Should you invest in Timeshare?

By admin on September 19th, 2009

A time share is a name given to a piece of property shared among number of owners. This involves use and cost of maintaining the property. Although the majority of the timeshare properties are condominiums resorts but it will not be a surprise if you find a hotel timeshare or a motor home timeshare or a cruise timeshare or a campground. The choices are increasing by the day. The idea of a timeshare property originated in Europe in 1960s when the property rates were skyrocketing and it was impossible for people to afford a full time vacation house. But by sharing the ownership the burden of maintenance and other costs on single person were greatly reduced. These also boosted the fortune of real estate developers as they were able to successfully market and sell the properties to a greater number of people. But a key point to remember in timeshare properties is that a timeshare is owned by a number of people who have no relation to one another like a standard home ownership.

A technical definition of timeshare property is that an owner has specific time to share you own in a property. But as more and more properties are being converted into timeshare, flexible timeshare options cannot be ruled out. The flexible timeshare offers owners the option of choosing more than one timeshare destination and also more than one specific time of a year.

Timeshare properties are usually found in warm destinations like Florida where people like to vacation a lot. They can also be found in cold weather areas near ski resorts. The timeshare properties are typically furnished in full and usually have one to three bedrooms, multiple bathrooms, a kitchen and a living room. It may not come as a surprise if you find timeshare properties with indoor or outdoor pools. They have become a common feature of most timeshare properties nowadays.

The typical duration of a timeshare ownership unit is one week. Depending on what time of the year you own the timeshare the price may vary. For example, a timeshare property in the month of April in Florida will be much higher than in August.  So the rates may vary with varying season and demand. Some resorts give color coding to different seasons depending on the demand. For example some resorts term high demand season as red season meaning the prices of the timeshare will be highest in that season.

Timeshares can usually be inherited to your children like any other real estate property. Timeshare offers not only a great vacation but also great investment. Most people rent their timeshare to others when they do not use their timeshare. This has a double advantage. You earn rent also along with appreciation of the property with passage of time. Timeshare properties are exchangeable and tradable with other properties in most of the cases. While it may be easy for the owners of the red season timeshares to exchange their unit with other owners in any season it might be impossible for owners of low season timeshare owners to get a high season timeshare unit in exchange.

Timeshares can be purchased through financing also but mostly the resale properties purchased from individuals are paid in cash. The cost of maintenance, management and cost to maintain common areas like pools and tennis courts are paid by timeshare owners. Fees may vary and always make sure to find it out before buying a timeshare.

There are many types of timeshare properties. A fixed unit, fixed week, deeded timeshare allows you to own a specific timeshare at a specific time each year. A floating time agreement allows you to be flexible about the dates that you can use your timeshare. But reservations may be only first come first serve as many owners would like to go for that option. Right to use timeshare is a leased timeshare. You no longer have rights to the property after the lease expires.

Buying a beach front property or a vacation villa may be easy for rich and wealthy but not for common middle class people. The introduction of timeshare concept gave hope to those people who could not afford to buy a brand new vacation home. That is one of the reasons why the timeshare industry has grown by leaps and bounds ever since its inception in the United States. One of the aspects of a timeshare property that attracts most people is that they can have a wonderful vacation home without having to worry about its upkeep and maintenance. But at the same time people have many misconceptions about timeshares. One of the biggest misconceptions is that they compare timeshares to regular real estate property and consider it as an investment option. But in fact it should be thought as an investment in your dreams i.e. vacationing at a place where you want to go every year. Investing in real estate could reap profitable returns but if you invest in a timeshare it may not be guarantee in fact you may end up losing money.

But what if you still want to buy it and you expect no profit from it but neither loss also at the same time. There is always one question in the minds of those people who are planning to buy timeshares. Is it really worth buying a timeshare? To answer this question you have to go through an analysis of various factors. An analysis should consider factors like comparable rent of alternative accommodation, appreciation of the timeshare property and your finance rate. How do you do it? Here is a simple calculation.

Consider the worth of your investment as profitability. The profitability should be a measure of the comparable rental rate, rate of appreciation and your finance rate. If the sum of all these is a negative number then, assume that you are losing money in your investment. The rental rate is the ratio of the rent of that vacation property to the buying price of that timeshare. Suppose if corresponding rent of that vacation timeshare is $1,000 and the buying price is $10,000 then the rental rate is 10%. Now if we include the annual maintenance cost, membership and all other miscellaneous expenses, if it comes around $500. So the actual saving in rent will be $500 now and the rental rate will be the ratio of $500 to $10,000 which gives us 5%.

Now if we assume the annual appreciation of that property is 10% and the rate of our finances is 16%. If we add rental rate and appreciation and subtract the finance rate you will end up with a negative percentage which means you are losing 1% every year compared to rent. But this formula is only a rough calculation of the profitable of your investment and may not be accurate. This is just to give you a start up. The depreciation rate may vary and so as the finance rates. The maintenance fees and other fees may also vary with different locations. Some resorts have charge reasonable maintenance fee and other fees but some exorbitantly high fees. So, this is also should be a factor in deciding which resort to choose, it is not a smart idea to pay unusually high fees when you don’t know whether you can utilize the property year after year and you may think of renting out the unit which is not a profitable proposition too.

Another good idea is to add up the cost of your timeshare for the entire year i.e. all fifty two weeks and see. For the above investment it may be around 520,000. But, does the timeshare property cost that much if somebody wants to buy it as a real estate property. The extra money goes into the pockets of real estate developers who are selling the timeshare. So carefully weigh in all the factors discussed above before buying a timeshare property.

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Buying home tips

By admin on January 9th, 2009

Buying your home is a lot of fun, but can also have a great deal of stress. Here are some things to consider when searching for the perfect property for your family:

  • Ask a property agent to help you find the home that you simply cannot see your family living without. When you are interviewing agents, make certain to ask about his fees.
  • Think first how much is your budget, house specification like the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, or backyard.
  • Find out your target house neighborhood. Check if the area is growing or not, the crime rate, and distance to public area like schools, and mall.
  • Before you buy a home, you should always have it checked for termites.
  • Never offer the asking price right away. Offer something a little lower and allow some negotiating room.
  • When you look towards a home purchase loan, you’ll need to fully understand the interest rates. You should do research on different financial institutions because rates can be different between them.  If you choose a longer period, usually your interest rate will drop.
  • Find pre foreclosures house, which the owner has no choice but the sell the house, and therefore will listen to just about any offer that he receives. Due to this very reason, you can find pre foreclosures for sale. This is an ideal time to purchase, especially if you are looking to save a lot of money.
  • If you do not have the skill or time to check for your target house, you can hire a real estate inspector. But surely this will cost you. They can know problems on the property, thus you can address the problem before it turns out worse. They can also sheds light on the amount of money that will be needed in order to get the house in good working.
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Choosing between renting house or apartment

By admin on January 4th, 2009

Deciding whether to rent an apartment or a house can be a very difficult decision for you. There are certain advantages and disadvantages to each option. Choosing between renting an apartment or home is largely depends on  personal preference and current needs in a living situation.

Renting a House

By renting a house can can have the opportunity to live in a house for a much more affordable price. By renting a house you can have many options, like the size, number of bedrooms and number of bathrooms. You can also have a backyard which is desirable if you have children or pets.

But renting a house have a great deal of uncertainty regarding the amount of time the renter will be allowed to rent the house. There are no guarantees the homeowner will extend the contract when it is due to expire.

Renting an Apartment

One of the most significant advantages of renting an apartment is the amenities, such as pools, exercise rooms, and saunas. Renting an apartment is usually significantly lower than rent for a house.

A lack of privacy may be one of the most significant disadvantages to renting an apartment. You can also deal with noisy neighbors who listen to loud music or have friends visiting late at night.

When choosing an apartment, list the items that you really needs. Some people are simply looking for a place to eat, bathe and sleep other renters may be looking for a living space which will serve a number of purposes including working, entertaining and participating in leisure activities. This will help which apartment you can rent. Apartment which better facilities usually have higher rent price.

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Tips on selling your home

By admin on October 10th, 2008

Here are tips for selling your home:

  • Before you sell your home, you need to make a good impression for your prospect buyer. You have to satisfy their eyes and nose. You can do this by cleaning the house, freshen up the smells by put scented potpourri, paint the wall, and repair the broken part of your house.
  • You could put the “Home for Sale” in your front yard. Don’t forget to put your phone number on it, so a buyer can get contact you.
  • You should put a reasonable price, valued by the physical price of your home, environment and location. The better location where your home is placed, the better price you can put. You don’t want to gave high price that might scare the buyer.
  • Get familiar with negotiation and it stuffs, such as contract, offer, deal, etc. You should learn to do some offer approaching and all correlated with a legal transaction process.
  • Sell your home in a good economic condition and strong demand for houses, which tend to be stronger in June and July. If you sell your home at the right time and a good preparation, you will get the highest price of your home than your prediction.
  • You can try selling your home online. Nowadays, about seventy percent of homebuyer starts to search for houses online through the internet. This is absolutely one advantage for sellers to add an advertisement online. To attract buyer put your great home pictures.
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Invest in real estate

By admin on October 1st, 2008

Real estate investing is one of the most attractive ways of making good money (that is if you do it correct). Moreover, real estate investing is also a lot of fun. A lot of people practice real estate investing as their core profession and, in fact, make a lot of money that way.

The key, of course, is to buy at a lower price and sell at higher price and make a profit even after paying all the costs involved in the two (buy/sell) transactions. Generally, people are of the opinion that real estate investing makes sense only when the rates are on the rise. However, real estate investing for profits is possible just about any time. Here is a list of tricks that can make real estate investing profitable for you:

  • Look for public auctions, divorce settlements and foreclosures (bank/FHA/VA): Since quick settlement is the preference here (and not price), you might get a property at a price that is much lower than the prevailing market rate.
  • Looking for old listings. The old listings that are still unsold may provide you with good real estate investing opportunities. Just get hold of an old newspaper and call up the sellers. They might have given up hope of selling that property at all and with a bit of negotiation you can get the property for a real low price.

  • www.forsalebyowner.com

  • A really old (and dirty) looking house may scare off buyers. But this might be your chance for real estate investing that can yield good profits.
  • Team up with attorneys: There are a number of attorneys who handle property sales on behalf of sellers or in special circumstances (like the death of the property owner). They might sometimes be looking to dispose off the property rather quickly and hence at a low price.
  • Keep tab on the newspaper announcements: Property sell offs due to deaths, divorce settlements, immediate cash requirements and other reason are frequently announced in local papers. Keep track of such real estate investing avenues.
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