Timeshare - to Buy or not to Buy

I know a lot of people are down on them, but I am not one of them.  We own two timeshares and that is how we do a lot of our traveling.  We are able to exchange the units we own in Vegas though an exchange company (RCI.com)and stay where ever we like.  We have been able to use ours to go to Hawaii, Canada, and a whole assortment of places in Orlando. 

Knowing what I know now I would never buy one through the actual resort.  I would go to the presentation and get my free gift, but I would not under any circumstances buy from them.  Instead find an individual seller.  That same unit that the resort is selling for 30,000 you can probably get for 5,000.  There are tons of people out there that bought them and never use them.  We use ours, but after the upgrades they did to our resort it was worth more points in the exchange company so we don't need both units any more.  As soon as I have time I will be listing one of ours with a resale company.  That unit sells for around 25,000 at the resort now, but when we got it, it was much less.  We will probably sell for around 12,500.  This is a savings of 50%.  I am betting that if you love a resort and look around hard enough you could probably save even more! 
At this time the only resale company on the internet I trust is redweek.com.  If I happen to find others I will add them. 

If you are looking for somewhere to buy I suggest you keep several things in mind. 
Location!  Can you get there easily?  If there is not a cheap airline to get you there or it is a reasonable drive, you will never go.  It will have been a waste of money. 
High Demand!  Is there high demand to stay in this area?  The higher the demand is for the area the more exchange points you get through an exchange system.  For example our two weeks in Vegas often exchanges for 3-5 weeks each year in different parts of the world.  So, instead of two vacations we get 3 - 5. 

Some of the things I like about staying at a timeshare is having your own kitchen.  We save a ton on food when we are traveling because we have the ability to make a pot of spaghetti.  I like having a two bedroom unit so we have enough space for all of us!  I especially like not sharing a room with my children.