What Should I Do With My Timeshare?

What should I do with my timeshare?

That is the question facing thousands of people these days, especially with the downturn in the economy. Nobody wants to sell their timeshare for ½ of what they paid for it, but that may be the best thing to do. Let’s do the math. Say you paid $16,000 for your timeshare, and you are paying $600 a year for maintenance. Let’s also say that you can only sell your timeshare for $8,000. That means that you would lose $8,000 right? Not necessarily. At $600 a year for maintenance, you will pay almost $8,000 in $13 years (not including banking and timeshare location switching fees). If, however, you keep your timeshare for the next 20 to 30 years, you will pay $12,000 to $18,000 in maintenance fees; and that is if the fees do not go up. Yet, your timeshare will not be worth much, if any more money. So, my short answer is, sell it.

What if I don’t want to sell? Well, if you do not want to sell, then my suggestion would be to quit banking it through your timeshare management company. These companies charge up to $300 membership and another $150 transaction fee each time you want to travel to a different destination than the original purchase. Not only is it expensive, it is also difficult to find places, through your timeshare management company, that you really want to visit. Well, what should I do? Read on.

Whether you decide to sell your timeshare or keep it, you can save money and increase your travel options by finding someone to exchange your home or timeshare with that is located in the destination you want to travel to. Yes, you heard me, exchange your home or timeshare. Thousands of people are doing it these days and virtually staying for free all around the world. Websites like Sherpa Travel Exchange www.staysherpa.com have created a travel exchange that brings together interested parties for Home Exchanges, HomeStays and Vacation Rentals. The great thing about exchanging your timeshare is that you no longer have to worry about banking it due to an impending expiration date. Instead, exchange it with another homeowner or property owner so they can use your place now, and you can use their place at a later date.

The concept for exchanging homes has existed for years. However, the rise in high-speed internet and social networking has made it easier for people of common interests to connect. Keep an eye open for “Lucky” the Sherpa as he develops an easy way for you to get the most out of your timeshare if you plan to keep it, or get the most out of your travel dollars if you plan to sell it. Either way, you can’t lose.

Darrin Underwood
Contributor
Sherpa Travel Exchange

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A new age of frugality

A couple years ago I conducted an extensive research study that examined consumer behavior. Specifically, I studied the link between a consumer's overall level of happiness and their penchant for frugality, stinginess, or overly economical behavior. I surmised that people make themselves less happy by certain choices they make as consumers. Based on the visceral reactions from friends and family members, I was about to embark on a highly contentious study.

Prior to this study, I would casually observe how it seemed like the people that were constantly chasing bargains never seemed to be satisfied. However anecdotal this may seem to most people, I suspected the people that would drive across town to get gas at Costco (where it might be 20 to 30 cents cheaper per gallon), were actually chasing their tails because they weren't really saving any money when you considered the extra gas to get to the Costco across town or the lost time they could have applied to more productive uses.

Anyways, I hypothesized that people make themselves less happy (and, dare I say, miserable) by being overly frugal. To test this hypothesis I surveyed a panel of more than 15,000 consumers and assembled a small research subject group of 45 people to measure their epinephrine level response to a variety of images and phrases. Hooking people up to a biometric machine helped me determine how they would respond and see if people generally get excited by finding bargains. In sake of brevity, I found a direct correlation between frugality and negative associations with a person's well being and satisfaction. Frugal people were generally less happy than self-described non-frugal people. My hypothesis was supported.

Fast forward to today and I think something has really changed in the psyche of the American consumer (perhaps permanently). Citigroup released the results of a survey on Friday that showed that 63 percent of Americans polled said the way they spend and save has "forever changed" due to the economic downturn. Eighty percent of consumers making less than $50k said they would most likely cut back on everyday expenses while 68 percent of those earning between $75k and $150k said they would make such cuts. Thirty-four percent said they were saving or investing more money, while 60 percent said they would invest or save more going forward.

This is an earth moving change from where our consumer driven economy was just two years ago when I conducted my research into consumer behavior.

Despite the dramatic shift in spending habits, Smith Travel Research has reported that they expect leisure travel to begin growing again next year. My take away from the convergence of both research reports is that people will begin to travel more, but many people will be seeking new alternatives that are more cost effective. In short, this new era of frugality will drive consumer behavior in the direction of bargains, discounts and deals.

These seemingly disparate trends are actually highly correlated and this is exactly why we are building the a fully functioning market niche for Home Exchanges. Given the rise of social networking and the propensity for all age groups to network with friends, family and strangers online, we believe that the next big revolution in travel will be driven by this new era of frugality and social networking. This is exactly where house trading (aka home exchanges) comes into the picture.

Greater desire to travel combined with higher levels of social networking & increased frugality = Latent need for home trading as opposed to booking expensive hotels. Sherpa will make the latent need manifest.

We are creating a secure social networking driven marketplace for people to find other like minded people around the world who want to travel to each other's cities and avoid expensive hotels. Sherpa's home based lodging platform will feature proprietary matching technology that will connect you with other homeowners that want to swap homes for a few days, a few weeks or even a month or more.

Would you swap homes with someone for your travel lodging if you knew it was safe and secure?

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts.

Russ


Russ Hearl
Head Sherpa & Co-Founder
Sherpa Travel Exchange, LLC
601 Van Ness Ave, Suite E-208
San Francisco, CA 94102
415-601-6244 mobile
russ.hearl@staysherpa.com
Stay Smart. Stay Sherpa.

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Creepy roommate stories

Renting the typical one bedroom apartment in San Francisco will put you back about $2k a month, so it’s no wonder so many people opt for a two-bedroom pad and a roommate. After having lived in London, New Haven, Tucson, Dallas, El Paso and Cleveland, I can tell you that I’d gladly pay $2k a month for a place in San Francisco. I’ve got nothing against those cities, but there’s just nothing like a balmy climate where you’d be hard pressed to find more than a few days a year when you break a sweat and you don’t freeze your ears off. In any case, living in San Francisco does have some disadvantages, not the least of which is the cost of housing.

So, many people deal with the high cost of living finding a roommate – often by posting a roommate wanted ad on classified sites like Craigslist. I always thought there was something a bit strange about a site where you had roommate wanted ads near casual encounter ads. You just hope that your possible new roommate is not also an active user of the casual encounter section as well. Eeew, weird.

The so-called Great Recession is driving more people to cohabitate. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, over 228,000 “family households” in California cohabitate with a non-family member as a roommate. Moreover, the Census Bureau reports that 674,000 “non-family households” cohabitate with a roommate in California. Clearly, lots of people in California and our country live with people to which they are not directly related. The Great Recession has contributed to a 9.7% rise in the number of American households that cohabitate. When facing the need to augment your income and offset your expenses with a roommate, millions of Americans are already comfortable living with relative strangers. For a proof point, just look at http://www.couchsurfing.org/. Couchsurfing touts more than 1.2 million members who crash on the couches of other members to avoid hotel costs.

A few years ago I was in search of an extra 500 bucks a month to help defray the cost of my rent and I entered into a short stint with a roommate who was probably a super user of Craiglist’s casual encounters section. Needless to say, after a nearly two months of constant strange women visiting my house at all hours of the night, I asked the guy to move out. As a follow-up to that movie-of-the-week special presentation, there was this roommate who thought it was great to have fondue parties at my house every weekend with 10 of his closest friends. Oh, and I can’t forget the roommate who drilled a hole in my bedroom wall, presumably for ventilation. Yeah right.

Not all roommates are sociopathic or party-animals, but there’s one thing you can say about at least 90% of roommates, it’s a full-time invasion of privacy. Sure, some people really like sharing their living space for social reasons, but if given the option, most people would rather live on their own.

This is why we came up with the idea to establish a viable homestay market in the U.S. A homestay is a pretty simple concept that involves an ordinary homeowner or tenant entering the hotel business by taking in lodgers on a part-time basis rather than taking in a full-time roommate. The homestay business has been around for centuries. America is full of people that augment their primary income with part-time jobs. Just look at the ongoing (if not utterly surprising) growth of direct selling/multi-level marketing companies like Amway or Avon as a microcosm of our entrepreneurial spirit here in the good ole US of A.

We think that many people, if given a properly functioning and safe marketplace, will opt to earn extra cash by taking in lodgers instead of a full-time roommate… especially if you can make more money in less time than sharing your home every day of the month. We're creating the first efficient online marketplace that provides homeowners with the tools that will enable them to compete with hotels by offering lodging services to travelers.

It may not be a solution for everyone, but it sure beats trying to recruit your cousin to become an Amway rep, and it certainly beats selling all your stuff on eBay or Craigslist to make ends meet.

What do you think??

Russ

Russ Hearl

Head Sherpa & Co-Founder

Sherpa Travel Exchange, LLC

601 Van Ness Ave, Suite E-208

San Francisco, CA 94102

415-601-6244 mobile

russ.hearl@staysherpa.com

Stay Smart. Stay Sherpa.

Follow Lucky the Sherpa on Twitter: sherpatravelx
Check out our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Sherpa-Travel-Exchange/123269124279?ref=ts