Suite 100 - S
The Timeshare Spot
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's).

Why do you prefer the a six month option for resales and three month for rentals? Why not less?

Three reasons: experience, the desire for your ad to be successful, and ultimate final cost. This is not our first website marketing experience. If you are ready to rent or sale your vacation property, you need appropriate exposure. Many people visit, think on it, and come back after looking around. It needs to be here when they come back with a buy thought. This is especially true of a property sale. As for vacation rentals, most people plan a major vacation destination trip in advance. They need time to make sure they have their air travel and other support available. When advertising, it often takes more than three months to obtain the kind of result you are looking for. If it isn't here when they are ready to buy or rent yours. Someone else obtains the sale your ad fostered. By making sure your ad is going to be present for a while, we can put more into it at the start, then leave it alone. Thus, we can actually save you money over the long term.

Why do you want pictures?

Most people that will be interested in your property have not seen it. They are unsure of its quality, or don't know how nice it is. Thus, they are reluctant to buy "sight unseen." This is why developers offer to bring people to a vacation spot and give them free lodging. People need to see it. However, that is why a developer has to charge so much more than an owner. They have to recover that cost. Less than 5-percent of the people they bring in actually purchase anything. Pictures, combined with the link to the exchange services (if possible) allow people to see the value in the property and avoid the expense of paying the developer overhead costs.

You suggest pricing a resale property at least 15% below developer price. Why?

Same reason as stated above. You are not paying your buyer to come and look at the property. You don't have that cost. Interval property is a little like a car. It costs more to buy it new. Then, it depreciates for a while. Unlike a car, after the initial depreciation, an Interval property's resale value usually steadies, then begins to rise. If you paid that overhead cost in the purchase, it will take a while to go through that phase and reach a resale value equal to what you paid. If you bought a resale, congratulations, you avoided that overhead cost. If not, you should either be patient and enjoy your property, or accept that you need to discount it from the developer cost.

Why not just buy a interval vacation property from a developer or on-site resale agent?

Why pay the overhead costs? (See previous discussion.) Owner properties for resale are not different than the same properties they are selling. The sales approach for the resale resale lacks some of the pizzazz. You don't get a "free" weekend. The sales associates are usually very familiar with the association requirements and take care of the paper work needed by the title company. They do a great job. But, you pay for it too. Interval ownership is not like buying a house. Your risk less. The paper work is not complex, but a lawyer consult is a good idea either way. Buying from an owner saves you the overhead costs of the sales offices effort, saves the owner the overhead costs of the agent's commission, and allows you to enjoy the property with the confidence that you have avoided most, if not all, the initial depreciation associated with those costs.

Why use the Internet? Why not use the local paper or a national paper such as USA Today™?

The local paper only reaches the local audience and a single week without photos usually costs between $30 and $50. Your ad competes with lots of other ads and its placement for visibility is dependent on many factors that are outside your control. Unless, you add some bold lettering and similar features, it probably won't stand out. Price a weekend ad with no fanfare print or pictures in a printed medium within a major city. In just one or more weeks, you will have paid far more than an Internet ad for a full year. Unlike a paper, the Internet is also international and has many visitors that are not located in the United States. Most Internet users are relatively affluent. When you use a fully marketed Internet ad you get to market to more people than you could dream of reaching in most classified ads in newspapers, magazines, and similar media. Not only that, most of these people are prequalified. That is, they usually ran a search engine to find such ads, or information that makes it probable that they would like to check it out. papers such as USA Today™ has national exposure and reaches many people. But, can you afford a photo? And, how long can you afford to run it? It's easy to see that you could wipe out your investment value with such ads.

How will people know about my ad?

We chose to be a part of this website (OfficeOnWeb) due to its marketing approach. Since your ad would be here, the overall marketing of the website will attract people to it. While they are here, they will visit us too. But we go further than this. We market The Timeshare Spot by itself. We want people to think of it as their independent resource for interval ownership information, travel assistance, and owner provided rentals and sales. Whether buying, selling, renting, or just looking to use an interval vacation spot, we would like people to come to rely on us. We believe that this make our customers happy and will increase our visitation. How many visitors? In June 1997, our site had nearly 1,000 visits per day!

If timeshare property is so great, why do people want to sell theirs?

People's needs, activities, plans, and lives change. Many people have enjoyed their property for years. They often have pleasant memories of it and will miss it. However, times changes things. We age; become divorced; don't travel like we used to, or perhaps, travel too much in our work now; or have lots of children now; and so on. Thus, that once perfect property is not really right for us anymore. We sell houses, cars, and other products for the same reasons. They don't fit our needs anymore. We come to recognize that it is time for someone else to enjoy the property.

Can I make money on buying timeshares?

Developers do it all the time. We have met some individual's that did it. (Most bought up properties during the 1980's when interval vacation properties fell sharply. This was a general pattern associated with the savings and loan bust.) However, we advise that people don't think of their timeshare as an money investment. Interval ownership is more about saving money and investing in a vacation future. Optimally, you are buying ownership in a place that you want to stay, or will allow you to exchange for places that you want to stay. When you decide that it is time to change your lifestyle, people that purchase resales usually make out better.

What is the best property to buy?

Look for a property that meets your needs. Even if you don't plan to exchange, select a property that accommodates it well. It should belong to either Resort Condominiums International (RCI) or Interval International (II). Some belong to both. Look for a property that is a member of ARDA. The very best properties hold a "Gold Crown" (RCI) or similar award status. Some people prefer deeded properties. These are properties that you actually hold a title to a specific time. Others like the flexibility of owning a flexible interval of time. This allows them to change the week they visit for the property they hold. When exchanging, neither of these factors (deeded versus interval) matter. In exchanges, the demand for the period involved governs its exchangeability. "Red weeks" have the highest capacity to exchange as they are associated with the high visitation periods for the resort.

Are you associated with a management group or realty agency?

We are not associated with any company or group that manages an interval property, exchanges them, or sales them. We are owners ourselves and are meeting a demand that we fell is lacking in the industry. We consider ourselves an independent information group free of influence by the industry.

Can I put a photo of a rental in my ad?

Right now, the answer is yes. However, one photo only. If you send us the photo, we will be linked to the words you specify. We will be examining this as the website grows. If space on the server becomes a problem, we may discontinue it. However, everyone that has a photo link would retain the link till their ad period expires.

Can I put more than six photos in a resale ad?

Again, right now, the answer is yes. This will be reviewed as the time progresses and our site grows.

Can I get my photos back?

Include a self addressed, stamped envelope with sufficient postage. After we scan the photos, we will put them in the envelope an return them in the mail. (We cannot be responsible for mail service. Thus, if they are really important to you, have the post office weigh and prestamp the envelop with the appropriate service requirements you would like for their return.)

I have a realty company. Can I advertise here?

This service is intended for owners, their friends, and associates. If you are connected with a commercials venture and would like advertising of your business, please contact the leasing agent to obtain a suite or banner advertisement, or obtain an ad with Advantage Advertising to sell a specific property or product. Remember, we said we wanted to be free of influence so as to serve the interval ownership community better. To maintain that independent status, we have chosen to avoid advertisements from commercial ventures for Realtor and other firms reaching rentals, resales,sales, and so on. The leasing agent does sell banner ads that may appear here and can be from a commercial venture, but at present, we have avoided that.

How can I get my words and page layout to you?

Send us an e-mail. If you wrote it up by hand or don't have e-mail capacity, FAX them to us at Call if needed. Alternatively, use the mail. You must use an order form and include a check or credit card authorization.

I have a question not covered here.

Send us an e-mail. We will try to answer it. If you want to comment or would like to write one of the discussions, reviews, or other features, write it up and send it to us.

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