Thinking about buying a timeshare in VA Beach

Why not rent an existing time share? You get a better room than a hotel for roughly the same price, nothing to buy, no maintenance fees, etc. http://www.redweek.com/

 

Timeshares are only a rip off if you buy directly from the developer. Since my original post over 3 years ago, I have purchased 2 units at the Villas at the Boardwalk in Virginia Beach. One from a family where their kids had grown and no longer wanted to go to the beach and another from a lady that needed quick money for her wedding. Both deals I got were $10K below normal resale for July 4th week. Also instead of renting a rundown oceanfront hotel for $500-$600/night during July 4th. I'm paying $850/year for an entire week. You just need to wait for the right deal on a resale timeshare (not from developer) and that's when buying a timeshare pays off. I too used to think timeshares were a scam because that's what everyone always says but that was before doing a lot of research. One good site is http://tugbbs.com/forums/.

 

Well Ava I am surprised you only lost $2,000. Most of the newer timeshares at VA Beach (through the developer Gold Key) cost a fortune...even for winter weeks. I was just there 2 weeks ago and sat through the upgrade pitch to get my free adventure park tickets... and from what I saw, summer weeks for a 2 bedroom suite were around $100,000. Yep, that is the price they were pitching to perspective buyers. Even the unit I own is still going for around $50,000 through the developer. Just crazy.

I own week 30 and love it... For us, we just plan to use it for vacation each summer and get use out of our investment. If we can't use it, renting is always an option. It is not investment.

 

Just saw yesterday that Gold Key Resorts (which own most VA Beach Timeshares) was just bought by Diamond Resorts International for $168M. I think this should be good for owners in the Gold Key Resorts...giving us preferred access to the Diamond resort collection (hopefully).

I will be in VA Beach next week...no, not for the surfing competition, but I will be curious to see how the resort feels about this.