Why own when I can Rent?

[tnord Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close tnord]

I am a family of 6, kids age 3,7,13,and 16. Staying in a 2 bd room TS is nice compared to renting 2 hotel rooms.
But why buy when it looks like I can rent most places for the price of the the yearly maintenance fees and taxes. Say $800-1200 to rent for a week, versus the original cost of the points/deed/week plus the fees and taxes every year.
Booking 10 months in advance is of no interest to me. When I have to get 6 airline tickets, destination is often determined by 90 day or less best flight prices.

Owning a TS after the payoff does not appear to be a great asset/investment, it appears to be worth what you paid for it, if you are lucky maybe a little more. I would only buy on the resale market.

What am I not considering?

Thanks for any responses.

[bnoble Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bnoble]

In many cases, you are 100% correct. There are a few situations---very high demand, very low supply---where owning can still make sense (cents). But, if you are mostly looking at short-notice travel (and 90 days is short notice in the timeshare world), and are flexible about destination, renting is generally a great idea.

[PigsDad Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PigsDad]

If you cannot plan vacations more than 90 days out, then renting is most certainly the way to go for you. Timeshare ownership is not for everyone.

Kurt

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

If things were always like they are now, no one would have ever bought . . . but then there would be no timeshares to rent on the Internet.

Renting in most cases makes way more sense than buying, especially in the overbuilt TS areas.

But, the industry does not seem to care and has always been oblivious to reality. If the last two years does not jolt it back into reality, nothing will.

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

In many cases, you are 100% correct. There are a few situations---very high demand, very low supply---where owning can still make sense (cents). But, if you are mostly looking at short-notice travel (and 90 days is short notice in the timeshare world), and are flexible about destination, renting is generally a great idea.

If you cannot plan vacations more than 90 days out, then renting is most certainly the way to go for you. Timeshare ownership is not for everyone.

Kurt

With your tendency to plan 90 days out, renting is definitely a better option for you.
Redweek.com is a site that has LOTS of owners renting their weeks (as opposed to a corporation/company.

[Keep Traveling Member Find all posts View Profile Close Keep Traveling]

What about a small points membership in RCI points so you can access the flexchange stuff at a better price than rental. Also you could use the last call items as well.

OR

USE II and use their short stay program. You could book 2 2bedroom each for 6 days back to back for a long vacation or 2 different ones. I use costed this out using my Worldmark and 2 vacation for 330 each 6 days in a 2 bedroom. or $524 for a 2 bedroom and possibly cheaper by another $120 if you use a studio to trade.

You have got to explore the different options to see how it can save you money.

Or I have traded for a 3-bedroom at Disney for Roughly $1000 (including $99 charge from Disney)Can''t even come close to renting a DVC 3 bedroom for that.

I have spent hours examing all the scenarios and where I travel. For a lot of us its a game to get something really awesome and spending as little as possible.

KT

v

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

There are still things that work out better with exchanges, especially when using independent exchange companies with lower exchange fees.

However, what RCI has done with its rental program is to create exactly the market economics that the OP sets out. Its doing so, they are kicking the props out from under their resort affiliates by undermining the ownership / exchange model of timesharing.

It makes sense to own somewhere you will want to go every year, where you can cost effectively use an independent exchange company or in very particular circumstances own certain properties to make certain trades with the big exchange companies.

[brother coony Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close brother coony]

My son bought a House 5 years ago, now its under water,he would have been better off renting, and buying now, If you enter the stock market 5 years ago you would be taking a beating on most of your stocks, Now is the best time to buy a house, the best time to buy stocks,and the best time to buy timeshare, (buy low) resale, I dont have a crystal ball , but I am old enought to have seen prices on most things fall and dont just go up, but jumps up, ten years from now there will be a lot of people saying they wish they had bought a timeshare when they were one dollar for a two bedroom by the water
You have young kids, kids love stability, they love going to the same vacation spot ontill they reach teens,so fine a timeshare spot thet the love to vacation and buy it, keep in mine thet ten years from now they wont want to go there anymore,but for now they will love it they will look forward to seeing friends they have made, spots they have gotten use to,that they can explore with out you togging along

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Let me answer this the way most people buy timeshares, not the way us really, really smart and informed people do.

It would be really stupid for anyone to buy the six weeks we own at new, retail price, say $75000 or so, maybe more.

Real market value of them is zilch.

Yet, the industry is still doing exactly that.

(It is somewhat stupid for someone to take them for free.)
- - - - - -
I see I am way past trying to justify stupid decisions.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

If one is buying to use at their home resort, I agree with you. However, the exchange situation is not going to get any better until RCI's rentals dry up, either from some outside action, competition from more honest exchange companies, or simply because they finanly strangle the golden goose.

My son bought a House 5 years ago, now its under water,he would have been better off renting, and buying now, If you enter the stock market 5 years ago you would be taking a beating on most of your stocks, Now is the best time to buy a house, the best time to buy stocks,and the best time to buy timeshare, (buy low) resale, I dont have a crystal ball , but I am old enought to have seen prices on most things fall and dont just go up, but jumps up, ten years from now there will be a lot of people saying they wish they had bought a timeshare when they were one dollar for a two bedroom by the water
You have young kids, kids love stability, they love going to the same vacation spot ontill they reach teens,so fine a timeshare spot thet the love to vacation and buy it, keep in mine thet ten years from now they wont want to go there anymore,but for now they will love it they will look forward to seeing friends they have made, spots they have gotten use to,that they can explore with out you togging along

[mdurette Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mdurette]

I agree with your thoughts. But, use this as an expample of another way to look at it.

I own a 3 bedroom lockoff - every other use year.

My initial cost was about $1,000 after my purchase on ebay. Fees are around $550 every other year.

I split this unit into 2 - 1BR and 2BR and then deposit both with II. They in turn give me 2 ACs for my deposits. (can't count on the ACs forever)

Right now, I get 4 weeks every two years in II to trade with. (two deposited and the two ACs)

Total cost against fees is $137.50 per week. Better than renting

[PigsDad Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PigsDad]

I agree with your thoughts. But, use this as an expample of another way to look at it.

I own a 3 bedroom lockoff - every other use year.

My initial cost was about $1,000 after my purchase on ebay. Fees are around $550 every other year.

I split this unit into 2 - 1BR and 2BR and then deposit both with II. They in turn give me 2 ACs for my deposits. (can't count on the ACs forever)

Right now, I get 4 weeks every two years in II to trade with. (two deposited and the two ACs)

Total cost against fees is $137.50 per week. Better than renting

You have to include II fees to make it an apples-to-apples comparison to renting.

I am not familiar w/ II's fees, but what is the exchange fee? What fees are there to use an AC? How much do they charge you for yearly membership?

You can't just divide your MF by 4 and say that is your total expense.

Kurt

[Silverhaired1 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Silverhaired1]

hell, I rent 'em...and so do most of the people you buy them from....no matter WHAT the salesperson said.

(Yes, I WAS one of them--God forgive me, years ago..)

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

If you asked me a couple years ago, I would say that buying resale would generally be the best way to go. However, things have changed a lot and now I would definitely NOT buy a timesahre. Rentals are readily available in almost all areas at reasonable rates, often less than the cost of maintenance fees + exchange fees. The recession is only part of the reason for the proliferation of rentals. There are other reasons such as RCI flooding the market so I expect that cheap rentals will be available for the foreseeable future. I also klnow people that belong to points programs such as Wyndham that use some of their points to get weeks that they rent out.

I just rented a 2BR, 2BA, Deluxe unit at Wyndham Waikiki Beachwalk for next month. This is a highly rated Hawaii timeshare. I payed less than the cost of M/F + exchange fees. I use both Redweek.com and MyResortNetwork.com to find rentals. MyResortNetwork.com is quite a bit better with more rentals available and there are no fees at all. Redweek requires you to pay the membership fee of $14.99 /year. Both are listing sites and you deal directly with the owner. There were many weeks available for all times of the year at HGVC Hawaiian Village and Wyndham as well as many other esorts.

The big advantage to renting is that you just pay for the week you use whereas owning obligates you to pay the M/F every year whether you use it or not and the M/F can rise very rapidly. You have a lot more flexibility with renting as you can rent at any resort regardless of affiliation and don't need to make any long term plams.

Owning would only be better if you want a particular resort every year at a certain time and were not going to use it for exchanging.

[Ryne08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryne08]

I think renting is great, if you like to travel off season.