Living Full-time In Timeshares
Have you ever dreamed about living in 4 and 5 star accommodations while traveling around the world and doing so on a very frugal budget? If you are retired, living on some kind of a monthly pension, and are looking for a great carefree, lifestyle where you can "Live a Champagne Lifestyle on a Beer Budget", then this is the article for you.
First of all, you need to understand that timeshares are condominium suites, not hotel rooms. Timeshares are owned by several different people and once you have purchased one and paid for it, all you are responsible for is your yearly maintenance dues. Timeshares come in all sizes from studios up to 4 bedrooms. Timeshare suites include a bedroom, a kitchen (including refrigerator with ice maker, dishwasher, microwave, conventional oven with gas or electric stove top burners, cookware, electrical appliances, flatware, serving utensils, and drinking glasses, etc.), a living room area (95% even include sofa sleepers), ironing board with iron, and a washer/dryer in the suite or on the resort premises just as any normal condominium would include; therefore, they can be lived in full-time, and you could invite family or friends to join you for visits. If you are looking into buying a timeshare, the frugal way to do so is to buy one resale from a previous owner rather than retail prices from the developer that built the resort. This way you can get a great timeshare for pennies on the dollar (often even for free) and still have all the same great benefits as every other owner that paid full price. My motto is "friends don't let friends purchase at retail prices from developers".
A person can live full-time in timeshares for about $1,000 to $2,000 per month with "Everything Included" for the rest of your life, and you can even Will your timeshare to your relatives. I have heard of people that have their timeshare deed or membership owned by their Living Trust or even a Limited Liability Company (LLC) for various different reasons. A timeshare includes your fully furnished condominium, free cable/satellite, free electric, free gas, free parking, free internet, free gymnasium, free swimming pool (often heated and/or covered), free jacuzzi, free sauna, free steam room, free housekeeping services, free swimming pool maintenance, and free landscaping services. Many suites have one or more jacuzzi bath tubs, fireplaces, BBQ grills, balconies, patios, large screen HDTVs with DVD or Blueray players, and even an XBox or Sony Playstation. Often the timeshare resort also has free tennis courts, handball courts, walking trails, bike trails, game rooms, libraries, meeting rooms, and business centers. Also on the premise you can often find spas, restaurants, and many other fee based amenities at greatly discounted prices. Your yearly maintenance fee covers all prepaid maintenance costs for your resort(s), so if something isn't working, you simply call the front desk and it will be taken care of for you. The best thing of all is that timeshares are located in some of the most expensive and beautiful real estate areas you can imagine; you can live on the beach, the lakeside, the rivers edge, the mountains, the desert, a tropical island, near a large city, or out in the middle of no where.
I am most familiar with points based timeshares, so that is what I will focus my expertise on; however, if you own a weeks based timeshare, that would work fine too. The two points based timeshares I am most familiar with are the two that I own which are WorldMark the Club and Vacation Internationale; I am also very familiar with Wyndham resorts. Points based timeshares are the most flexible to use since you get a set amount of points (or credits) to use each year as you see fit. To live full-time in timeshares, it is recommended you have a vehicle such as an SUV so you can haul around some luggage. I recommend three wheeled suitcases: one for him, one for her, one for optional items; and possibly a wheeled cooler. When you are retired and traveling full-time, one person doesn't really need more of a wardrobe than will fit in one large suitcase!
People that live full-time in timeshares live an uncluttered lifestyle, free from "stuff" that ties you down. Once again, you own your timeshare(s), a vehicle, two or three wheeled suitcases, possibly a wheeled cooler, and your clothes. Since you are living a mobile and carefree lifestyle, you will want to buy a nice laptop or notebook computer, and a good cell phone such as an Android/Blackberry/I-Phone that has tethering capabilities. That is pretty much it, you use your computer to book your resorts, drive from one resort to the next, and live off your monthly pension. You can set-up residence in a state without state income taxes and use a mail forwarding service for your mailing address. You simply forward your mail to the resort you are staying at or a nearby post office using the general delivery option.
You then book one week stays wherever you want to travel to or wherever you find available inventory. You should book at a minimum, one week stays, since they are the best bang for the buck and require less moving around. Often times you can book numerous weeks at the same resort, especially if visiting resorts during their off-season or non-holiday time frames.
Great Points Timeshares for the Full-time Lifestyle
WorldMark the Club (WM) - This timeshare is currently sold at a cost of $1.94 per credit if purchased at retail prices from the developer Wyndham during a timeshares sales presentation, but you can buy these timeshares nowadays for about $.28 to $.30 per credit (lower price for larger accounts and higher price for smaller accounts) as resale purchases on numerous websites including EBay and WMO with no high pressure sales tactics. The smallest membership you can own is a 5,000 annual credit premiere membership which means you should be able to get one of these for as little as $1,400 cash; here are recently sold WM timeshares on EBay. The seller may or may not pay for the WorldMark resort transfer fee which is now $299.00. If not buying directly from another seller, a closing cost of $200.00 to $400.00 (real estate agent fee) might be involved which can be paid by the buyer, seller, or split between both parties. Once you own this timeshare, the only reoccurring cost is the yearly maintenance dues which are only $378.23.
This 5,000 annual credit membership will only get you about a one week per year condo stay. BUT, now that you own this minimal sized membership, you can rent as many credits as you want for $.055 to .06 per credit (lower price for soon expiring credits and higher price for later expiring credits) and housekeeping (HK) tokens for $50.00 to $55.00 each, since many WM owners will sell their unused credits/HK tokens at maintenance fee costs. Here are WM one-time use credits and HK tokens you can rent from WMO Credits/Tokens For Rent. Also once you have a WM membership you can now join Interval International (II), Resort Condominiums International (RCI), or any of several other external exchange companies. Once a member of an external exchange company, you have access to all of their timeshare inventories. Another great membership perk is that you can grab 4 day blocks of bonus time for cash and not use any of your credits. Also, WM will let you buy one week stays at certain resorts using Inventory Specials and Fax credits. All of these cash for stay transactions help WM keep their resorts filled up so that rooms don't set empty and allow you to use as much time as you want with your minimal purchase and minimal maintenance fees.
Using WM with II, you can confirm 59 days or less in advance for as little as 4,000 credits each or you can rent timeshares outright for cash only (no credits used) through their Getaways program for as little as $25.29 or more per night. II also has several special offers per year where they will give you a free Bonus Resort Accommodation Certificate for up to a 2 BD suite if you do an Exchange or Getaway into a particular resort between certain specific start dates; often these start dates are during that resort's off season which is exactly what you would be looking for in the first place -- this gives you a buy one week for lowest prices and get a second week for only a $149.00 exchange fee. As of Dec. 31, 2011 there were 2,500 available properties worldwide in the II system.
Using WM with RCI, you can confirm 45 days or less in advance for as little as 4,000 credits each or you can rent timeshares outright for cash only (no credits used) through their Extra VacationsSM Getaways and their Last CallSM Vacations for as little as $244.00 to $294 per week. As of Dec. 31, 2011 there were 4,641 available properties worldwide in over 100 countries.
Vacation Internationale (VI) - As of Jan. 2012, this timeshare was selling for $161.95 per point if purchased at retail prices from the developer during a timeshares sales presentation, but you can buy the perpetual memberships nowadays for about $1.43 per point as resale purchases on EBay with no high pressure sales tactics. The smallest membership you can own is a 70 annual points membership which means you should be able to get a 70 point perpetual membership for as little as $100.00; here are recently sold VI timeshares on EBay. The seller may or may not pay for the VI resort transfer fee which is now $150.00. If not buying directly from another seller, a closing cost of $200.00 to $400.00 (real estate agent fee) might be involved which can be paid by the buyer, seller, or split between both parties. Once you own this timeshare, the only reoccurring cost is the yearly maintenance dues which are only $495.60. VI offers its own internal exchange program which has nightly exchanges, weekly instant exchanges, or you can acquire Exchange Hot Weeks for cash rather than points at the 45 day mark. Also once you have a VI membership you can now join Interval International (II), Resort Condominiums International (RCI), or any of several other external exchange companies. Once a member of an exchange company, you have access to all of their timeshare inventories.
Using VI with II, you can confirm 45 days or less in advance for 45 points or confirm 59 days or less in advance for 91 points, or you can rent timeshares outright for cash only (no points used) through their Getaways program for as little as $25.29 or more per night. II also has several special offers per year where they will give you a free Bonus Resort Accommodation Certificate for up to a 2 BD suite if you do an Exchange or Getaway into a particular resort between certain specific start dates; often these start dates are during that resort's off season which is exactly what you would be looking for in the first place -- this gives you a buy one week for lowest prices and get a second week for only a $149.00 exchange fee. As of Dec. 31, 2011 there were 2,500 available properties worldwide in the II system.
Using VI with RCI, every VI Point is equal to 420 RCI points. You can confirm 45 days or less in advance for 9,000 RCI points or 21.4 VI points or you can rent timeshares outright for cash only (no points used) through their Extra VacationsSM Getaways and their Last CallSM Vacations for as little as $244.00 to $294 per week. As of Dec. 31, 2011 there were 4,641 available properties worldwide in over 100 countries.
Both WM and VI allow you to keep buying the cheaper resale memberships and build your memberships into a huge timeshare empire. With our two WM memberships (100,000 credits and 5,000 credits) and our VI membership at 372.9 points, we are able to stay in timeshare condominiums for up to about 12 months per year. This doesn't even include paying cash for extra WM One-time Use Credits, Bonus Time, or Inventory Specials; or paying cash for II Getaways. We could also use our RCI membership to take advantage of their Extra VacationsSM Getaways and their Last CallSM Vacations as well. As you can see, we could easily live full-time in our timeshare condos if we ever wanted to. Since we love living full-time in our RV at this time in our lives, we will just keep using our timeshares for up to 12 months of vacations around the world.
Build Your Timeshare Empire Today!
At no other time since timeshares were conceived, could you get such great deals on them as you can right now. The economy has been bottomed out since the stock market crashed in 2008. When people can't pay their mortgages or put food on the table, the first thing they must sell is luxury items such as timeshares. Today CASH IS KING and if you have some cash you can acquire timeshares for pennies on the dollar and possibly even for FREE. If you have available cash to deploy into a lifetime of timeshares, I urge you to do so right now. When you can live full-time in 4 and 5 star resort timeshares for $1,000.00 to $2,000.00 per month for the rest or your life, "What are you waiting for?" In many parts of the country the monthly rent for a run down, old apartment in the bad part of town is going to cost you $1,000 to $1,500.00 per month, plus extra costs for furniture, utilities, insurance, property taxes, maintenance & upkeep, and so on. Heck, even nursing homes currently cost about $2,500.00 to $5,000.00 per month, so it really is a no-brainer to start building your timeshare empire today.
First, get educated on timeshares and learn which system is right for you. Second, DO NOT buy from the developer (with extremely few exceptions) when you can buy resale for pennies on the dollar. Third, make sure you know exactly what your purchase cost is, know what your yearly maintenance dues are, and learn the timeshare system you are buying into so you can squeeze all the value out of your purchase. Fourth, start pulling the trigger with all cash purchases; NEVER finance a timeshare purchase. These prices will not stay this low forever; when the economy starts to pick up steam, the price of timeshares will go back up again.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please DO NOT buy more timeshares than you can afford maintenance dues on; don't forget you can always rent one-time use credits, utilize bonus time, or pay cash for getaways and last call vacations to get yourself as much timeshare weeks as you need. You can also pay cash for Bonus Weeks, Hot Deals, Hot Weeks, Last Minute Vacations and SuperSaver weeks from several different exchange companies listed in the next section of this article.
Links to Timeshare Bonus Weeks, Hot Deals, Hot Weeks, Last Minute Vacations, SuperSavers, etc.
Armed Forces Vacation Club - Space A vacations for military personnel and their families. All of this excess inventory is from Wyndham/RCI and is available for one week rentals for as little as $349.00 with no exchange requirements; also several times per year (usually when they have excess inventory) they have specials from about $199.00 to $299.00 per week.
Dial An Exchange (DAE) Live - once you sign up for a free account, you can rent bonus weeks at 8 weeks or less prior to check-in. Good inventory is available as cheaply as $122.50 per week with no exchange requirements.
Hawaii Time Share Exchange (HTSE) - once you sign up for a free account, you can rent Specials Listing weeks at 30 days or less prior to check-in. Good inventory is available for as little as $199.00 per week with no exchange requirements.
New Horizons Exchange - one week SuperSaver weeks available for as little as $229.00 per week with no exchange requirements.
Platinum Interchange - you can rent one week Hot Weeks at 3 months or less prior to check-in. Good inventory is available for as little as $229.00 per week with no exchange requirements.
SFX Preferred Resorts - you can rent one week Vacation Sell Off listings for the general public. Good inventory is available for as little as $149.25 per week with no exchange requirements.
Trading Places International - you can rent one week Hot Deals. Good inventory is available for as little as $294.00 per week with no exchange requirements.
Wyndham Endless Vacation Rentals - you can rent one week Last Minute Vacations at 30 days or less prior to check-in. All of this excess inventory is from Wyndham/RCI and is available for as little as $489.00 per week with no exchange requirements; also several times per year they have $299.00 weekly specials.
Below I have included links to people that are actually living life in timeshares, and to some websites that will teach what you need to know about timeshares to make them work for you!
Links to People That Live Full-time or do Extended Stays in Timeshares
Ron and Joan's Journey - They sold their house in June 2008 and are now timesharing full-time, traveling around the country.
Timeshare Travels with Ron and Marlene - They started their timeshare stays in April 2000 and have enjoyed over 250 weeks all over the country.
Ride With Ray - Come along with Ray and Darlene Harper as they reminisce about and plan extended living in timeshares.
TUG BBS Wydham Resorts Forum - Question: How many points to live Full time in a timeshare? Visit this website link for the answers to this question!
Links to Websites That Will Teach You All About Timesharing
Timeshares Users Group (TUG) - The timeshare users group - the first and largest site dedicated to timeshare owners.
TUG BBS - Timeshare Users Group (TUG) online community forums.
WM Owners - WorldMark Owners Community website - "By Owners -- For Owners".
WM Owners Forums - WorldMark Owners online community forms.
Timeshare Forums - Online community forums with lots of timeshare information.
Wyndham Resort Forums - The online community for Club Wyndham owners - "By Owners -- For Owners".
Inside RCI - This unique set of informational pages will provide you with tips to help you get the most value from your RCI Weeks membership.
Timeshare Prices Plummet to $1 - SmartMoney magazine article dated April 04, 2012 by AnnaMaria Andriotis.