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Old 30-06-2008, 07:39 PM
oregon woodsmoke oregon woodsmoke is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 119
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I'm not in the UK, so maybe my opinion isn't valueable for this survey.

I would not purchase a fractional ownership for several reasons.

The most important reason is that partnerships in real estate can be very awkward. There is inevitably at least one partner who will not carry his own weight and leaves the responsibility to the other partners. If he does not make his payments, the difference must be made up by the other owners. If he doesn't clean when his weeks are over, the next person must clean his mess.

Fractionals are always over-priced. The total of the sums is much higher than the total value of the property. I don't believe in paying more than something is worth, and in real estate, I don't even believe in paying what a property is worth. If I can't purchase ir for less than the value, it is not a good purchase.

Fractional shares are extremely difficult to re-sell. If you want to sell, the only good way to sell is to get all the owners to agree that everyone sells at once, so the property can be offered as a whole. Inevitably, there will be at least one owner who doesn't want to sell. leaving you to try to sell a partial ownership with no takers.

If you want a vaction home, buy a time share. But do not buy it from the time share company. Buy it after-market, where a $10,000 time share can be purchased for a couple of hundred dollars.

You don't need to purchase a time share in the place you want to stay in. Most time shares have exchange programs, so you can purchase a time share where ever it is cheapest, and trade your week there for the place where you want to stay.

Watch the maintenance fees, because the fees can be as much as you'd pay for a hotel for the week, meaning that there isn't much benefit to a time share, except as a place that vacuums your money out of your pocket.
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