Orange Lake Resort

Going on a presentation tomorrow.

It's my understanding that if I buy at Orange Lake Resort, I'll be in the RCI Points system, and that I'll be able to convert my Woodstone weeks to RCI points (for $75/week) or Holiday Vacation Club Points.

I believe that if I buy a Orange Lake resale, I can't convert Woodstone weeks to RCI or HIVC points.

Seems like there's an advantage to having a Points unit (even if bi-annual) since I would have access to both Weeks and Points resorts.

Does it make sense to convert RCI weeks to RCI Points or HIVC Points?

I believe my August 2-bedroom Woodstone lockout would earn 90K RCI points at a cost of $150. Is this a good number if true?

Is it accurate that if I bought resale, I can't convert RCI weeks to RCI Points or Holiday Inn points?

Does it make sense to pay about $10K for a bi-annual Orange Lake two bedroom to give me access to RCI Points resorts?

Tom

NO!!!

1st, is your woodstone resort part of the RCI points program? If so, you can not deposit it to RCI for points (PFD)
2nd, are you willing to part with $10,000 knowing as soon as you leave this purchase will have a resale value of $0?

You can buy RCI points resorts on Ebay for under $500 total with more points and at a lower annual cost.

I just doesn't make sense , RCI now assigns a point value for each week in the "Weeks Side" , what advantage do think you will gain going to RCI points?

fwiw
Greg

Tommart said:

Going on a presentation tomorrow.

It's my understanding that if I buy at Orange Lake Resort, I'll be in the RCI Points system, and that I'll be able to convert my Woodstone weeks to RCI points (for $75/week) or Holiday Vacation Club Points.

I believe that if I buy a Orange Lake resale, I can't convert Woodstone weeks to RCI or HIVC points.

Seems like there's an advantage to having a Points unit (even if bi-annual) since I would have access to both Weeks and Points resorts.

Does it make sense to convert RCI weeks to RCI Points or HIVC Points?

I believe my August 2-bedroom Woodstone lockout would earn 90K RCI points at a cost of $150. Is this a good number if true?

Is it accurate that if I bought resale, I can't convert RCI weeks to RCI Points or Holiday Inn points?

Does it make sense to pay about $10K for a bi-annual Orange Lake two bedroom to give me access to RCI Points resorts?

Tom

Click to expand...

Sounds like you need to do a lot more research before considering buying OLCC -- and the usual advice is always "don't buy directly from the developer, or the resort." Look more into resale. OLCC is a lovely resort, and they will likely tell you that whatever their final offer is, is "only good for today" -- that is not true. Resist all of their arguments about why you should buy during that presentation --- just keep saying No.

Response to Question

aliikai2 said:

1st, is your woodstone resort part of the RCI points program? If so, you can not deposit it to RCI for points (PFD).......

Click to expand...

Greg, Woodstone is a Weeks resort, but it's my understanding that Woodstone can be converted to HI points, and HI point can be converted to RCI points if desired.

Tom

Tommart said:

Going on a presentation tomorrow.


Does it make sense to convert RCI weeks to RCI Points or HIVC Points?



Does it make sense to pay about $10K for a bi-annual Orange Lake two bedroom to give me access to RCI Points resorts?

Tom

Click to expand...

I hope I did not chime in too late. I went on a similar presentation over a month ago. To me, it does not make sense to pay $5400 to convert your RCI Weeks to HIVC Points.

The salesmen (yeah, plural) told us that we could deposit our week and exchange for gas, groceries, hotels, etc. However, I have this hunch that the amount paid for MFs would be far greater than what we would get in return.

When you asked if it made sense to pay about $10K... my answer would be that that money would be better spent renting. That amount of money could get you about 7-8 good rentals over the next 7-8 years. Just my opinion though.

First Comment

Went to my presentation. I learned a lot, but the one hour meeting lasted 3 hours. Some of the delay is my fault -- asking questions, but frankly I don't see how any of these presentations last one hour. I expected two hours. The salesperson also didn't show us the model because we've stayed in both a one-bedroom and three-bedroom unit.

Met with one sales woman, who brought the manager, who later brought someone else -- each offering me a lower price.

Their main selling points were:

1. Orange Lake is great ( I agree.)
2. My weeks timeshare will someday be worthless. I'll need to pay $15K for each of my Woodstone weeks to convert to Points. RCI Points is vastly superior and will kill the weeks program.
3. I can convert my weeks for over 200,000 HIVC points, and if I want could convert these points into over 100,000 RCI points.

Told me that the regular selling price for a two-bedroom (annual deed) is $35K, but today, I could buy it for $30K. She said I would not need to buy HIVC points since I would get so much points from my Weeks resorts.

Told me that annual maintenance is about $700. That seemed a little low and I finally got out of her that this doesn't include about $115 in property taxes or HIVC points if I would buy them.

The second salesman first dropped the price to $15K -- offering a bi-annual deal. Said, I get so many points from my weeks, I don't need an annual deed. I still could come to OL annually and have points left over. He later dropped the price to $10K.

The third salesman dropped the price to $7500 and he told me that it included 100K of HIVC points-biannually. I didn't ask how that affected my total MF costs.

I asked 24 hours to think about it. No deal. Now or never. Told them I can't make a commitment like this without some thought. I suspect that Florida probably has a recission period, but they never brought that up. Well, it looks like never.

Rationale

There's many reasons why I didn't buy.

First, is that I don't understand the value of HIVC points, or RCI Points for that matter.

Second, I don't understand all the costs. There would be a $300 cost to transfer my Weeks to HIVC points. Not sure if there's a cost to convert these to RCI points. Not sure what the 100K of HIVC points cost.

We plan to will one of our weeks to one son, and the second week to my other son. Buying another week complicates this--especially if we're converting to HIVC points.

$7.5K purchase price for a bi-annual deed is high.

Salesmen stated that if I buy a resale or sell my OL week, the buyer will not be able to convert RCI weeks units to HIVC points. I don't like buying something that cannot be resold in it's entirety.

The maintenance fee is too high--even though it is cut in half by buying a bi-annual unit. My Woodstone four-bedroom lockout costs $670 for two 2-bedrooms.

I'm confused about buying a bi-annual unit. Seems that everyone could buy a bi-annual unit to reduce MF, but buy enough points to use it annually?

I bought once under the pressure of "offer only good now", and made a large mistake. I'm not going to do that again.

Their argument that "buying an OL Points week solves the problem of RCI Weeks dying" doesn't make sense. If weeks would die, HIVC surely would offer far less HIVC points for my Weeks than 200K. (I also don't believe Weeks will die.)

Tom