I'm officially DONE buying more Timeshares - Happy w/ Portfolio

Well I looked at my current portfolio and figure I'm quite happy with what I have. They are all paid off (90% bought resale) and I have everything I want.

My Wyndham is my most used product and 2 years ago I moved all my deeds which I purchased resale under a Hawaii deed which puts me in the Outrigger Club, gave me VIP Gold (which I use a lot) and put me at 805,000 pts with my PIC (I'm using my combine memberships to RCI and Trading Spaces) Spent $5800 for resale points (605K) then upgrade $14,500 that gave me PIC and rolled all contracts into Hawaii property for resale.

My Sheraton Vistana gets me into the Interval and Starpoints, which I love and use as a PIC, or to trade into Interval properties $2500

My Wilderness Presidential Resort, gives me year around usage, is nearby my house and Kings Dominion where we get seasons passes to and visit every weekend in the summer. Also, allows us to leave our camper there and even stay there for up to 180 days a year with minimum cost. $350 is what I paid for this resale.

So, I'm so so done, and considering I purchased them for dirt cheap, (with the exception of the Wyndham upgrade and roll - in of my wyndham resale properties) I'm happy.

What about you? What's your portfolio looking like?

My Plan

Im still putting it together, ....The plan is to have enough for my own use, and enough to rent to cover maintenance fees.

The core is Wyndham points, they have resorts close to home, (Florida) as well in Washington DC, where my wife and I both have family, and in San Francisco, where my daughter and grandkids live.

I am trying to put together several other high demand fixed weeks or Wyndhan points with ARP from certain resorts to use as rentals. Im negotiating for a Mardi Gras week in New Orleans and just contracted for two Jazz festival weeks.. and Ive got my eye on a Bike Week week in Daytona. and with any luck by the end of the day, Ill have a new years (sugar bowl) week in New Orleans too.

Bought 2 & Gave Away 2 AFTER I was Set For Life. (Go Figure.)

lprstn said:

What about you? What's your portfolio looking like?

Click to expand...

Not sure our timeshare holdings are distinguished enough to be called a portfolio. We just have a 2BR fixed-week overseas timeshare, a 3BR floating week EEY Florida timeshare, & 2 dinky points timeshares.

The funny thing is, at this point last year we were complacently satisfied with what we had at the time. Yet since then we pretty much shook up our (pardon the expression) "portfolio." Things change.

We gave away (to a fellow TUG-BBS member) an outstanding every-year floating-week 3BR timeshare -- nothing wrong with it, we just weren't using it the way we though we would when we got it, & we lost confidence that we could rent it out.

Also, we deeded back to the resort an extremely dinky USA points timeshare where the maintenance fees were too high & escalating.

As a replacement, we bought a slightly less dinky triennial points timeshare (annual points, triennial deed) -- eBay, free closing, free resort transfer, 3 years' paid-up maintenance fees.

Then earlier this week, for no good reason, the devil made us by another even less dinky triennial points timeshare at the same resort -- eBay, 2 years' worth of free points, free RCI Points transfer, free resort transfer, $199 closing, same maintenance fees as the dinkier triennial deed.

Our thinking is we'll use the free points that came with our dinkier points timeshare, then give the deed away if anyone wants it before we're billed for fees. Next owner will get it free, but not with free points. (If there are no takers, we'll just keep it & pay the fees & use the points -- no problem.) We will hold onto the less dinky points timeshare, unless the devil makes us replace that with a non-dinky points timeshare for about the same money. We'll see.

The more we continue with timeshares, the more it really does seem like a semi-complicated board game, only with real people instead of little game tokens & real dollars instead of Monopoly money, & real places to to & check in for a week instead of little squares on a game board. (We play recreationally, not competitively.)

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

I Formerly Resembled That Remark.

ronparise said:

The plan is to have enough for my own use, and enough to rent to cover maintenance fees.

Click to expand...

It worked that way for us for several years.

Then we lost confidence we could keep on renting'm out. The idea of taking "surprise" vacations in our own timeshare (if we didn't get renters) lost much of its appeal, so last year we gave ours away el freebo.

Now we settle for luxury timeshare vacations at Motel 6 & Super 8 rates, which was pretty much the idea we had in mind anyway when we got into timeshares back in 2002.

Live & learn, eh ?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

I am still looking to add large wyndham point contracts.

Haha! I'm still looking for my first one!

In the year i've been on Tug, i went from looking for Fixed Week 26-35 2br's to Wyndham points, now i'm looking for Floating, biennial Lockoff's! I blame the members of this community for continually changing my mind RIGHT before i'm about to make a purchase!!

I think I am done. For now. After the two I just bought close, that is!


I've gone from thinking I'd never own a floating week to that being the majority of my (cough, cough) portfolio. I've also added a couple of every other year units, which I would have not guessed I would do a few years ago.

We vacation alot more now, due to better financial situation plus the savings associated with timesharing. Ok, overall the vacations cost the same, if not more, but it's how the pie gets sliced that counts. Much less spent on acommondations and alot more on activities. And of course the acommondations are so much better on top of being cheaper.

The new RCI system helped me alot (for now, things will change over time) as my pre-change purchases held up in value (thanks to what I learned here before buying) and when I did add to my (cough, cough) portfolio, I knew what I was getting for value much, much clearer than before.

Prices are so much better now too, than they were 3-5 years ago when I first started out. It's a great time to adjust holdings.

All I want to do next is remove a few timeshares from my (cough, cough) portfolio. Great weeks, and I am ok with keeping them, but not the best fit any longer for how things have developed for my needs. I am mid-talk on one sale - fingers crossed!

We thought we had the perfect mix with one error a couple years ago. We owned three points systems we liked - Wyndham, RCI points and Diamond Club plus weeks at a prime time at a resort we use and one we wanted out of (Wastegate - our ne ts error even at resale).

But then the economy and family situations changed and we revisited things.

We realized that renting rather than owning to use & trade had become far more reasonable and predictable. Owning had become less attractive as the fees were increasing, especially at developer controlled resorts/systems, so much that they no longer represented value especially when you looked at the option of renting.

So we made a massive change and sold/gave away everything except the deeded weeks we owned at owner controlled resorts we used the vast majority of the time. We currently still have RCI, RCI Points, Diamond Club and Corporate II memberships but any/all can be dropped by simply not paying the annual membership fee when due. The two weeks we are keeping trade well when needed, have reasonable fees and most importantly we use them the vast majority of the time.

We have found we can get the exact resorts/dates/units and even views if wanted MUCH easier (and cheaper) through renting than trade. That has worked out extremely well and we now recommend renting over any type of exchange company.

So we own what is likely our long term portfolio - two weeks. We will rent the rest and say we are happy with our timeshares overall. BIG change from what we saw as the right ownerships just 3 years ago.

In the interests of accuracy...

Ridewithme38 said:

....now i'm looking for Floating, Biannual Lockoff's...

Click to expand...

The correct word is biennial, which means "every other year".
Biannual means "twice per year" which, to the best of myknowledge, is something that does not exist in the timeshare world (unless, of course, one actually owns two separate weeks at the same place).

theo said:

The correct word is biennial, which means "every other year".
Biannual means "twice per year" which, to the best of myknowledge, is something that does not exist in the timeshare world (unless, of course, one actually owns two separate weeks at the same place).

Click to expand...

No wonder i haven't found any :hysterical: haha, sorry i'll fix the typo now

Words Trivia.

theo said:

The correct word is biennial, which means "every other year".
Biannual means "twice per year" which, to the best of myknowledge, is something that does not exist in the timeshare world (unless, of course, one actually owns two separate weeks at the same place).

Click to expand...

Another word for twice each year is semi-annual -- i.e., once each semi-year (every 6 months).

Confusing, eh ?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

I don't see us giving away ours for at lease 20 years since we have 4 kids and the two of us traveling. Wyndham's locations allow us to drive 30 min to stay somewhere nice from our house. Also, they are all paid off and the monthly fees are still reasonable compared to finding a condo sized accomodations for all of us without putting out $ to do a hotel.

That's why I know we are pretty much done, we have enough so that we can travel with everyone and flexibility. But if I had it to do over again, I so would have waited to now when people are 'giving' them away.

I'm still pretty new at this stuff, but in the last five years or so I've purchased 7 different timeshares, all resale on ebay, and none for more than a few hundred dollars.

I have since sold 3, gave back 2, and kept the two I most wanted. At this moment I'm happy with what I have, since it ties in perfectly with the TUG mantra of "own where you want to vacation." Both trade pretty well, too, so if I get tired of staying where I own, there's potential there.

There's only one more I'd like to own, but until it comes available through an ebay giveaway sale, I'm not buying. Till then, I can rent when I want to stay there.

Dave

I am revamping my porfolio completely. I am selling my there sheraton desert oasis two bedroom traders and I am buying peak season weeks where I think I want to go back every year on vacation. Found some great bargains and I am excited.

ada903 said:

I am revamping my porfolio completely. I am selling my there sheraton desert oasis two bedroom traders and I am buying peak season weeks where I think I want to go back every year on vacation. Found some great bargains and I am excited.

Click to expand...

Horrible time to be a seller - but if you bought right you can afford to sell at almost any price. GREAT time to be a buyer - the deals and your negotiating power has never been greater. You are wise to take advantage and get your ownerships adjusted while the deals are out there to be had. Buying to use is the best way to assure a happy ownership experience for any timeshare. Now days renting is a far better choice than almost any exchange company for overall flexibility and value.

Not me. We have 12 Mariotts now and I'm always looking for another great Marriott deal. So far knock on wood my rent/use plan with Marriott OF resorts has worked very well for us.

We've been very fotunate with the our rentals but that is not our goal with our portfolio, at least our primary one. We want to some day spend 3-4 months aboard at these great Marriott resorts.

At this point we're extremely selective and only look to secure units at rock bottom prices that we know we'd love to use and that will also be in super high demand. We also want to stick with OF units because the demand for those is always very high.

A few resorts on my wish list
Marriott Myrtle Beach Gold OF
Grand Ocean HHI Gold OF (our dream is to one day spend 2 months there)
Any Maui or Kauai OF 2BDRM at a good price.
Custom House Plat

I have one fixed week (28) timeshare in Mazatlan. I would *like* to add an eoy, floating wk, studio @ PBEB. I've seen two auctions on eBay in the last year. First time I wasn't looking, second time a couple of bidders bumped it up to $1k! - not what I'm willing to spend I'll just have to sit back and wait some more!