Many families and households will feel pressure to stop spending on travel this coming winter. For many, dream vacations are vanishing with dwindling retirements funds. For others, a periodic getaway from the everyday grind is more distant and costly than ever.

These current economic times call for a new outlook towards consumer spending on travel vacation, and leisure. Many hotels and resorts are attempting to keep on-par with the new consumer perspective by offering discounts and cheap vacation offers. Some of these offers can be found through online travel sites that have partnered with resorts across the country to provide extremely affordable vacation deals.

One such helpful site I recently used is Vacation-Offer.com. Vacation-Offer currently provides deeply discounted vacation rates to several resorts across the country at popular destinations such as Myrtle Beach, Atlantic Beach, Charleston, Orlando, and the Bahamas.  What I love about this site is its easy-to-use travel booking interface, submission security, and fantastic customer service. My wife and I had a few questions before booking our vacation and called the customer service line. The guy on the other end was extremely helpful, courteous, and patient as far as answering everything we threw at him.

The biggest advantage to using this site though is that they has some of the best vacation savings out there. Here are the basics: Vacation-Offer.com is able to access these saving through partnerships with resorts that are trying to promote vacation ownership at their destinations. Essentially, you are required to go on a 90 minute sales pitch, and in return receive unbelievable deals, great gifts, and access to all of the luxurious resort amenities while on vacation. The sales pitch was harmless (we actually got a drink with the guy afterwords) and highlighted the advantages of vacation ownership (aka timeshare), where you can own a flexible vacation week at that specific resort.

I appreciated how extremely straight forward Vacation-Offer was as far as telling you what you are getting and why you are getting it at such a great price. While many vacation sites try to hide the reason why you are receiving a discount (the 90 minute sales pitch), and then spring it on you at the last second, Vacation-Offer.com lays it out in front of you in a very honest manner. I highly recommend Vacation-Offer.com for finding discount vacations, especially during times like these.



Thanks to Darwin Redshield for contributing this article to our Timeshares blog:

Hawaii Timeshare Rentals

Can you answer Dkearns’s question about Timeshares?:

They are renting cars worth hundred of thousands of dollars, do you think they are purchasing the cars, or leasing them? Details are key here, and the most detailed explanation gets the points!

Las Vegas Timeshare Resale

Can you answer WILLIAM W’s question about Timeshares?:

Ten people buy condo and share equal amount of equity may sale there part but only 1/10th of it. Each person would have over 5 weeks throughout the year they could either rent there weeks or stay in it or trade weeks with one another.But their would be a set schedule for everyone to have equal amount of time in peak seasons. All would be on the deed of ownership and availbe to their 1/10th of ownership and may be able to sell there part at any price but the buyer would only own 1/10th to keep it fair for everyone else. Of course there is fees yearly or monthly but between 10 people this would be fairly cheap. It sounds like a time share(i guess in a way it is) but you would be an actual owner with 9 other people and all decisions would be voted on,and of courrse there would be legal documents made up for everyone just to keep it all legal for everyone and we could all have a good vacation spot for years to come with several weeks a year to enjoy.

Disney Vacation Ownership

Source: Fractional ownership on the Costa del Sol

With the slowing property market and in an attempt to promote more expensive properties several developers and agents have started marketing properties in a different light. The new buzz word is fractional ownership of properties on the Costa del Sol. This is being treated as the newest way of owning a property in Spain, but really is just a a way of encompassing existing methods of buying a property under one term.

Property fractional ownership simply means the division of a property into portions or shares. It is worth noting that conceptual point of view; fractional ownership is not the same as timeshare. Fractional ownership affords much of the freedom and usage benefits offered in timeshare, however, the important difference with fractional ownership is that the purchaser owns part of the property, which is reflected in the title deeds as opposed to unit of “time”.

It should be noted that this is not a particularly new concept and in fact most properties are already co-owned. If both you and your partner or family/friend are on the title deeds then you both own 50% (or a fraction) of the property.

The difference now is that some developers/agents are marketing the same idea, but instead of buying with family/friend you can buying with total strangers. And it gets cheaper as more are involved, which is obvious as 1/8 will cost less than 1/2of the same property.

So what are the benefits of fractional ownership on the Costa del Sol.

Well the most obvious benefit is that by several people combining their wealth they would be able to purchase a more luxurious property than they would be able to separately.

There is also less wastage. Even if you and you partner only intend to use the property during the winter months, you will still have all the costs of maintaining the property while it is empty. By buying with another couple who will be using the property during the summer months for example, the property will not be going to waste and all costs are split 50/50, such as mortgage repayments, taxes, etc…



The disadvantages of fractional ownership

The property has to be treated more like a business asset than a holiday home. Normally a company has to be set and managed to prevent a conflict amongst the share holder. Although this has the convenience of allowing someone else to deal with all the taxes and general costs of the property itself there are the additional costs of setting up a un/limited company and of course the management company fees.

There is also the situation where the shareholders are able to sell their shares. The other owner would have the option of first refusal, but you as one of the owners could not stop the sale to an unknown.

As part owner you are also very limited in what you as part owner are able to do to the property in regards to refurbishments/improvements on the property. Especially if one of the other owners is unwilling to pay.

Also remember that by buying a property this way you are limiting yourself in another way. This property can only ever be a holiday home. You will never be able to simply move to Spain and take residence, nor change your routine and come to stay on the Costa del Sol at a different time of your.

If you do want to buy a property on the Costa del Sol, and are willing to purchase with a second party, make sure you have a personal relationship with them. Whether its sibling, parents, friends, etc… You are still able to protect yourself via the title deeds but will not be stuck in the situation of only owning a small fraction of the property and having one of the other owners sell his/her share on to someone you find less that desirable.

Regards

Andrew Belles

Costa del Sol property



Thanks to Andrew Belles for contributing this article to our Timeshares blog:

Cancun Timeshare Resale

Fractional ownership is a growing trend, but how do you go about valuing a fraction in an existing scheme for sale? What rules should be in place in a fractional scheme to prevent potentially disruptive new members joining it?

The Popularity of Fractional Ownership

The recent increase in popularity of fractional ownership is well documented, with a lot of the growth coming from new development schemes fro large developers. With the larger numbers of fractions being bought, it is inevitable that some of them will be re-sold. But having decided to sell your fraction, how do you go about valuing it?

Valuation Methods for Fractional Ownership

The traditional method for valuing real estate would be to engage an expert realtor (estate agent in the UK) to the job for you. Ideally consult with several to get different opinions (this is usually easy given the number of real estate businesses there are). When valuing a real estate fraction this approach might is more difficult since the re-sale market is still small and the number of businesses working in this area is few (although growing quickly). So how can you value your fraction? The following are some ideas of ways to assess value:

1. Find out how much the developer is selling fractions for now. If the resort/home you bought a fraction in is still being actively sold it should be a simple matter to find out from the developer what their current price is. You would often need to discount this price to achieve a reasonable re-sale price.

2. Find out how much real estate prices have increased (or fallen) by since you bought your fraction. Apply this percentage change to the original price of your fraction.

3. Consult an expert. There are some emerging experts and websites in the fractional ownership market who should be able to give you an opinion on the value of your fraction. This advice should be free unless you decide to sell your fraction using their services.

My advice would be to use a combination of all of the above methods before deciding on a value for your fraction.

Advertising Your Real Estate Fraction for Sale

This presents another problem in that the fractional re-sale market is relatively immature. Probably the best places to advertise your fraction for sale are the types of sites/publications that you would advertise real estate in. In this way you can access a large potential market.

Rules on New Members of Fractional Ownership Schemes

Often there is a worry about the sale of fractions in existing schemes and whether this will cause problems. The main concerns are normally over the allocation of time, payment of maintenance dues, and changeover problems (not leaving at the agreed time or leaving things dirty/broken etc.). Sometimes there is an attempt to counter this in the fractional ownership agreement by having a clause that new members need to be approved by the existing members. In my view this is a mistake. The focus should be on ensuring that the time allocation and changeover rules are clearly defined in the original fractional ownership agreement. In addition there should be clear and extensive penalties for failure to comply with these. The worry over payment of maintenance dues is easily dealt with by having a clause in the agreement that the fraction owners cannot use the home unless their maintenance dues are paid.

It is also worth considering how disruptive a fractional scheme member might be if they had a sale lined up, only to be refused permission to sell. Would they then be a constructive and helpful member of the group or would they be bitter and resentful?



Thanks to Neil Robertson for contributing this article to our Timeshares blog:

Cancun Timeshare Resale