shining on the many beautiful vacation sites in New England. This seems like a great time to share with you some interesting and helpful facts about the Oak ‘n Spruce Timeshare Resort in South Lee, Massachusetts.

The Oak ‘n Spruce Timeshare Resort is located in western Massachusetts’ Berkshire Hills, approximately 125 miles west of Boston and about 75 miles northwest of Hartford, Connecticut.

On-property amenities at the timeshare resort, include 18-holes of miniature golf, basketball, both indoor and out door swimming pools, a lounge, fitness center, movie theatre, ping-pong, and a pool table. Besides excellent places to hike, bike, picnic, or just enjoy the great outdoors, the Oak N’ Spruce timeshare is conveniently near the historic Hancock Shaker Village, the home of the first missionary to the Native Americans, and the Norman Rockwell Museum, featuring the largest collection of Rockwell’s paintings in the world.

Triple Self Portrait (detail) © 1960 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN Post cover February 13, 1960

The nearby city of Tanglewood is the summer home to the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Silverleaf timeshare company classifies the Oak ‘n Spruce timeshare resort as a “Getaway Resort” because it is located within a two hour drive of major metropolitan areas.

The Silverleaf timeshare company has been in business since 1989. The first Silverleaf timeshare resorts were all located in Missouri or Texas. When the timeshare company went public in 1997, they added additional timeshare resorts in Illinois and Missouri. In 1998, they acquired the Oak’ n Spruce timeshare, and more recently have expanded to include Apple Mountain timeshare resort in Georgia, the Seaside timeshare resort in Texas and the Orlando Breeze timeshare resort in Florida. To learn more about Oak ’n Spruce timeshare rentals and timeshare resales, click here. To learn more about other opportunities for timesharing in Massachusetts, click here.

Missouri Secretary of State’s Office issues cease and desist orders over possible timeshare investment fraud.

Robin Carnahan, Missouri Secretary of State, has issued cease and desist orders against four Missouri men, a business in Panama, two Mexican businesses, and a Nevada promoter. Allegedly, the group has targeted Missouri residents, all of whom are between the ages of 64 and 86, for an “investment” deal that promised returns between 9 and 11 percent for 25 years.

After investing a minimum of $5,000 each, the individuals were told that their “investment” was actually a timeshare resort property in Cancun, Mexico. Sell My Timeshare NOW reminds you, timeshares should never be purchased as an investment for financial return.

Timeshare vacation property offers an excellent way to “invest” in a vacation lifestyle. Timeshare units afford you a way to lock-in today’s vacation prices for a lifetime of vacation accommodations. And timeshares are one of the easiest ways for busy families to manage their vacation planning. In many cases, when timeshares are owned as deeded property, the timeshare can be left through your legal will to your heir, providing generations of vacation enjoyment. But timeshare ownership, as rewarding as it can be, should never be entered into as an investment for the purpose of realizing financial gain. Not only is it unethical to represent timeshares as investments, it also violates Securities and Exchange Commission laws.

In the Missouri case, the investments totaled $1.8 million. According to an article in the Kansas City Star, “Carnahan’s office said the investments were not registered in Missouri and the investors did not understand that they had to manage their timeshare units themselves.”

In other words, the only way for the new timeshare property owners to earn a return on the money they spent on timeshare intervals, is for them to use it as timeshare rental properties. Saddest of all is the news that some of the money these people spent was from their retirement funds or other annuities, or from certificates of deposit and IRAs, representing money that is critical to their support.

The businesses named in the cease and desist order are: Yucatan Resorts (Mexico); Resort Holdings International (Mexico); Majesty Travel (Panama); and Resort Holdings International (Nevada, US). Action against these companies may also be taken in Minnesota, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and New Mexico.

Lastly, let me take this opportunity to remind you that, if you are interested in Mexico timeshare, there are excellent, legitimate ways to purchase it as a Mexico timeshare resale, Cancun timeshare resale, Mexico timeshare rental, or Cancun timeshare rental.