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earlyretirement
Participant[quote=Downtowner]Ok, first never think of a timeshare as a “real estate” investment. You are actually investing in “vacation time” – What you are actually doing is somewhat fixing your vacation lodging costs over time. You are saying I want a certain level of accommodations (not a hotel) that I can expect every year and I pay a relatively fix cost (maintenance fee) each year and I can exchange for a different location if I want to (and pay a fee for that).
2nd – never ever buy a timeshare from a developer! You can get them at a fraction of the cost in the resale market. I own 2 and did not pay a dime for either of them. That’s right you can find many timeshares that all you need to do is transfer ownership and start paying the annual maintenance fees and it’s yours.
Anyway, timeshares can be great if your expectations are just about an annual vacation, if you start thinking you will get some type of ROI (other than vacation enjoyment) you will be disappointed.[/quote]
BINGO! That’s exactly right. I was going to mention the investing in “vacation time” as that is how I look at timeshares as well. I think the people that look at it that way vs. a “real estate investment” can come out ahead.
There are TONS of time share schemes but I know a few people that seem happy with their time shares with Marriott’s program. They don’t look at it as an investment but simply prepaying vacation lodging for the next 20+ years. They apparently can use many many Marriott properties all around the world and do.
Downtowner nailed it again when he/she mentioned that there are lots of people that you can find these either free or low cost because they simply want out of the obligations of HOA, expenses or heavy assessments. Heck, even just surf around on travel related sites like TripAdvisor and you will find people that want to give up their timeshares and feel burned.
I totally agree with Downtowner you have to understand the fundamental “investment” of a time share.
[quote=UCGal]I’m a big fan of renting other people’s timeshares – often for about the cost of the annual maintenance on their time share. There’s a resort in cabo I’ve been to a few times that I like to rent at.
Like ER – I use homeshares, VRBO, but also look at timeshares – since I prefer a place with a kitchen and separate bedroom (when travelling with kids.)
Timeshares commit you to the same place and/or the same family of timeshares for the same week, every year. Might work if you have a fixed vacation – but it’s too inflexible for me.[/quote]
Oh yeah. I totally agree with you UCGal. We’ve rented other people’s timeshares before for fairly low cost but that was before we really got into the Home Exchanges. Since then we really haven’t as the home exchanges work so well.
There are more choices than ever for people that travel and don’t want or can’t rent a hotel room because of the space, lack of kitchen, washing machine/dryers, etc. VRBO, Homeaway, Flipkey, AirBnb. So many options these days.
We always try to avoid hotels.
Participant[quote=AN]Timeshare drastically decrease in price in resale market, so if you really want to get a timeshare, resale is definitely the way to go. If you like to return to the same place every year and you have a lot of time to travel, then it might make sense. Personally, I would much rather just buy investment properties in those places if I really want to return to the same place. However, I tend to prefer traveling to new places, so timeshare won’t make much sense for me.[/quote]
I agree with either buying investment properties in those places vs. a time share. The wildcard is having an excellent property manager which makes all the difference in the world.
Personally I prefer doing home exchanges. They work beautifully if you already own a property in a desirable tourist destination. You can go to sites like http://www.homeexchange.com and arrange swaps all over the world.
I’ve done over 40 swaps over the years just using one of my vacation properties and been to some great places and the cities we especially love we have made friendships with the owners so we go every year.
I’m sure there are probably some instances where timeshares work and ROI also works well but as mentioned, I’ve just seen too many nightmare scenarios with assessments to want to get involved with them.
ParticipantI’m not a big fan of timeshares. I’ve just seen and heard and read about too many people getting burned on them. The risk/reward doesn’t seem worth it to me in most cases that I’ve seen.
Where are you thinking of buying FlyerinHi? How is your rental property doing that you mentioned last year? Are you doing short-term vacation rentals in it?
Participant[quote=spdrun]
One of my friends in New Mexico bought several cheaper properties and he said he is able to bill the government that pays for their rent. Some form of public assistance. IIRC, my friend in Texas also got some of that.
Are you talking about section 8? AFAIK, that exists in every state — not sure how good of an idea it is.[/quote]
I’m not sure if it was specifically Section 8. I never asked them about it and it’s been a while but it just sounded like they were doing really good with them. I’ll ask my friend the next time I talk to him about it.
Participant[quote=all]There is Home Depot in Carmel Mountain Ranch and there is another one in Mira Mesa. Both should be less than 10 miles driving distance from you.[/quote]
Yep. EconProf I go to Home Depot at both of these locations mentioned and they are less than 10 miles to either. I don’t go to Home Depot too often so don’t mind them being a bit further out but it takes no time really to get there. I typically just go to the one in Mira Mesa. Just one exit down from us taking Black Mountain Road and then jumping on Westview which will go directly to Home Depot. Very quick.
I would actually welcome a Target in 4S Ranch. Like others, I much prefer it vs. a Walmart which I never go to. The nearest Target for us is either Mira Mesa but I typically just go to the one in Escondido in the Mall as it’s so big.
ParticipantI was recently at a conference with both Stan Humphries (from Zillow) and Gary London (from the London Group). While Stan was predicting about 7% appreciation for San Diego in 2014, it was surprising to hear Gary so upbeat.
He did nail the bottom but he says that he predicts that 2014 will be the best year yet in recent years for property appreciation in San Diego.
I can’t say I agree with him that 2014 will be better than 2013 was in appreciation but surprising nonetheless to hear him so upbeat.
ParticipantHey EconProf. Happy New Year.
Wow, I didn’t realize you had that many units. Spot on target with your advice. Property management is a really tough and time intensive business.
I’m not sure the answer to your question about how quickly it takes to evict someone in San Diego but I’m sure it’s not that quick like San Diego.
I was curious, is it possible to rent to the poorer groups there and get the government to pay? What you said about Hispanic tenants I’ve also heard from some friends that own properties in Texas. They talk about the same things you do about being hard workers, loyal and good family values.
One of my friends in New Mexico bought several cheaper properties and he said he is able to bill the government that pays for their rent. Some form of public assistance. IIRC, my friend in Texas also got some of that.
Have you had the ability to do that in Arizona at all? Do all your tenants pay themselves or are any of them on public assistance where you can bill the government?
ParticipantI did a search but saw many varying answers. Does anyone know the number of ACTIVE realtors in San Diego as of 2012? I was just curious if anyone knew an accurate number.
November 22, 2013 at 4:05 PM in reply to: My experience getting a dedicated EV TOU 2 electric meter with SDGE #768345Participant[quote=flu][quote=earlyretirement]Hey flu,
Hmm…well I’ve not heard of things being covered under “warranty” when there is impact and it’s probably the driver’s fault? It seemed to me that it was caused by impact of hitting a speed bump too fast or something. Just so I know….is this standard and covered under warranty with most car manufacturer?
As I recall, a few years ago my friend had something like this happen with his Mercedes and I remember they most certainly did NOT fix it for free. Is this the norm now?[/quote]
Oh, I didn’t realize the panel coming off was from a speed bump. But usually if it’s a matter of something just coming loose, then yes dealers should typically just take the time to repair it. It costs them nothing to do, and they could bill it to the manufacturer… provided there isn’t evidence of a collision, which from the picture it didn’t appear to be.. Especially is a part that costs nothing to them. It’s a matter of haggling of a neglible part with you, or irritating you such that you take your business to the other dealership and leaving them with a less than stellar survey result..[/quote]
Oh YES. There was definitely impact that caused it. No, I wouldn’t have mentioned it and would have fully expected them to fix it free if it was just coming off. But that clearly wasn’t the case.
I’m sorry if I didn’t make that clear in my original post. Looking back I forgot to include that part. Definitely you could see it was from impact hitting something. Most likely a speed bump because you could feel the scrape on the bottom of the car. That impact caused it to bulge out.
I just thought it was awesome even though they could clearly see it was from hitting something that they would fix it free. It wasn’t caused by a design defect of the car but by my wife hitting something.
And I doubt there would be many (any) luxury car makers that would fix something caused by driver error like this free like Tesla did.
November 22, 2013 at 3:13 PM in reply to: My experience getting a dedicated EV TOU 2 electric meter with SDGE #768337ParticipantHey flu,
Hmm…well I’ve not heard of things being covered under “warranty” when there is impact and it’s probably the driver’s fault? It seemed to me that it was caused by impact of hitting a speed bump too fast or something. Just so I know….is this standard and covered under warranty with most car manufacturer?
As I recall, a few years ago my friend had something like this happen with his Mercedes and I remember they most certainly did NOT fix it for free. Is this the norm now?
November 21, 2013 at 2:43 PM in reply to: My experience getting a dedicated EV TOU 2 electric meter with SDGE #768271Participant[quote=afx114]Tesla’s Model S Receives ‘The Highest Owner-Satisfaction Score Consumer Reports Has Seen In Years’
“Owners of the Tesla Model S gave it the highest owner-satisfaction score Consumer Reports has seen in years: 99 out of 100,” the magazine said.
[/quote]
[quote=CA renter]Thanks for posting that e-mail, ER. Very good points on his part.[/quote]
No problem at all CAR.
And absolutely I agree with the customer satisfaction survey. This is easily the best car (and most fun to drive) that I’ve ever had.
Also, the customer service is incredible! Case in point, I was out of town for an international business trip. I couldn’t tell my wife not to drive the car as she loves driving it as much as I do.
But when I came back home I noticed the bottom rocker panel was bulging out.
I was figuring it would cost a small fortune to fix. I emailed the Tesla service center and asked them how much it would be to fix it. It looked like maybe she backed out of a parking lot space that might have had a speed bump. She swears she didn’t hear anything but it had to be something like that.
Well, imagine my surprise when I get to the service center and they tell me they will fix it for free. They say as a valued customer they would be happy to fix it complementary. I go back and see them and I can see that they completely took it off and put it back on. I’m not sure if they put a brand new one on or not but it’s perfect good as new.
They did it all while I waited. It took about 1.5 hours. The kicker is he asked if I had time for a detail and they washed my car inside and out. Good as new. As well as a courtesy inspection of everything and even updated to the newest firmware release.
My cost? $0.00.
The customer service is incredible based on my experiences so far. I’m looking forward to getting my Model X once it is ready probably in late 2014 or early 2015.
November 19, 2013 at 12:56 PM in reply to: My experience getting a dedicated EV TOU 2 electric meter with SDGE #768161ParticipantFYI. I got this email from Tesla just a few minutes ago:
November 18, 2013
The Mission of Tesla
By Elon Musk, Chairman, Product Architect & CEO
Our goal when we created Tesla a decade ago was the same as it is today: to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible. If we could have done that with our first product, we would have, but that was simply impossible to achieve for a startup company that had never built a car and that had one technology iteration and no economies of scale. Our first product was going to be expensive no matter what it looked like, so we decided to build a sports car, as that seemed like it had the best chance of being competitive with its gasoline alternatives.
I suspected that this could be misinterpreted as Tesla believing that there was a shortage of sports cars for rich people, so I described the three step “master plan” for getting to compelling and affordable electric vehicles in my first blog piece about our company. This was unfortunately almost entirely ignored.
In order to get to that end goal, big leaps in technology are required, which naturally invites a high level of scrutiny. That is fair, as new technology should be held to a higher standard than what has come before. However, there should also be some reasonable limit to how high such a standard should be, and we believe that this has been vastly exceeded in recent media coverage.
How Does the Tesla Model S Fire Risk Compare to Gasoline Cars?
Since the Model S went into production last year, there have been more than a quarter million gasoline car fires in the United States alone, resulting in over 400 deaths and approximately 1,200 serious injuries (extrapolating 2012 NFPA data). However, the three Model S fires, which only occurred after very high-speed collisions and caused no serious injuries or deaths, received more national headlines than all 250,000+ gasoline fires combined. The media coverage of Model S fires vs. gasoline car fires is disproportionate by several orders of magnitude, despite the latter actually being far more deadly.
Reading the headlines, it is therefore easy to assume that the Tesla Model S and perhaps electric cars in general have a greater propensity to catch fire than gasoline cars when nothing could be further from the truth.
Journalists with a deep knowledge of the car industry, such as the news editor of Automotive News, understand and attempt to rebut this notion, but they have been drowned out by an onslaught of popular and financial media seeking to make a sensation out of something that a simple Google search would reveal to be false. I would also like to express appreciation for the investigative journalists who took the time to research and write an accurate article.
The degree to which this is outrageous is described well in the above-mentioned Automotive News article. There are now substantially more than the 19,000 Model S vehicles on the road that were reported in our Q3 shareholder letter for an average of one fire per at least 6,333 cars, compared to the rate for gasoline vehicles of one fire per 1,350 cars. By this metric, you are more than four and a half times more likely to experience a fire in a gasoline car than a Model S! Considering the odds in the absolute, you are more likely to be struck by lightning in your lifetime than experience even a non-injurious fire in a Tesla.
Those metrics tell only part of the story. The far more deadly nature of a gasoline car fire deserves to be re-emphasized. Since the Model S went into production mid last year, there have been over 400 deaths and 1,200 serious injuries in the United States alone due to gasoline car fires, compared to zero deaths and zero injuries due to Tesla fires anywhere in the world.
There is a real, physical reason for this: a gasoline tank has 10 times more combustion energy than our battery pack. Moreover, the Model S battery pack also has internal firewalls between the 16 modules and a firewall between the battery pack and passenger compartment. This effectively limits the fire energy to a few percent that of a gasoline car and is the reason why Dr. Shibayama was able to retrieve his pens and papers from the glove compartment completely untouched after the recent fire (caused by a high speed impact with a tow hitch). It is also why arsonists tend to favor gasoline. Trying to set the side of a building on fire with a battery pack is far less effective.
What About Safety Overall?
Our primary concern is not for the safety of the vehicle, which can easily be replaced, but for the safety of our customers and the families they entrust to our cars. Based on the Model S track record so far, you have a zero percent chance of being hurt in an accident resulting in a battery fire, but what about other types of accidents? Despite multiple high-speed accidents, there have been no deaths or serious injuries in a Model S of any kind ever. Of course, at some point, the law of large numbers dictates that this, too, will change, but the record is long enough already for us to be extremely proud of this achievement. This is why the Model S achieved the lowest probability of injury of any car ever tested by the US government. The probability of injury is the most accurate statistical figure of merit, showing clearly that the Model S is safer in an accident than any other vehicle without exception. It is literally impossible for another car to have a better safety track record, as it would have to possess mystical powers of healing.
Further Actions
While we believe the evidence is clear that there is no safer car on the road than the Model S, we are taking three specific actions.
First, we have rolled out an over-the-air update to the air suspension that will result in greater ground clearance at highway speeds. To be clear, this is about reducing the chances of underbody impact damage, not improving safety. The theoretical probability of a fire injury is already vanishingly small and the actual number to date is zero. Another software update expected in January will give the driver direct control of the air suspension ride height transitions.
Second, we have requested that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conduct a full investigation as soon as possible into the fire incidents. While we think it is highly unlikely, if something is discovered that would result in a material improvement in occupant fire safety, we will immediately apply that change to new cars and offer it as a free retrofit to all existing cars. Given that the incidence of fires in the Model S is far lower than combustion cars and that there have been no resulting injuries, this did not at first seem like a good use of NHTSA’s time compared to the hundreds of gasoline fire deaths per year that warrant their attention. However, there is a larger issue at stake: if a false perception about the safety of electric cars is allowed to linger, it will delay the advent of sustainable transport and increase the risk of global climate change, with potentially disastrous consequences worldwide. That cannot be allowed to happen.
Third, to reinforce how strongly we feel about the low risk of fire in our cars, we will be amending our warranty policy to cover damage due to a fire, even if due to driver error. Unless a Model S owner actively tries to destroy the car, they are covered. Our goal here is to eliminate any concern about the cost of such an event and ensure that over time the Model S has the lowest insurance cost of any car at our price point. Either our belief in the safety of our car is correct and this is a minor cost or we are wrong, in which case the right thing is for Tesla to bear the cost rather than the car buyer.
All of these actions are taken in order to make clear the confidence we have in our product and to eliminate any misperceptions regarding the integrity of our technology and the safety of our cars.
November 18, 2013 at 6:46 PM in reply to: My experience getting a dedicated EV TOU 2 electric meter with SDGE #768127Participant[quote=AN][quote=afx114]Tesla’s working on a system to swap out the entire battery system in less time than it takes you to pump a tank of gas: http://www.teslamotors.com/batteryswap
Watch the video, pretty interesting. Imagine your charge is running low — you simply drive up to a replacement station (similar to how gas engines force you to drive to a gas station), get new batteries, and are back on the road in under 90 seconds. Granted, you’d need plenty of replacement stations within range, but that’s the eventual goal.
So imagine the consumer being able to offload battery replacement/wear/degradation/maintenance to GiantBatteryCo(tm). As the batteries get swapped, GiantBatteryCo(tm) can run diagnostics on each pack and fix/replace/recycle as needed in a centralized location/process. The EV consumer no longer needs to worry about batteries in the same way that combustion engine consumers no longer need to worry about oil extraction/refining.
Batteries are one of the biggest sticking points for EVs, but if you remove those from the equation, it changes the outlook quite a bit.[/quote]
I read up on this proposal, but as I said earlier unless all electric cars uses the same battery design for all kinds of cars, so that any EV can go into this battery swapping station and swap out their battery, I don’t see it feasible to have a lot of these battery swapping station, due to the fact that there’s not a lot of Tesla cars out there. With gas, any car can go and refuel. In order for EV to replace ICE, it needs to solve that problem too. This is one of the reason why I’m more optimistic about FCV than EV as a long term solution of replacing ICE cars.[/quote]I haven’t read this thread (or the board for that matter) as I’ve been crazy busy. But I thought I’d take the time to post a follow up post. I still LOVE driving the car as much as when I got it. It’s been perfect with no problems (or fires..haha).
As much as I love driving it, I don’t see this rapid battery swap happening any time soon. Like many things with Tesla, there is a lot of gimmicky type marketing. Read some of the serious TMC posts (http://www.teslamotorsclub.com) and you will read from people that know cars VERY well that this isn’t easy.
Plus, how will Tesla have the supply to have all of these batteries? I just don’t see it happening anytime soon (i.e. the next several years).
I absolutely love the technology and love love love driving the car. They are all over the place now. Just driving around Rancho Santa Fe the other day I saw 4 of them in the span of 15 minutes.
I was in at the San Diego Service Center the other day. And I asked the guy about it and he joked that RSF has TONS of owners. It’s one of their biggest zip codes he said for Tesla owners…
ParticipantYep. I got one too from “Intali” on November 16. I kindly PM’ed them back, what a coincidence that I too was left a fortune and I’d be happy to help them get theirs if they send $15,000 and help me get mine.. LOL. I never heard back.
Here is what they sent:
My dear,
In confidence, I have to introduce myself for i am Ms. Leanna Ntali, 23 years old, I am the only child of late Mr & Mrs. Edward Ntali. I prayed before contacting you, please for God sake do not see my mail as embarrassment as we do not know each other.I wish to request for your assistance in my efforts to procure the transfer of my inherited money for investment ventures under your care and directive, while I continue my education of there in your country. I inherited Six Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (US$6,500,000.00) here in my name with one of the prime bank in my country and I will require your assistance in receiving the transfer of my inherited money in your account for investment purposes, as it is my wish to come over to your country to further my education while you take care of the investment of the money.
Please I am an orphan and I need your assistance to transfer my inherited money to your country and also your assistance to secure a nice school for me in your country where I will continue my education
Please kindly reply through this my private email address for further details ([email protected])Yours in need,
Ms. Leanna Ntali
NB: Please, where you cannot help me secure this money, kindly keep this information secret to yourself
__________________________
Here is my response:
What a coincidence. I also inherited $5 million dollars. I’m also an orphan. I’d be happy to send you half of it if you can send the $15,000 legal bill to handle the probate court.
It sounds like we both can win.
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