wcfr1
TUG Member
Since I live near the beaches of Pinellas County Florida, home to 24 timeshares, I am often asked which ones are any good. So I decided to rate them. Attached is a Word document of my personal rating of these timeshares. This rating system is pretty simple. I looked at it from an exchange or rental point of view. Why an exchange and not a buyers point of view? Simply because of what I could evaluate in a simple drive by. They are listed by address, starting on the north end of the beach in Clearwater south to St. Pete Beach.
I simply drove by and looked at all of them from the outside and graded on a scale of 1 to 10 five simple criteria with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best.
I did not or could not evaluate the actual rooms, on site activities, M&T costs, sale price or management company. I could however evaluate how they looked from the outside. I generally asked myself, “Does this look like a place my wife would be happy I booked?”
So what are my five criteria? Let’s take a look:
All the properties are about the same when it comes to access from the airport or access to restaurants or nightlife. Within a few minutes drive of multiple places for each. I also compared these units against each other, not against timeshares generally. Remember, these are beach timeshares. The salt air is more rough on them then most climates. Also, I did not go inside any of them but I know for a fact that if you are expecting an Orlando size room you better lower your expectations. Real estate per square foot is way more expensive on the beach.
These are just my first hand impressions and you may agree or disagree, everyone has their own taste, just wanted to put something out there for those who might be interested. If trading or renting in this should help. If buying, I spoke to a local beach realtor who deals in timeshares and she told me that none are still being sold by any developer but most are on the resale market. Some properties were built as timeshares and some were converted motels or even converted condos. It appeared to me that a few still had mixed occupancies, where part of the complex was still condo and the other part was timeshare. I also believe that the converted motels are generally older and smaller and the converted condos are generally bigger and newer.
On this note I will leave with this final observation. I am a firefighter/instructor here in Florida. In a couple of my classes I use photos from a building on the beach that burned down about 20 years ago. Today I realized that building was a timeshare. It actually looked like one of the better timeshare buildings I evaluated. The name? Hideaway Sands.
Hope it helps someone.
I simply drove by and looked at all of them from the outside and graded on a scale of 1 to 10 five simple criteria with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best.
I did not or could not evaluate the actual rooms, on site activities, M&T costs, sale price or management company. I could however evaluate how they looked from the outside. I generally asked myself, “Does this look like a place my wife would be happy I booked?”
So what are my five criteria? Let’s take a look:
- A-How does the exterior look, or what is my first impression as I drove up? I say go with your gut here. First impressions are usually best. If it didn’t score a 5 or better I wouldn’t stay regardless of the overall score.
- B-How noisy is it. Since the beaches here are barrier islands they tend to be narrow. Real narrow in some parts. As a result some properties are close to the main road (Gulf Blvd). So I considered how much road traffic could I expect? The higher the number the quieter.
- C-How did the pool and Jacuzzi look? All but a couple had a pool and Jacuzzi or hot tub but some were pretty lame.
- D-Any security issues or how safe would I feel staying here. I considered access to the rooms, whether or not they had security on site, my knowledge of the neighborhoods and even access to the rooms and locks on the doors.
- E-Finally I looked at not only access to the beach but view of the beach. I thought, If I was going to stay on the beach in Florida, wouldn’t I want to actually stay on the beach or at least see the beach? All but a couple properties were on the gulf side of the road but not all had water views. Beach real estate is very expensive so many properties are laid out as narrow strips so the view may be North or South as opposed to the Gulf to the West or Bay to the East. Some properties had views of the road and some had multiple views depending on what unit you would be assigned.
All the properties are about the same when it comes to access from the airport or access to restaurants or nightlife. Within a few minutes drive of multiple places for each. I also compared these units against each other, not against timeshares generally. Remember, these are beach timeshares. The salt air is more rough on them then most climates. Also, I did not go inside any of them but I know for a fact that if you are expecting an Orlando size room you better lower your expectations. Real estate per square foot is way more expensive on the beach.
These are just my first hand impressions and you may agree or disagree, everyone has their own taste, just wanted to put something out there for those who might be interested. If trading or renting in this should help. If buying, I spoke to a local beach realtor who deals in timeshares and she told me that none are still being sold by any developer but most are on the resale market. Some properties were built as timeshares and some were converted motels or even converted condos. It appeared to me that a few still had mixed occupancies, where part of the complex was still condo and the other part was timeshare. I also believe that the converted motels are generally older and smaller and the converted condos are generally bigger and newer.
On this note I will leave with this final observation. I am a firefighter/instructor here in Florida. In a couple of my classes I use photos from a building on the beach that burned down about 20 years ago. Today I realized that building was a timeshare. It actually looked like one of the better timeshare buildings I evaluated. The name? Hideaway Sands.
Hope it helps someone.
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