In the late 1980's, my parents bought a timeshare through Worldmark, aka Trendwest, now owned by Wyndham. They figured that we were all young enough to enjoy it, and there were so many nice resorts to choose from.

So far, so good, or so they thought.

They'd use the timeshare a few days a year, mostly going to stay in Leavenworth near my sister's family. Meanwhile, they're paying monthly maintenance fees and paying off the balance of the timeshare ownership.

My dad became pretty much disabled a few years back, and my parents used their time less and less. They were paying money for something they weren't using. My mom thought she'd buy another week's worth of point, so that my brother sister and I could share them once my parents passed on.

Well, she needn't have bothered. We don't want a timeshare. She decided to try to sell it. But guess what? Despite what the timeshare people tell you,

TIMESHARES ARE NOT AN INVESTMENT!

In attempting to sell the timeshare, we found out the following:

- timeshare salespeople will describe their product as an investment. In fact, it has no cash value, and people are not even able to give their timeshares away on Ebay.

- these same folks will also tell you that you have EXCLUSIVE ACCESS to some of the best resorts anywhere. NOT TRUE: unsold weeks or rooms are offered to other travel clubs through clearinghouses, and often for a cheaper price than your week cost you.

- the timeshare, by some vague legal wrangling, is considered heritable property. It goes to your heirs, like a house would, even though it has NO CASH VALUE and is NOT ACTUAL PROPERTY.

- your heirs, once they have the timeshare, are bound by the same rules you were, namely they are saddled with maintenance fees, special assessments, and the like, because the contract you signed was "IN PERPETUITY". Now your heirs also can't get this thing off their hands. (How a third party can be bound by a contract of which they had no knowledge and in which they did not participate is mind-boggling.)

- companies offering to list your timeshare for sale are ripping you off - statistically, close to NO ONE sells their timeshare this way.

- the only way we found to take our name off the "deed" (and I use that word only because the timeshare people do) is to PAY SOMEONE TO TAKE IT OFF YOUR HANDS. That's right. You pay a company to immediately transfer this shithole fake investment out of your name and you walk out of the hotel meeting room NO LONGER A TIMESHARE OWNER. Yeah, the cost was steep, but it will amortize in 26 months (as in, 26 months of maintenance fees equals what we paid these people).

- The benefits of transferring are that you at least get to claim the loss as a capitol loss on your taxes. You can deduct $3000 per year to the value of the "investment", including the amount you paid to the transfer company to relieve your suffering and take the timeshare.

It's been arduous. It's been expensive.

DON'T BUY A TIMESHARE. Ever. Your heirs, at least, will thank you.