Just a thought to instill some hope: Maybe the new HGV regime will make things better(?)
What follows is just my personal assessment of the state of affairs with regard to the predicament many TS owners face now or might face as their personal situation changes.
The questions are:
1) As an owner, are you able to afford AND still enjoy your ownership by -
a) either continuing to use your unit(s) yourself? Your family member?
b) exchanging for other properties?
2) Are you still able to travel when you want to -
a) is health an impediment?
b) are family members interested in taking over your ownership either now or after your passing?
3) If you cannot use your ownership and decide to rent it out to non-family members-
a) are you able to recover a significant portion of your MFs to make the effort worthwhile?
b) are you willing to do the listing and interact with strangers yourself?
c) if not, you need to enlist the services of a third party listing service or a specialized brokerage service who will list the property and transact with the public. Obviously, this route will lower your your recovery of MFs. Check rental prices yourself for your resort for the time period you own to see what financial recovery can be anticipated.
4) If, for whatever reason, continued ownership does not make sense any longer and a family member is not interested in assuming the financial obligation associated with ownership, you should give serious consideration of conveying the ownership to the developer. If the developer has a program and you qualify, do it. I did.
On the issue of whether HGV will "make things better" is it depends on what aspect of ownership you are most interested in. As a general rule, no developer is interested in competition with owners for a piece of the pie. Whether HGV will continue to allow owners to rent to non-family members is something that cannot be predicted. The last time I researched this topic, it seems to be an industry standard wherein such rental activity qualifies as a "commercial enterprise" as is strictly prohibited by the resort's HOA, the developer or both. Yet, it's clear from thousands of postings on various forums and FB pages that many owners do engage in this activity In fact, I've seen solicitations from owners requesting other owners to turn over their anticipated unused weeks to them. They act as a broker even though they are not bonded or licensed. My gut feeling is that any developer, including HGV, will turn a blind eye if such rental activity by owners does not impact their business model or bottom line. IT is NEVER permissible to seek an exchange for the purpose of commercial enterprise. All exchange companies that I am aware of have such a clause in their Agreements. If the exchange company learns of this activity, the exchange company will cancel the reservation and the owner could be sued by the prospective renter for false representation and be disenrolled by the exchange company. Good luck......
