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Most of the time, the flip side of that phone call is an appointment in some hotel during which a sales person will explain in detail the advantages of having a second home in a select vacation resort. Later, those interested get a first hand look at the apartment and another sales rep will try to close the deal.

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Sales pressure aside, the bad reputation of what Spaniards once called multipropiedad, or multi-ownership, is a thing of the past. Even the term is gone. What is sold now is not property but time in a certain place of residence and the option to trade that slot for one someplace else.

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The term now used is the one employed in the rest of the world: time-sharing. The previous Spanish expression was misleading because people associated it with purchasing a piece of property. Potential buyers of this leisure-time option are fully protected under the Spanish law governing time-sharing, a business in which Spain is second in the world, surpassed only by the United States.����

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Summing it up, time-sharing involves acquiring the right to enjoy - for periods never less than a week -- apartments, hotel rooms, campers or even boats which are part of a tourist complex that features services and activities.

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Officials of the time-sharing company RCI explain it this way: �with this formula you only buy the amount of time you need, without worrying about maintaining the property all year, and knowing that someone is taking care of the damage that may be caused in the property. You pay a yearly fee, which, along with the condo fee paid by other residents of the building, guarantees it will be in perfect condition when your week in that apartment or house rolls around�.

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Time-sharing complexes tend to be located in tourist resorts such as beaches, mountain lodges, large cities or near tourist attractions. The time-sharing mechanism allows for trading among members of networks like RCI and Interval. Members pay a yearly amount to belong to the network, and then a fee for each trade they engage in. These operations are done with lodgings of a similar category, but there is always a setback: the most popular destinations usually have a waiting list of� months or even years.

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