Ellen Creager: Is a timeshare for you? Maybe yes, but maybe no

I have a friend who bought a 50-year vacation club timeshare at Disney World.tmpplchld He loves it.tmpplchld Once a year, his plan gets the family about nine nights in January at a Disney World resort. My friend, who is in his 60s, takes his wife, daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren along.tmpplchld He spent about $31,000 on the Disney Vacation Club “points” plan that he uses for the annual trip.tmpplchld Why, in midlife, would he sign up for a 50-year timeshare?tmpplchld “For my daughter and grandchildren,” he said. He loves knowing that even after he has gone up to that great Dumbo ride in the sky, the timeshare will pass into his heirs’ hands for future Disney fun.tmpplchld I offer this story upfront to admit that for some travelers, a timeshare property makes complete sense.tmpplchld For the rest of us? Not so much.tmpplchld An estimated 9 million Americans are timeshare owners, according to the industry group American Resort Development Association (www.arda.org). The average outlay spent on a timeshare as of 2015 is about $19,000.tmpplchld But although the U.S. has at least 1,540 timeshare resorts, consumer protection advocates warn people of their downsides:tmpplchld The second you buy a timeshare, it likely decreases in value.tmpplchld It’s often hard to unload.tmpplchld Annual fees/assessments must be paid each year, and the amount tends to increase over time (my friend pays $1,500 a year).tmpplchld It chains you to one property or one company’s properties.tmpplchld In addition, a timeshare is not like owning regular real estate. Either you buy a fraction of an ownership on a particular unit, or you simply buy the “right to use” a unit at a certain interval, buying enough “points” to get you, for example, two weeks a year for the period of the contract.tmpplchld Still, because timeshares usually are in beautiful resorts and scenic locations, we’re lured by their promise. My friend likes the certainty of the arrangement. He has a choice of Disney properties. It takes away surprises. It’s not risky like booking a condo on the Internet or paying for a resort.tmpplchld But he might be the last generation to think that way.tmpplchld Timeshare sales peaked in 2007 at $10.6 billion a year but have plummeted since. Last year, they were $7.9 billion, up from the depths of the recession but not recovered.tmpplchld Concerned about whether future generations will buy into timeshares the way past generations have, ARDA recently advised marketers not to pitch a timeshare to skittish millennials “as a lifelong ownership product.” Instead, present it “as an alternative to the next vacation.”tmpplchld Will that work? Nobody knows. The giant millennial generation (roughly ages 18-32) is notorious for wanting new experiences and spur-of-the-moment travel options. They use lodging search websites Airbnb or VRBO to rent condos 10 minutes before they leave. They don’t sign contracts for 50-year timeshares.tmpplchld So that’s one big issue. The other one, of course, is fraud.tmpplchld Past scams involved high-pressure sales tactics to get people to buy timeshares. This still occurs, but stricter consumer protection laws in the U.S. and tougher laws in Mexico have mitigated some of the issues.tmpplchld The worrisome scam du jour targets timeshare owners. Some companies promise to help people escape their timeshare contracts, for a fee up front, of course. Other scammers call owners and promise they have a keen buyer for their timeshare. All the owner has to do is send in a few thousand dollars up front for closing costs and fees. A remarkable number of people do it, never to see a penny of their money again.tmpplchld A Florida man in July was convicted of ripping off 5,000 timeshare owners to the tune of $10 million; he faces up to 500 years in prison.tmpplchld To me, the number of those sucked into the scam shows how desperate many are to shed their timeshare burden.tmpplchld So before you buy, look deep inside yourself. Maybe you will be like my friend, happy with his timeshare. He crunched the numbers. For him, it’s worth it.tmpplchld Or maybe you would prefer to run the other way.tmpplchld ___tmpplchld (Contact Detroit Free Press travel writer Ellen Creager at ecreager@freepress.com.)tmpplchld ___tmpplchld (c)2015 Detroit Free Presstmpplchld Visit the Detroit Free Press at www.freep.comtmpplchld Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.tmpplchld