|
|
Where Ya”ll from? Is how most people are introduced to timeshare.
There you are cruzin down the street taking in the local flavors and from
out of nowhere pops a bubbly character asking this question. Of course
the natural response is to answer. Thirty minutes later you are registered
to attend a timeshare presentation mostly because you’re delighted
with getting a free Luau just for showing up and spending 90 minutes of
your time. Besides there’s absolutly no obligation. You and millions more end up in a room with a sparkling
toothed timeshare salesperson from this one question every year. There
are around 15 to 30 people signed up for a developers tour an an average
day. Most come from what are called OPC or Off Site Personal Contacts.
The OPCs as they are called earn their livings from getting you to take
the tour. They are compensated whether you buy or not because at the end
of the day the developer knows its a pure numbers game. For every one hundred couples that visit, ten to twenty
will buy. This has been proven time and again. Closing percentages for
timeshare sales are based on this fact. The developers rely heavily on
these numbers in calculating what they give away to get more people to
attend. Knowing the numbers is how expectation are set for the sales staff
as well. If a sales person can not sustain around a 14% closing rate,
he or she is history. So for sales persons to be successful at this game
they have to sit with a hundred or so couples and sell fourteen of them
each month. That means the developer buys a luau for eighty six couples
who walked away without purchasing. Now do some simple math and the numbers
in timeshare start to make a lot of sense. For the Developer! The OPC receives around $50. for getting you to attend a
presentation. You get free stuff costing the developer on average around
$600. The developer recoups a little of this through commissions he collects
on extra activities you may purchase after completing your tour. This
means that each day the developers marketing costs run around $10,000.
Multiply that by 30 days and you get a whopping $300,000.00 a month just
to market the resort. Add to that hefty sales commissions and the number
doubles. Guess who foots that bill? |
You got it, the couple who
purchase their timeshare on that tour. The bottom line is that anyone
purchaseing a timeshare from the developer is paying for all those activities
that the non buyers are enjoying free of charge. So there you have it.
Is all that stuff really free? Well that depends on whether or not you
purchased your timeshare from a developer. If you did then you paid dearly
and all those non buyers owe you a debt of gratitude. If you were smart
and walked away with your free stuff, then smile and don’t forget
to say thank you to the couple sitting next to you at the luau. They are
the proud new owners of a developers timeshare and they likely paid twice
as much as they should have. Our advise! Take the tour get the free stuff. Then if you
like what you saw and want to own go to a resale office. They have the
exact same product whether it be weeks, points or a club membership for
around half the price. Why, because existing owners know they can never
recoup the marketing cost of timeshare purchased from a developer and
if they want to or have to sell, they are willing to take much less than
the developer. saving buyers thousands of dollars by way of timeshare
resales. Now some unscrupulous developers are saying that the week
or program they are selling is a resale and will offer a discount from
the original price that was initially quoted. Even though it may sound
good compared to the original price - don’t go for it. It’s
a trick. They inflate the original price quote and offer what is known
in the industry as a “nose bleed drop”. You’d be surprised
at how many fall for that one. Hope you didn’t! |
