# Playa Grande hoses their owners- AGAIN



## oldbuyer (Sep 17, 2010)

Playa Grande who previously had a $250 resort transfer fee went to $500 with no notice 3 months ago. This month, with no notice agin, went to 10% of the original sale price! This has effectively stopped all secondary purchases as the resort transfer fee is now $1,500-$3,000 plus the usual junk (escrow etc.) fees.
This seems desperate and it's plain wrong. It's Mexico so I doubt we can do anything about it. Best hope is a hurricane levels this slime ball owners house and this properties. This used to be a classy resort now it's just another TS scam.


----------



## rpennisi (Sep 17, 2010)

Grupo Mayan made similar changes in the transfer fee rates, but they changed with new contracts, not existing ones.  First it was one maintenance fee, then 10% of the original price, then 5 maintenance fees.  If you look at units on Ebay, you can see how this affects the secondary market, depending on the transfer fee costs and the year of the contract.  It really puts the screws to newer owners who want to get out of their contract!


----------



## nazclk (Sep 20, 2010)

*Reverse*

Actually they think this will stop the resale market on Playa Grande, actually it could turn around and bite them in the ass.  People will start giving them away to get rid of them.  Then there will be no resale as they will be all free. 
The new owner will just pay the transfer fee if they want one.  That is what greed does.  The economy is down, so the sales are down especially since they torn down the nice little quaint units on the beach.  If enough people stop paying their yearly maintenance fees, I think they will go back to the 250-300 transfer range, because what in the world would they do if they didn't have all that maintenance fee money.
The last one on ebay was a Ridge unit week 10 and sold for $100 plus the transfer fees. 
A $100 for a $16,500 unit.  I still don't know what they have their panties in a trist for, they got paid the original amount for the purchase, and believe it or not, not that many people know about resale, but I think the word is getting out.


----------



## pb7200 (Jan 11, 2011)

*Change Of Ownership Fee*

We were about to purchase a Playa timeshare second-hand, weeks agreed, cost of weeks, we would pay the closing costs, then when it came to the transfer of ownership fee, they (the timeshare company the seller advertised in) told us (owner of timeshare didn't know about this until we were going to close) it would be 10% of the original cost....WOW!!  DEAL BREAKER!  The original cost of the timeshare was "about 37,000".  Does anyone know if Solmar is doing the same 10% transfer of ownership?  I imagine they are since they are under the same management.  Is there anyway around this?

Thanks for any help on this.


----------



## beach_bumz (Jan 11, 2011)

Yes Solmar is charging that as well, but I read on the solmar owners website that the 10% doesn't apply to friends and family. I'm not sure if it's $250 or $500 to transfer to family and/or friends, but you might want to look into it and maybe you can still purchase your week as a friend of the owner.


----------



## pb7200 (Jan 11, 2011)

*Thanks Beach_bumz*

It's worth a try,     Hopefully this will work.

Thank you again.


----------



## pb7200 (Jan 11, 2011)

wondering.......  How do you legally define "friend"?  Wondering if Solmar/Playa would leave a legal opening for owners to claim new buyers are friends .....where did you find this   

Can anyone confirm this "friends and family" option?


----------



## beach_bumz (Jan 11, 2011)

pb7200 said:


> wondering.......  How do you legally define "friend"?  Wondering if Solmar/Playa would leave a legal opening for owners to claim new buyers are friends .....where did you find this
> 
> Can anyone confirm this "friends and family" option?



I read about it on the solmar owners website. I'll look around and see if I can find it. I bet if you go to trip advisor and ask this on the Cabo forum, someone on there will know. There are lots of Playa Grande/Solmar owners on that board. 

Can you call someone at Playa Grande/Solmar and ask?


----------



## beach_bumz (Jan 11, 2011)

*I found something...*

Read this thread...scroll down to response #12. 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi...Cabo_San_Lucas_Los_Cabos_Baja_California.html

If the 10% only applies to brokers, ditch the broker!


----------



## pb7200 (Jan 11, 2011)

I tried the Playa/solmar timeshare number they gave me on the recording on their 800 number, 310-459-7276....it rang and rang, about 50 times then disconnected, maybe too many complaints.  I'll keep trying, thanks again for your input, greatly appreciated, let me know if you find out anything more.


----------



## oldbuyer (Feb 3, 2011)

I was just there and went through the owners presentation where I was told the 10% fee was to protect the owners value when it fact this huge increase in transfer fee has made our contracts worthless. This is pure BS it's to protect the developers bottom line as most of their contracts have first right of refusal anyway. They said they would advance my complaint to the Bulnas family- stay tuned but don't hold your breath as it's Chinatown.


----------



## kkumli (Feb 4, 2011)

Got this from the Solmar owners' forum:
"12/1/10:  transfer fees at Playa Grande I decided to ask customer service.
The fee is $500 if you sell to someone that is not family.
The fee is $250 if you sell to family.
If you buy from a broker the fee is 10% of the original price, with a minimum of $1000."

If you don't go through a broker the fee is $500 if the above is still current.  I've been looking at brokers' ads but after seeing this, wrote the resort to request a list of units for sale.


----------



## california-bighorn (Feb 4, 2011)

kkumli said:


> Got this from the Solmar owners' forum:
> "12/1/10:  transfer fees at Playa Grande I decided to ask customer service.
> The fee is $500 if you sell to someone that is not family.
> The fee is $250 if you sell to family.
> ...



 I was wondering if they would charge the $250 fee if the membership was transferred to family through the estate process or if they have another set of rules for that.
 And what does it take to be considered a "Broker" in their opinion?  Are some TUGGERS who buy and sell as kind of a hobby a Broker?  Do you need a license to be considered a Broker?  How would they know if you don't advertise it on letterhead requesting the name change?
 I'm to the point that if we wanted to just get rid of a Mexican timeshare and couldn't sell or give it away and they had changed ANY terms of the contract  from when we took membership,  I would just notify them THEY changed the terms of the contract and I was giving it back to them.  Under those conditions I wouldn't be concerned about possible threats they would make.


----------



## rpennisi (Feb 4, 2011)

If most contracts are for 25 years, and it gets to be the backend of that contract, and you want to sell it, who's going to want to pay 10% of the original price, closing, etc.?  Do the resorts have it figured out that they want you to walk away from the contract, so they can resell at higher prices than the 10% they will get?


----------



## AwayWeGo (Feb 4, 2011)

*What They Teach Timeshare Majors In Biz. School.*




oldbuyer said:


> Playa Grande hoses their owners- AGAIN


Hosing the owners is a major component of_ The Timeshare Industry's_ biz model.  

You could look it up. 

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


----------



## california-bighorn (Feb 4, 2011)

rpennisi said:


> If most contracts are for 25 years, and it gets to be the backend of that contract, and you want to sell it, who's going to want to pay 10% of the original price, closing, etc.?  Do the resorts have it figured out that they want you to walk away from the contract, so they can resell at higher prices than the 10% they will get?



If the resorts would do that it would make a lot of people happy!!!!!


----------

