Time share questions

[Freedom]

I'ev had one for 20 years or more, and just reaching the pioint of your uncle, time to move it along.

I lvoed it when I was single and working. Always made sure I had a vacation, didn't just hang around the house.

You pay the $1500 once to buy it.
You pay the annual maintenance fee. Depends on what is happening with the property. We have had a few years with special assessments. And will again this year. Once it was because the city put in sewer and town water, so we had to hook up to that. This year, it is because so many people are defaulting and just not able to pay their annual fees, that we are falling short of funds for upkeep.

THEN you own one week AT THAT RESORT, and can go there at that set time each year.

If you want to travel, you have to join an exchange club. There are 2 major clubs: RCI, and II. RCI - Resort Condominiums International. II = International Intervals

Both are great and have many many resorts to chose from. You trade within the club, for a week similar to yours. The fee for the club is annual, they do offer deals, 3 years for $375 or some such.

This is how trading works:
the year is coded based on where your resort is located. The best times of the year are RED weeks. THE BEST. So so times are white, and er um weeks are BLUE. If you have a RED week, you can trade to another resort, ANY TIME OF THE YEAR. If you have a WHITE week, you can only trade for white or blue weeks at other places. And if you have a BLUE week, then you can only trade for blue weeks at other resorts.

NOTE: Red, White and blue are the RCI codes, I don't remember what the II codes are. Most resorts are ONLY AFFILIATED with one exchange club, so find out which club uncle's resort is with, and does he have a prime week, a middle week or a weak week.

So I have a place in North Conway, NH. SKI haven. SO the winter months are RED. But it just so happens the the Autumn in the White Mountains is also a great time, so a few weeks in Autumn are also RED. Summer months are white. Are you kidding? If you have ever been, you know the place is crazy busy in summer, because the school kids are off and many folks summer up that. But it is not jam packed, bumper to bumper traffic, with all the hotels and inns booked. Spring is BLUE up there, because, well, it rains and rains and rains.

A resort in another location will have a different time of year that is RED. If you plan to travel with this, you will want to know what time of the year his week is, and how is it coded.

Now, time to exchange. You own in X resort, you are all paid up in your maintenance fees (required), and you want to go to Y Resort. You phone and see what is available. Sometimes you can't get Y Resort but there is something close by. You take it. You pay an exchange fee, about $80 in USA, and $150 out side of the country. You pay your flight / travel expenses on your own, although both exchange clubs have discounts available.

I traveled all over USA, Great Britain and Europe using my week and loved each and every minute of it. Would do it again in a heart beat. The exchange clubs have high standards, there wasn't a bad resort in any of my many travels.

Hope this helps!

[M&M's Mommy]

Thanks everyone, specially Freedom for the information. I learned a great deal about timeshare after reading your posts. I'll be sure to ask him all about all the details when he gets back. He's in Vegas now .