On 2010-11-30, Jon Elson wrote:
On 11/29/2010 04:23 PM, Steve B wrote:
A friend wants me to go with her to look at some property available on
Barbados. Your thoughts, travel experiences appreciated.
She wants to move there, or is this a vacation place? If vacation,
unless she is going to be there once a month, do anything to deter her
from this. Owning property thousands of miles from where you work and
live is a REALLY bad idea, unless you are in the travel or real estate
business, and it is your client who is doing the buying. This whole
vacation home in Honduras or Costa Rica thing is just the new time share
scam. Check eBay, etc. for all the people trying to unload the
timeshares they bought last decade! Or, the people trying to unload
vacation condos they bought in the 1980's and are STILL trying to
unload! There's a scam like this every decade that drags in the suckers
with all sorts of romantic images, but about 90% of the buyers end up
being REALLY sorry.

I could not agree more, this is stupid under most imaginable
circumstances, with a possible exception of a true distress sale. If
there are salesmen involved, it is not a distress sale.

I remembered how my wife convinced me to go to a sale presentation for
a timeshare. The bait was a free bottle of wine. What is amazing, is
that I had to talk my way out of it, was somehow accused of being a
bad and inconsistent person because I would not sign the contract. And
that was, considering that I had the money, salesman had absolutely
nothing as a leverage, but I still felt pressured!

i