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Timeshares and timeshare presentations today are great ideas and great assets. However they are also quite misunderstood to the point where when the word “timeshare” is heard some people shy away. This article is to objectively set the record straight on what a timeshare is and what it isn’t.

A timeshare is a name given to a piece of property shared among number of owners.

Timeshare properties have traditionally been condominium resorts but the choices of properties are increasing every day. You have hotels, motor home parks, campgrounds, and even cruises now offering timeshare options.

Timeshare first originated in the middle 1900′s when property was so expensive that it was getting increasingly difficult for people to afford a full time vacation resort property. Similar to owning a condominium in a condo complex, all owners also share in the costs of maintenance of the timeshare property.

A technical definition of timeshare property is that an owner has specific time to share you own in a property.

But as more and more properties are being converted into timeshare, flexible timeshare options cannot be ruled out. The flexible timeshare offers owners the option of choosing more than one timeshare destination and also more than one specific time of a year.

The typical duration of a timeshare ownership unit is one week.

The cost of a property will of course vary depending on where it is, how desirable it is, and even what season the ownership is. Like basic economics, supply and demand will determine the pricing of a property and its “trade in” value.

Timeshares offer great vacation opportunities but they also offer great investment opportunities as these are real estate purchases. However, selling your timeshare can be difficult so they should not be bought for investment purposes only.

As long as you plan to own your timeshare, it can be a great investment since you are owning rather than renting. This means that you need to use your timeshare or rent your timeshare. If you plan to buy for the purpose of selling at a profit, you may find this a losing proposition since they are hard to resell and you may end up selling for a loss. Other than that, timeshare units are very similar to real estate property: they can be passed on to your estate, they can be paid off in full after which only maintenance fees will apply, and they can be rented out. Timeshare ownership has a unique advantage over houses and homes in that they can also be exchanged for other units in case you decide to vacation elsewhere that year.

Buying a timeshare is NOT for everybody.

Buying a unit is buying real estate. In the same way you would do your research and due diligence when purchasing a house, you must go into purchasing timeshare units in the same way. Know what you are getting, know the costs, and figure out if it is worth it for you. Know if you will actually use it or not or be able to rent it, because that is a lot of the value it provides. If you don’t use it, it will possibly not be a wise purchase for you.

For me and my family, we own quite a few timeshare properties. Because we know we will use these units, it makes sense for us to “own” instead of “rent”. We did the math of the costs and maintenance and it is only slightly more than a regular hotel stay, but the unit is much nicer than a regular hotel. Plus, after the property is paid off we only need to pay small maintenance fees and we get to keep our unit and our duration forever. And a final plus is that owning this “forces” us to take a vacation every year as well, something that we know we want to fit in to our busy hectic lives.

I hope you have found a lot of good information in this article and that it helps you to decide if a timeshare is for you or not .

Want to find out more about how to buy or sell a timeshare, then visit Emil Yau’s site to learn more about selling timeshares and other timeshare information.