Vacation home in Cabo San Lucas?
We loved it so much here that DH almost bought a fractional home! Fractional homes are like timeshare, except here, you buy a specific villa, usually for 1-3 months out of a year. Each time you come back, you will go back to your own place.
We spent an entire day looking at some ocean-view properties, but in the end, decided not to buy. The irony was, if they had not pressured us so much, we may have bought it! We wanted a few days to look through the contract and talk to a few people back home, but they wouldn’t let us. The salesman said we had to sign the contract that day to get that price. We hated making such a big decision without being fully informed. So we walked away, still questioning whether we made the right choice.
Prior to this trip, we knew vacation homes weren’t for us. But after viewing the properties, we were so tempted. The villas were all so beautiful, 3-4 bedrooms, brand new, elegantly decorated, fully furnished and in a gated community with 24/7 live guards. The 4-bedroom estates come equipped with Viking and Sub-zero kitchen appliances. You have the expansive view of the Pacific Ocean from every room in the house. Each villa comes with a private infinity pool, Jacuzzi, hot tub, barbecue, a fire pit, and a court yard, completed with water fountain. Maid services twice a day, a dedicated butler, a pool boy cleaning the pool daily, and free shuttle services to close-by 5-star resorts whenever you need. All are included in the yearly maintenance charge. They will buy groceries, stock your fridge and pantry, and adjust the pool temperature for you prior to your arrival. They will even put away and store your clothes and personal/recreational items when you leave, and bring them out again when you come back. This option is especially handy for people like me who do not travel light 
Whatever you need/want, just voice your requests and they will be taken care of. Paradise.
Ranging from $50-$120,000/week, depends on the time of the year we choose. Maintenance fee was $2,500/week for the 3-bedroom villas, and $4,500/week for the 4-bedroom estates. The sale rep made it sound so wonderful. He said we could easily rent out our villa for at least $1,500/night if we don’t want to use it. And because these houses were top of the line in timeshare programs, we could easily exchange our villa for any top-tier cruises and resorts in the world, including Regent, Six Senses and Four Seasons. Or if we want, we could exchange for another luxurious villa wherever we want, even in the hottest destinations such as Maui, Hawaii or Tuscany, Italy. And we’d have maid service twice a day and a butler regardless where we chose to exchange your villa to. Too good to be true? Totally.
After lots of research and talked to various people, we found that most of what the sale rep said were not entirely true. You own the property only 99 years. Regent and Four Seasons do NOT know anything about the claimed exchange program. As for exchanging for other villas anywhere else in the world? Well, we couldn’t find any one who could confirm or deny that claim. But we highly doubt it. Don’t get me wrong, those villas/estates that they were selling were absolutely beautiful and we loved them. And I have no doubt it would cost at least $4-8 million dollars if we bought one out right. However, I think it’s more suited for people who want to come back here year after year, or who live here part/full time. For us right now, it’s not a good fit. Maybe later, when we have more free time…
We realized how lucky we were that we did not make a rash decision. We could easily rent any of those villas from existing owners, any time we want. And if we want to buy, there are many choices on the secondary market as well, for much less than what the developers were asking. It was our first time ever attending a timeshare sales pitch, and we have to admit, it was a HARD sale. Although our whole day was gone by the time we walked out of the sales center, we were glad for that experience.
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