Choose Life! (not timesharing)

You know, timesharing is a huge industry, and with so many people buying in there's bound to be some bad apples in there looking to cash in on people's good will. So in a way it doesn't surprise me that there are so many scams out there. Avoiding them in some cases just takes a little bit of common sense, such as not buying from a suspicious-looking company in the Caribbean that has no office and no BBB profile. But there are other cases where protection is harder, where your friends and neighbors could tell you great things about a timeshare company that turns around and gives your family a raw deal.

It's happened before. The key thing to remember is this: timesharing is not for everyone. And although many people may lean on aphorisms such as "Don't knock it until you've tried it," this is one of those situations where a little experimentation could have permanent, long-lasting effects; such as with narcotics. Timesharing will affect different people in different ways depending on a number of variables, but one thing is for sure, you should know exactly what you're getting in to and whether it's something that will really benefit you or not.

We hear lots of stories in our office about timesharing; people that inherited them, people that bought and never used them, people that got conned into buying them. Sometimes there was a choice involved, sometimes not. Sometimes the people found themselves the victims of a system that had worked for several others.

When there is a choice, don't be afraid to make a stand and do the right thing, regardless of what the sales rep says. Just remember that things are never as they are in dreamy brochures, and that for every salesman trying to sell you a timeshare there are probably another 20 customers trying to sell their timeshares back.