The Consequences of a Timeshare Foreclosure

Source: The Express Wire - Published September 19, 2022

Having a timeshare foreclosure can impact many aspects of your life. First, it can cause a significant drop in your credit score. The average drop is 100 points, but the exact drop can vary from person to person. The timeshare company may also report missed payments to your credit report, which may even lower your score. Moreover, a timeshare foreclosure can affect your insurance premiums. In such a situation, you may want to consult with an attorney.

Top 5 Consequences of a Timeshare Foreclosure
Here are some consequences of a timeshare foreclosure a person might face:

Timeshare Foreclosure Varies from State to State
The timeshare foreclosure process varies from state to state but generally starts with missing payments. A missed payment of maintenance fees, loan payments, or special assessments will trigger a foreclosure process. In this case, you can take the assistance of a timeshare exit company like Timeshare Compliances.

But one thing you need to note is that there are a few complaints on Timeshare Compliance as they were unable to help the clients. The timeshare resort will contact you to collect these payments through letters and phone calls. During this process, you may be required to pay late fees. During this time, you’ll be unable to use your timeshare.

Timeshare Companies can Garnish Your Wages.
In addition to deficiency judgments, timeshare companies can garnish your wages or put a lien on your property to recover unpaid fees. Timeshare foreclosure can also negatively affect your credit score and make it difficult to qualify for new loans or lines of credit. Fortunately, there are many ways to avoid a timeshare foreclosure. In some states, you can even offer a deed instead of foreclosure.

Deed Instead of Foreclosure May Not be Feasible for Everyone
While a deed instead of foreclosure is a viable option for many people, it may not be feasible for everyone. Therefore, it’s important to contact a lawyer and learn about your options before you make any decisions. A lawyer can help you navigate the legal process and protect your credit.

A Timeshare Foreclosure Will Severely Damage Your Credit Score
Whether you choose to sell your timeshare or not, you should consider all of the consequences of a timeshare foreclosure. Unlike many other types of loans, a timeshare foreclosure severely damages your credit score. It will remain on your credit report for seven years, which can be detrimental to future mortgage applications. It can also negatively affect your ability to take out credit cards and car loans.

The Legal Process of Timeshare Foreclosure is Similar to a Real Estate Foreclosure
As a timeshare owner, you should also understand that the legal process of foreclosure is similar to that of a real estate foreclosure. Depending on the state where you reside, the timeshare company may even file a lawsuit to repossess your timeshare and take it back. The process may take a year or longer.

Timeshare Foreclosure May Affect Your Ability to Find Employment
A timeshare foreclosure can also affect your ability to find employment. Under federal law, employers can run credit checks on potential employees. However, eleven states have laws restricting the use of credit reports in the employment process. Therefore, if your credit score suffers from a timeshare foreclosure, you will find it difficult to find employment and apply for loans.

It can Affect Your Credit Score.
The biggest consequences of a timeshare foreclosure are on your credit score. Your score will drop as much as 100 points after a timeshare foreclosure. The score will remain on your credit report for seven years and affect your ability to qualify for a mortgage or another loan. Further, a timeshare foreclosure will cause you to pay more interest on credit cards and car loans. You might also be denied loans altogether.

Timeshares Usually Have Very Little Resale Value
Timeshares usually have very little resale value. However, the value of a timeshare will increase if the timeshare is located in a popular area. Also, the length of the timeshare will affect its value. For instance, a timeshare with a shorter period may sell for 90 percent less than one with a long-term duration. You may consider donating it to a charity if you can’t afford the monthly payments. However, most charitable organizations do not accept timeshares.

Wrapping Up
A timeshare foreclosure can have serious consequences, including a decrease in your credit score, poor judgment, and tax ramifications. Timeshare companies can also attach liens on other properties and garnish your wages. This is a devastating situation and can take years to get out of.

To view the original version on The Express Wire visit The Consequences of a Timeshare Foreclosure

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/the-consequences-of-a-timeshare-foreclosure#ixzz7fXUojF5V

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What Is a Timeshare and What It Isn’t?

Savoteur - Yesterday 9:10 AM

When the Federal Trade Commission has a section on their website answering “What is a Timeshare,” you know there is confusion out there! That’s why I like to say that a Timeshare isn’t something you purchase on a whim, three margaritas deep, while on vacation.

It’s a legal contract and long-term financial decision that you should thoroughly understand and think through before buying. No matter what a salesman tells you, timeshare purchase deals will still be available after you get home, so take your time. In fact, purchasing a timeshare outside of a resort on the resale market from an existing owner can save you 75% to 99% off the resort-direct price. That’s just another reason not to rush and fully understand what a timeshare, or vacation ownership, is before buying.

What Is a Timeshare Ownership?
Today, a timeshare isn’t just one thing! The timeshare industry offers various products to match people’s different lifestyles and vacation preferences. There are 9.9 million U.S households (and 22 million worldwide) that own one or more types of timeshares.

So, what is a Timeshare Ownership? There are four different types.

1. A Fixed Week
This type of timeshare ownership means you have the right to use a particular room type for a specific week every year. That’s why you’ll see people talk about their timeshare ownership as Week 1 or Week 52. So if you want to vacation in Aruba the same holiday week every year at a specific resort, this type of timeshare purchase could be right for you.

2. A Floating Week
A floating week timeshare means that you aren’t guaranteed the same week every year for vacation; you need to call the resort to reserve a room. Some floating ownerships are specific for high season ( AKA Red Weeks) or low season ( AKA White Weeks). There are also year-round floating week ownerships in locations where the demand and weather aren’t as seasonal (e.g., Aruba).

While this ownership provides flexibility, popular travel times like Spring Break get booked very quickly. If calling at 8:01 am on the first day you can reserve those weeks isn’t something you want to do or keep track of, this type of ownership might not be for you.

3. An Allotment of Points
According to the American Resort Development Association, an annual allotment of points is now the most common type of timeshare ownership. Based on your purchase package, owners receive a set number of points a year that act as currency they can use to make resort reservations within their timeshare chain. The more points you have, the larger the annual maintenance fee and the purchase price is. This type of timeshare provides a lot of travel flexibility as you don’t have to stay at the same resort every year, but it does have a learning curve.

Owners use these points in a variety of ways based on their travel lifestyle or vacation bucket lists. For example, those looking to go on as many vacations as they can stretch their yearly points by staying during the week (vs. weekends, which require more points) choose a smaller-sized unit or travel during non-peak travel times. For people who want a two-bedroom unit or a Park City resort during ski season, you can combine two years’ worth of points to make one reservation.

4. Fractional Ownership
The rarest type of timeshare is fractional ownership (or a shared deeded ownership) which happens to be the type of timeshare we own. So instead of just a week or a set amount of points, we hold a larger piece of a specific unit at a particular resort. For example, we have ¼ ownership of a Vail Resorts condo in the Catskills. So we have one week a month, or 12 weeks a year, ownership of a specific unit.

The weeks rotate among the owners every year to keep things fair. So one in every four years, we get the coveted Christmas week, which either means a fantastic ski vacation or a big rental check!

What Is a Timeshare Resort?
With 1,582 timeshare resorts in the U.S. totaling 206,380 units, there is more than one answer to the question “What is a Timeshare Resort?” While some people may think a timeshare is a small 1970s resort past its prime, Disney’s Saratoga Springs, Waikiki’s Hilton Hawaiian Village, Marriott’s Ko Olina, Four Seasons Residence Club in California, and other brand name resorts are timeshares.

Some examples of timeshares from hotel chains people know and love include:

• Wyndham Destinations – Owns 247 timeshare resorts under the brands Worldmark, Wyndham, Margaritaville, and Shell Vacation Club.
• Hilton Grand Vacations Club – Has 154 resorts, including the brand new Central at 5th by *Hilton Club in Manhattan and Liberty Place Charleston by Hilton Club.
• Marriott Vacation Club – Owns 60+ upscale timeshare resorts with 13,000+ rooms throughout the U.S., Caribbean, Central America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
• Holiday Inn Vacation Club – Includes 29 resorts with 7,900 condo units in 14 U.S. states, including its flagship 1,400-acre resort Orange Lake located right next to Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando. Orange Lake is the largest timeshare resort in the world, with 2,412 condos, four championship golf courses, seven swimming pools, a 12-acre outdoor entertainment complex, an 80-acre lake for water sports, and five dining options.

What Is a Timeshare Room Like?

• A Fully Stocked Kitchen – Whether you prefer to cook your meals, have picky eaters, or need to stretch your vacation dollars by eating in, timeshare resorts offer full (or partial) kitchens with the cooking supplies you need.
• Separate Living and Dining Room Spaces – Long gone are the days of eating breakfast on your bed or watching TV on your phone in the bathroom after the kids are asleep. With separate rooms and living spaces, there’s room for everyone to spread out and relax.

Multiple Bedrooms & Bathrooms – While there are studio timeshare rooms, 68% of timeshare units are two bedrooms or larger. Whether it’s two couples traveling together or a family, the privacy of separate bedrooms is a real plus.

• Washer/Dryer in Unit or on Property – You can leave your big suitcase behind and pack light! If you’re vacationing for more than one week or with small kids, being able to do laundry is another perk of timeshare traveling. For example, we recently stayed at a Marriott Timeshare in Fort Lauderdale, and our two-bedroom condo had a washer and dryer in the unit. During our week-long stay, we did laundry a couple of times which was a big convenience.

What a Timeshare Isn’t: 3 Things You Must Know
When trying to explain “What is a Timeshare?” to people who are unfamiliar, it can be helpful to mention what timeshares are not. Over the years, in my timeshare owners’ Facebook groups, I’ve seen posts from unhappy timeshare owners. Many of these people bought a timeshare for a specific travel hack or certain travel destinations. Unfortunately, after their purchase, they learned that their plan is either not possible or very difficult. Their assumptions about timeshares often fall into one of three categories. Here are 3 of the biggest myths about timeshares.

1. A Way To Travel to Every Destination in the World
If you are buying a timeshare to travel to Iceland, Alaska, or to have a place to stay in Dayton, Ohio, to visit your grandkids, you’re going to be disappointed. That’s because those places don’t have timeshare resorts. If you have specific cities you want to travel to in the next ten years, take some time to make sure timesharing is a match for your bucket list.

One of the easiest ways to see timeshares worldwide is to look at the Resort Directories for the two largest timeshare exchange companies in the world. Combined, the RCI resort directory and the Interval International resort directory will give you a sense of what destinations timesharing can take you to.

So while you can’t go to every place in the world, there are still a lot of vacations you can go on via the 5,300 resorts in the timeshare exchange system. For example, timeshare owners can travel to 70% of U.S. National Parks by exchanging their timeshare with RCI as there are 277 affiliated RCI resorts near 44 American National Parks. That will keep many timeshare owners busy for years!

2. Guaranteed Exchange Availability at the Most In-demand Resorts
Access to an exchange program is an exciting part of owning a timeshare. We take some of our weeks at our Catskills timeshare and deposit them with RCI to secure room reservations at other resorts. For example, in May, we reserved a room at a gorgeous Barbados resort by completing an RCI timeshare exchange. But if I had my heart set on using my ownership to stay only at The Crane Barbados and only during my birthday week, with only a month’s notice, I’d be frustrated with timesharing.

If you’re buying a timeshare to travel hack and get cheap reservations at specific resorts like Aulani, a Disney Vacation Club, or The Galleon Resort in Key West, you should reconsider your approach. While those two resorts are in the exchange companies’ resort directory, they rarely become available for exchange. That’s because those owners are either using it themselves or renting their timeshare out. While it’s not impossible to get those types of reservations, it could take years, require super last-minute travel, and not be during the specific week you are looking to travel.

3. A Real Estate Investment
If the idea of renting out a high-demand timeshare got your attention, it’s crucial to understand that a timeshare is not a real estate investment like owning a whole vacation house or condo. In fact, a timeshare, in almost all cases, is a depreciating asset and will sell for 75 to 99% of the resort’s direct purchase price. So that’s another reason to purchase one on the resale market from an existing owner if you do decide to buy.

But even in that case, it’s dangerous to think of a timeshare as a financial investment or a vacation rental business. What happens when Airbnb regulations change in their cities or states? Or what happened to the people who own 20 timeshare units during the pandemic when travel shut down? Could they cover all the yearly maintenance fees and taxes for those properties without any rentals? What would happen if they also lost their job during that time?

For example, our timeshare resort in New York shut down and was not allowed to have any guests for part of the pandemic. That meant we couldn’t use it, couldn’t deposit any weeks with an exchange company, and we couldn’t rent it out. But we were still responsible for the bills. That’s why when answering the question “What Is a Timeshare?” to friends, I always mention the long-term financial commitment that’s involved.

So What Is a Timeshare? It’s a Prepayment for Vacations
No matter what kind of timeshare you own, you can consider it a prepayment for your future vacations. So take your time, think through your bucket list trips and make sure the vacations you are prepaying for with timeshare ownership are the ones you actually want to go on.

This post originally appeared on Your Money Geek.

Timeshare pros and cons

Source: Star Democrate By REEN WATERMAN - reendwaterman at gmail.com Jun 3, 2022

If you love traveling but a second home is not in your budget, then purchasing a timeshare might be the right move for you. But as the Latin phrase “caveat emptor” translates — let the buyer beware. With due diligence and research, owning a timeshare can provide an affordable way to make happy memories. Yet conversely, beware of scams. These eight tips can help you decide if a timeshare is right for you:

1. Timeshare options
A timeshare is a form of fractional real estate ownership where you purchase the use of a specified housing unit for a set period. You can purchase a fixed week (same property, same week every year), floating week (varied times annually subject to advance reservations), points (more flexible with use based on accumulated points), or right-to-use (lease a property for a given time annually for a set period of years, but developer retains ownership.)

2. Travel flexibility
Many timeshares can be exchanged in RCI.com (one of the largest international timeshare membership associations) and used to travel worldwide. If you can’t use your timeshare in a certain year, you can “bank” your weeks or points and use them in a following year or rent out your unit.

3. No maintenance
You have no maintenance involved with your timeshare vacation. Yearly maintenance fees cover all maintenance and most timeshares come fully equipped with pots, pans, towels and appliances. Resorts are rated by age, offerings and location. Some full-service resorts offer amazing amenities which can include pools, golf courses, restaurants and even waterparks.

4. Pass it on
You can (except for right-to-use where you only obtain a lease) deed your timeshare to your children or others. They must pay all taxes and maintenance fees, but this can be a nice gift to pass along.

5. Buy with cash and save
To buy a timeshare you can finance with developer financing, bank financing, or cash. Developer or bank financing are for shorter terms than for home financing. If you offer to pay in cash, you can often negotiate a better deal on your purchase.

6. Timeshares are emotional purchases
Buying a timeshare is an emotional decision. If you realize this, you will not be as vulnerable to high pressure salespeople. No matter how attractive the offer, walk away if you feel pressured or “guilted” into purchasing, or if the numbers just don’t work for you.

7. Hard to sell
Because timeshares do not appreciate like single family homes, they are poor investments. If you need to resell your timeshare it will be at a steep discount. (My wife and I went to one resort and were offered a package for $27,000. Upon leaving the resort without purchasing, we stopped at a resale office outside of the resort and bought a similar package for only $5,000!)


8. How to get the best buy
If you decide to purchase a timeshare, here’s how to get the best buy. There are three options to purchase while onsite. The salesperson will present you a full retail offer. If you decline this, a manager be called over and will share a recent list of inventories bought back from owners at a substantial discount. Skip this offer and you will be escorted to the final “closer,” where you will be asked to complete a brief survey on your visit. This person will offer you a final bargain priced unit to purchase. At this point you can take this offer or try to negotiate. This is where the best deals are made onsite.

Traveling with a timeshare can offer some phenomenal vacation options. It may be the nudge you need to take a yearly vacation and build family memories. Do your research and make the decision that works best for you.

Reen Waterman is a freelance writer and newspaper columnist with his weekly column “About the House.” He writes and co-hosts a daily radio program heard in 91 countries at www.YourRefreshedLife.com. An avid outdoorsman, Waterman is a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and the American Writers and Artists Institute.