A plugged-in tipster reports that of roughly 50 houses and condos scheduled to hit the courthouse steps this afternoon in San Francisco, auctions for the vast majority (40-ish) were postponed and the rest cancelled which included the latest foreclosure proceedings against 755 Marina Boulevard.
The only real auction action today in San Francisco seemed to be for a batch of timeshare units with opening bids starting at just over a thousand each. Don’t ask us.
UPDATE: Or do (ask us).
The foreclosed upon timeshare units appear to have been seven shares of San Francisco Suites (710 Powell). From the July 2009 San Francisco Suites Association meeting minutes:
With regard to the 2009 assessment delinquencies, there are 22 delinquent shares facing foreclosure, plus 3 more that are on a payment schedule. The process is in motion according to the rules and regulations of the Suites.
Seven down and fifteen to go?
∙ Yahoo Unveils Underwhelming Foreclosure Center [SocketSite]
∙ San Francisco Suites: Association Meeting Minutes – July 2009 [sfsuitescsa.com]
A thousand bucks for a timeshare in SF? That might be a really good deal, if they are week long shares in a decent place.
UPDATE: Or do (ask us).
The foreclosed upon and auctioned timeshare units appear to have been seven shares of San Francisco Suites. From the July 2009 San Francisco Suites Association meeting:
Seven down and fifteen to go?
y, 710 Powell.
Buying Trust Deeds is complicated. You probably won’t get them “free and clear”.
D – timeshares also have maintenance fees, sometimes higher than comparable hotel rack rates for the same period.
I’ve been involved in liquidating several timeshares, one of which had actually had negative value in the sense that I could find no buyer to even take it over for free. The best return that I got was 75% on a 3 year hold. That’s 75 cents back on the dollar.
My advice to anyone reading here thinking of buying into a timeshare is : never buy at retail from the sales office. Only buy in secondary markets (if at all : even at a discount timeshares are not necessarily a good deal since maintenance fees can become huge).
And selling a timeshare is almost the same level of hassle as selling a complete 52/52 ownership in a normal home.
I wonder what the maintenance fees for a week in a 1BR at the San Francisco Suites runs ? I could not find this on their website.
What is with that facade ? It looks like something that would pop up in an Orlando theme park. It has as much relevance to SF architectural history as El Torito’s has to Mexican cuisine.
I always found timeshares a huge scam, in par with Neg-amortization and liar loans. A product designed to make something “affordable” to you but instead making you pay too much for the same product.
The value of a property should be related directly to the possible income one can extract from said property.
With all the products that make property “affordable”, you end up like the Tenderloin bum paying cheap liquor in small flasks at $25 for a $10 bottle.
Also, generally a decent hotel or a weekly rental of a vacation home is a much better deal than a timeshare. Most of the economics behind timeshares depend on spending too much for too little asset (especially when you include maintenance), as Milkshake and wow said, and also the fact that people rarely use them as much as they think they will. Why do you think they give you free trips for going to the presentations?
Another option, if you can afford it, is to buy a property suitable as a corporate rental. Rent it out 11 months a year and live in it for a month. Overhead like furniture and management fees have to be taken into account. A savvy investor can perfectly have a sleeping pad in a major city that costs him nothing if the purchase price is right.
We sat and listened to a spiel for some Napa timeshare a few summers back. The sales office overlooked the Golden Gate Bridge and it was all quite lovely. We had a wonderful salesman, except we weren’t buying. I teach sales and I would gladly give him an A for his hard work, but no sale. The closer they brought in even wanted us to refinance our house to pay for the thing. Ha! How many people fall for this?
“sales office overlooked the Golden Gate Bridge” — tells you what they spend money on and shows how much they’re really making in profit
“The closer they brought in even wanted us to refinance our house to pay for the thing” — that’s just horrifying, and anyone who does so has a few screws loose
Would you prefer a sales office with a view of the back of a laundromat?
Oh, these guys aren’t doing very well. They must be honest.
Is that it?
“Would you prefer a sales office with a view of the back of a laundromat?”
I knew that comment would get the salespeople buzzing. How about a sales office in, uh, let’s say Napa? In any case, believing things salespeople tell you when you don’t have an ongoing relationship is a losing proposition in most cases. The incentives are not aligned.
Hey, I believe people have the freedom to choose how to spend their money and if they want to buy a timeshare, so be it. I was just really impressed with the whole set up and the really good sales people they had trained. But, I wasn’t going to spend my money on a timeshare and we stuck to our story.