Any Las Vegas Polo Towers owners received an offer to repurchase?

I recently had an e-mail from Diamond International offering to repurchase my ownership interest in the Polo Towers Suites. I've not been quoted any figures as yet but was wondering if any other owners have had the same e-mail and if anyone can shed any light on the matter.

I'm not looking to sell but, who knows, if the price is right I may consider it. My unit is Tower 1, 16th floor, centre front with strip view.

Does anyone know why Diamond are making this offer? Something to do with the land at front maybe (currently the Hawaiian Marketplace). Any information anyone may have would be greatly appreciated.

I think that they are just low-balling owners who they believe may be 'tired' of owning. They turn around and dump them into the Trust after paying you peanuts. In the Trust, points are points, they can sell them as new for $30000+.

What phone number were you given?

Polo Towers Offer

I have just spoken to Diamond and they have made an offer of $7000 plus closing costs for my 2 bed, 2 bath, strip view unit. I'm not going to sell for this price but can anyone tell me if this is a fair offer? I am from the U.K. and not too sure about the U.S. timeshare resale market.

MAZxxx said:

I have just spoken to Diamond and they have made an offer of $7000 plus closing costs for my 2 bed, 2 bath, strip view unit. I'm not going to sell for this price but can anyone tell me if this is a fair offer? I am from the U.K. and not too sure about the U.S. timeshare resale market.

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For the last several years I could have picked up any number of 2 bedroom tower 1 units on E-bay for under $1,500. So yes, all things considered with the resale market it's an excellent offer. Compared to what you originally paid for the units it's could be anywhere from 25% to 50% of the original price

If they had offered me that price BEFORE I joined DRI's THE Club, I probably would have sold out.

It could have to do with the height restriction and DRI would prefer to buy owners out now rather than potetially having to haggle over price and/or value.

It's probably that they just want to get more units into the DRI Trust and into THE Club for exchange opportunities. If you can buy 'em for $7,000 and resell them for $30,000 plus get more people to exchange into the resort setting up future sales, it would be a good thing for DRI. I think that this is the more likely scenario.

One other thought would be the general disatisfaction the U.K. owners have had with Sunterra and now DRI. It could be that DRI is offering to buy back units from potentially disatsified European owners. It would be one way to get unhappy people out of the system and offer them some value for their units while also adding inventory that can be resold at a profit to new, happy owners for DRI.

JoeMid said:

What phone number were you given?

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After no help from MAZxxx and much time on the phone to clueless DRI people at corporate and Polo

888-250-6135
devbuyback@diamondresorts.com

JoeMid said:

After no help from MAZxxx and much time on the phone to clueless DRI people at corporate and Polo

888-250-6135
devbuyback@diamondresorts.com

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Interesting E-mail. Devbuyback was buying up units at one point on E-bay. When questioned no one at DRI had a clue what was going on.

Something doesn't add up. Why offer 7K for a tower one unit when you can buy them for around 2K on ebay every day of the week?

I can only surmise (as Doug said) there is something to the UK ownership angle, or the units that are specifically in the deeded height restriction zone are targeted by Diamond.

Anyone else have a different idea?

dougp26364 said:

Interesting E-mail. Devbuyback was buying up units at one point on E-bay. When questioned no one at DRI had a clue what was going on.

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That's not the answer I got... did you ask Troy at Polo??

cluemeister said:

Something doesn't add up. Why offer 7K for a tower one unit when you can buy them for around 2K on ebay every day of the week?

I can only surmise (as Doug said) there is something to the UK ownership angle, or the units that are specifically in the deeded height restriction zone are targeted by Diamond.

Anyone else have a different idea?

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I just gave them my 2BR for $7000 and my 1BR for $5500. I've got no idea what it was I owned as far as height, and UK has nothing to do with it.

Joe,

If you don't mind my asking, were both of your units in tower one with a strip view?

The way to know this is if your vacation unit number has four digits, the second number must be one, and the fourth number must be odd. An example would be 8103.
If your vacation unit number has five digits, the third number must be one, and the fifth number must be odd. An example of this would be 16101.

Thanks!

JoeMid said:

That's not the answer I got... did you ask Troy at Polo??
I just gave them my 2BR for $7000 and my 1BR for $5500. I've got no idea what it was I owned as far as height, and UK has nothing to do with it.

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cluemeister said:

Joe,

If you don't mind my asking, were both of your units in tower one with a strip view?

The way to know this is if your vacation unit number has four digits, the second number must be one, and the fourth number must be odd. An example would be 8103.
If your vacation unit number has five digits, the third number must be one, and the fifth number must be odd. An example of this would be 16101.

Thanks!

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xx3x5 2BR
xx2x5 1BR
?

Thanks Joe,

Looks like you have a tower two unit, and a Villas unit.

Now I'm really confused.

JoeMid said:

xx3x5 2BR
xx2x5 1BR
?

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cluemeister said:

Thanks Joe,
Looks like you have a tower two unit, and a Villas unit.
Now I'm really confused.

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xx3x5 2BR $7000/14,500pts = $0.48/pt
xx2x5 1BR $5500/9000pts = $0.61/pt
this is the difference that makes no sense to me.

JoeMid said:

That's not the answer I got... did you ask Troy at Polo??
I just gave them my 2BR for $7000 and my 1BR for $5500. I've got no idea what it was I owned as far as height, and UK has nothing to do with it.

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No, I did not ask Troy. The last few e-mail communications did not have a friendly feel to them. Especially when I inquired about what impact DRI's acquisition of Sunterra would mean to PT's owners. His answer may have been based on the best information he had at the time but, in no uncertain terms I was made to understand that it would have NO impact and was of no concern to Polo Towers owners. That turned out to be about as far from the truth as one could get.

As far as height restrictions, two of the units are high enough it wouldn't matter. Joe's units appeared to be in towers 2 & 3 so view wouldn't matter with the height restriction.This appears to be DRI just aquiring inventory that can be placed in the DRI trust and resold for a profit. I guess buying units on E-bay wasn't fast enough to get the inventory they wanted. The prices they're offering are good prices if one was interested in selling out.

One other idle thought is control. If DRI owns enough units and those units are placed in the trust, which is controled by DRI, then PT's HOA/BOD will forever be controlled by whomever owns the DRI trust. If this happens owners are going to have very little imput into HOA/BOD decisions. At that point owners will just be along for the ride. But, this is all based on speculation without any facts and should be viewed in that manner.

dougp26364 said:

No, I did not ask Troy. The last few e-mail communications did not have a friendly feel to them. Especially when I inquired about what impact DRI's acquisition of Sunterra would mean to PT's owners. His answer may have been based on the best information he had at the time but, in no uncertain terms I was made to understand that it would have NO impact and was of no concern to Polo Towers owners. That turned out to be about as far from the truth as one could get.

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If they weren't friendly, and you were, I'd turn around and send them to Stephen Cloobeck. If you weren't friendly, watch out!

dougp26364 said:

As far as height restrictions, two of the units are high enough it wouldn't matter. This appears to be DRI just aquiring inventory that can be placed in the DRI trust and resold for a profit. I guess buying units on E-bay wasn't fast enough to get the inventory they wanted. The prices they're offering are good prices if one was interested in selling out.

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Exactly.

JoeMid said:

If they weren't friendly, and you were, I'd turn around and send them to Stephen Cloobeck. If you weren't friendly, watch out!

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I should have saved them to forward to S. Cloobeck but, at the time I didn't forsee the degree of his involvement or his openess with owners. Troy has been one of his right hand men for a very long time and I don't think and exchange of e-mails between us would have done much to that relationship.

I have not been contacted, but now that I found out I'm allergic to Vegas during my week (14) I'll be calling them to sell my unit.

I hope they offer me the same $5500 for a one bedroom as I have a 16th floor strip view.

Wish me luck!

I'll let everyone know what I find out.

Mydogs2big said:

I have not been contacted, but now that I found out I'm allergic to Vegas during my week (14) I'll be calling them to sell my unit.

I hope they offer me the same $5500 for a one bedroom as I have a 16th floor strip view.

Wish me luck!

I'll let everyone know what I find out.

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You're allergic to Vegas during you're week 14? That's to bad since week 14 should be a good time of year to be in Vegas. That should be early to mid April and the temps are generally pretty nice then. Unfortunately, the wind does tend to kick up a lot of dust in the spring but, it also blows out the smog.

Hope you get what you're wanting. Good luck.

Well they offered me $5000. Which was better than a stick at the nose!

Yes, I'm allergic to whatever is in the air at that time. I am so bummed because I loved the room and believe it is now the best timeshare in Vegas less the noise from Hawaiian Marketplace and no casino downstairs.

I was so excited about the heated pool, perfect weather at that time and the great view of the new City Center and it's reflection of lights.

Oh, well. I don't care to ever pay to get sick again.

Mydogs2big said:

Well they offered me $5000. Which was better than a stick at the nose!

Yes, I'm allergic to whatever is in the air at that time. I am so bummed because I loved the room and believe it is now the best timeshare in Vegas less the noise from Hawaiian Marketplace and no casino downstairs.

I was so excited about the heated pool, perfect weather at that time and the great view of the new City Center and it's reflection of lights.

Oh, well. I don't care to ever pay to get sick again.

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You could join DRI's THE Club and convert your week to points. Then you could use your PT's ownership anytime a week is available, travel to any other DRI location or, use your points for exchanges through I.I. Gold membership in I.I. is included with your THE Club dues and offers you a few more exchange options and discounts.

Have you looked into that option yet? Polo Towers actually offers a substantial number of points for their units when placed in THE Club.

I've heard it was a good trader. But honestly, I'm too lazy to do all that work. That's what I like about fixed weeks. This week could also float, but you have to call 59 days ahead, which seems like last minute chaos.

Also, I was a timeshare junkie and bought more weeks than we can use. Rather than giving them away, I can afford to let some go.

I just hope in two years when the City Center is running and someone offers to buy Polo Towers I don't miss out on $20,000 that someone suggested the underlying land was worth per interval week. We'll see.

Mydogs2big said:

I've heard it was a good trader. But honestly, I'm too lazy to do all that work. That's what I like about fixed weeks. This week could also float, but you have to call 59 days ahead, which seems like last minute chaos.

Also, I was a timeshare junkie and bought more weeks than we can use. Rather than giving them away, I can afford to let some go.

I just hope in two years when the City Center is running and someone offers to buy Polo Towers I don't miss out on $20,000 that someone suggested the underlying land was worth per interval week. We'll see.

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You won't miss out on anything. Just ask the Summer Bay owners when Harrah's bought out their timeshare. You don't own anything but the space inside the condo and the right to use that space once each year in perpituity. The land and all the common area's of PT's still remains with the developer. Sure you'd get a bite but, I bet it won't be anymore than what you're being offered now.

Got my checks yesterday a very nice 'flip' even if that's not why I bought them. I can now go buy some nice Marriott with the profits.

JoeMid said:

Got my checks yesterday a very nice 'flip' even if that's not why I bought them. I can now go buy some nice Marriott with the profits.

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I sort of wished I'd held off on joining THE Club and would have had I known they would be offering that much money in a buy back offer. I believe I would have taken the combined monies ($15,000) and purchased a nice resale Marriott unit somewhere. It would have decreased the number of weeks I own (I've got one to many right now anyway) and would have brought one more high quality resort with good internal exchange rights (Marriot to Marriott) into my holdings. As a bonus another week with Marriott would have been less MF's than the two weeks I have with DRI.

I called them yesterday and their offer for our 2BR (every year) was $4000. Not what I was hoping for after reading the other posts!

vicki said:

I called them yesterday and their offer for our 2BR (every year) was $4000. Not what I was hoping for after reading the other posts!

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I was just thinking that I might call to see what the current offer is. At $7,500 I almost think I'd sell out even though I paid the $2,995 to join THE Club. I'm not liking the direction the company is going as far as SA's, MF's and dues for THE Club.

But at $4,000 per week I couldn't buy a Marriott week I'd want to replace the two DRI weeks I'd be selling back. Right now I believe if I could get enough out of the two DRI weeks to buy a Marriott week that we'd enjoy I'd jump on it. But $8,000 isn't going to buy what I'd want. $15,000 might come close enough and the MF would be less.