William Shakespeare said, “A rose by any other name still smells as sweet.” Sadly for old Bill the reverse is also true – a bad idea packaged under a different name, in a different industry, still smells as rotten. And it’s the kind of smell that takes you years – if ever – to get rid of.
Most people are familiar with timeshares these days. For a set amount of money, you own a room at a predetermined location for a couple of weeks out of the year. Usually these weeks are decided by a points balance that you carry on your account. What the time-share people like to avoid telling you at all costs is that when you are the owner of a time-share, you don’t actually own anything.
There is no land in your name and no resale value. A timeshare is not an investment, in the future or the short term. In fact, given the fees, dues, and initial buy-in this “ownership” costs you, you would spend less money traveling to a variety of different locations if you took just a little time to plan each of your vacations. Plus, you’re not stuck in the same badly furnished room you “own” along with dozens of other strangers.
The good news is that people have finally started to reject time-shares for the legal scam that they are. The bad news is that other industries are trying to horn in on the act and take advantage of people all over again.
Luckily, Apex Professionals is on the job, digging around the slime the timeshare industry oozes to get you the truth.
Fractional Boat Ownership
Today, we’re digging into the fractional boat ownership industry. Modeled much like the time-share industry, the fractional boat industry tries to draw you in with a lot of seemingly rational and balanced information: owning a boat is a headache. On top of the initial cost, you also have to pay for a marina slip, fuel, cleaning, routine maintenance, and upkeep. Unless you are financially comfortable enough to pay employees to service the boat for you, owning one is more like taking a part time job than having a hobby.
All this makes the idea of entering into fractional ownership of a boat, where the company does all the work, and you pay a small fee to have use of it a couple of times a year, or for a season, sound pretty good, right? Wrong!
Fact: as a consumer, you should be automatically wary of any ownership opportunity that contains the word ‘fractional.’ Unless you’re dividing up a Fortune 500 company it is very difficult – and usually not financially sound – to own a ‘fraction’ of anything.
Fact: the fees you end up paying yearly on the boat can range from four to seven thousand dollars annually, and like the headaches time-shares can bring, you have to plan far, far in advance which days you want to take it out, provided you have the points leftover from last year.
Fact: fractional ownership companies overbook on purpose, so that the time-share is always in use. This means the companies make money hand over fist, and the consumer gets left with a big headache and a vacation at the least desirable time of the year because they didn’t book their boat weekend a year in advance.
Fact: fractional ownership companies will tell you that they offer classes on boat safety and operation, and keep an on-call repairman available should anything go wrong on the high seas. But when you think about it, if you owned your own boat, you would also have insurance, and can arrange your own classes. And their so-called ‘free’ classes and services are simply built into the lofty fees, or dues you’ll be paying on your membership.
Fractional boat ownership ends up being a bigger headache than owning a boat would be, because at least when you own the boat you’re allowed to use it whenever you like, and if you decide at some point down the road that you no longer wish to own a boat, the resale value of a boat in good condition is very competitive. If you decide to discontinue your fractional ownership you can… usually donate the membership back to the company that sold it to you, because the resale value is worth nothing.
If you’re unsure about committing to buying a boat, don’t despair, and don’t assume fractional boat ownership is a good way to test the waters. There are several companies that offer good rates on weekend boat rentals that will let you take a professional captain out with you to try out your sea legs.
About the Author: The timeshare experts at Apex Professionals, LLC, concentrate on helping disillusioned timeshare holders to rid themselves of unwanted maintenance fees, unnecessary assessment costs, and to do away with those annoying high-interest mortgages by offering to take over unwanted timeshare agreements instantly. Related posts:
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