When the Numbers Just Don’t Add Up

February 26, 2009
Filed under Lisa Ann Schreier

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Lately, I’ve been getting e-mails from consumers about offers that seem too good to be true, and of course they are.

The offers come directly from the developer, and state that for a limited amount of time, they are running a special. Existing owners will be able to upgrade their ownership and lower their annual maintenance fees and taxes at the same time.

Wow! What a great deal. Or is it?

Of course, it’s not a good deal.

What the resorts are offering is not quite what it seems to be. Here’s several versions of what is behind these offers:

-The resort is offering to pay your annual dues this year (or take it off the “top” of the new price) if you purchase more of what they are offering you . . . except you get hit with much larger annual dues the following year.

-The resort is claiming to reduce your annual dues by “taking back” what you own, only to see you own the same thing on an every-other-year basis . . . leaving you with half of your ownership.

-The resort is claiming to give you the equity you already have in your property and “change it” in some way to some “better” system . . . only you find out that the price of the “better” system has been vastly inflated and you, again, own less than you originally did.

Let me be clear here: If the maintenance fees are going down, you own less of the property, pure and simple. If you have a quote from a painter to paint your house for $1,200 and he calls back and tells you that the price has gone down to $600, he’s either talking about inferior paint, or has reduced the number of surfaces he’s going to paint.

What sounds on the surface to be a great deal often isn’t when it comes to the games that some timeshare developers play with unsuspecting owners. Beware!

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