# Diamonds in the rough still exist (RCI)



## bnoble (Jun 5, 2019)

I was looking for a low-cost escape during the third week of August. I grabbed an extra vacation at the Inn @ Silvercreek in one of their studio loft units. Less than $350 all-in (including the Platinum 10% discount), less than 30 minutes from the Western entry to Rocky Mountain National Park in Granby. Still in peak season. The resort is on the basic side, and reading the reviews it seems pretty clear that I'll need reasonable expectations going in. But, I'm looking for a good base camp for hiking, kayaking, and getting out and about in nature. This seems perfect for that!


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## bluehende (Jun 5, 2019)

I gave in and joined RCI after 14 yrs of timeshare ownership to rent the type of weeks you found.  IE not the best resorts or best times.  We joined in October and here is our list of sale units we have booked.  All for under 300 and most in the low 200 dollar range

eagles nest  Massanutten   Oct
Mittersil resort  NH             feb
shawnee village  Poconos    early march
Summer place   Bethany Beach DE    early april
crafts inn  southern vt                    may
Mountainside    stowe vt                may


we have booked an early septermber week at Mountainside @ Massanutten.


We have been surprised at how much we have enjoyed these off season basic weeks.  We have hiked, biked and in general spent time outside when you would not expect too and used these weeks to get off the couch.  I have no problem taking that less than spectacular inventory off their hands at bargain prices.


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## bnoble (Jun 5, 2019)

This place qualifies for "not the best resort" but that's peak season for RMNP. I'm really looking forward to this!


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## Jan M. (Jun 5, 2019)

I looked at the reviews on Trip Advisor and saw people expressing surprise that there were bad reviews. You have a lot of enjoyable activities planned and from what I read this resort will be fine. It sounds like it will be a wonderful trip!

From the reviews I read there were some that are the type I have learned to ignore. Even the best resorts can sometimes have issues with a unit or the staff not being responsive to problems. And some people aren't satisfied if a resort isn't their idea of top of the line and has every amenity

Some of our favorite memories were made at resorts other people won't even consider giving a chance. A resort on Sanibel Island that we have stayed at four times that we can remember for sure and have a reservation to stay at again in December is one of them. We and our now 7 year old granddaughter love this resort. She was the reason we kept going back. We have a reservation there for the second week of December and are looking forward to introducing the resort to our younger granddaughter who will be 3 in a few days. She is finally old enough to start taking her vacations on her own with Grandma and Papa now that her sister is in school.

On our first stay at this resort my husband was on our second story balcony and saw an eagle land on the ground with something it had caught. The eagle was about 50 feet away in the green space/park like setting in front of our building. By the time he got my attention to join him on the balcony the eagle had flown up and was sitting in a tree finishing its meal but I still got a good view of it. We've seen the eagles every time we've gone back but haven't seen them that close up again.

This resort has a huge box of sand and beach toys that our granddaughter loves to explore. I think I once posted a picture of her on the beach at this resort flying a kite with Nemo on it that she found in that box. I got it untangled and flight worthy and my husband had shown her what to do and was standing with her ready to lend a hand and guide her when she needed it. She had been happily getting it up and flying it for a good half hour when she started crying that the kite had to come down. All my husband could get out of her was "birds eat fish." He was mystified by her cryptic remark because she's seen plenty of pelicans, sea gulls and even osprey so this wasn't news to her. He called for me to come interpret. It took me a few seconds for the light bulb to turn on to figure it out. She was sure the sea gulls that had shown up were going to eat this wonderful kite because Nemo is of course a fish. I said to my husband, "Well, Papa, you've seen the movie and more than once too so you know how greedy sea gulls are." Through her tears she then tried to explain to her none too bright Papa what horrible danger her wonderful kite was in. I did manage to explain to her that her kite wasn't in any danger before we broke down laughing so hard we cried. And I managed to choke out that we were laughing at Papa for being so silly not to remember that so we weren't hurting her feelings and she could laugh with us. We still laugh about that time and say we hope to still be alive and in possession of our faculties when this granddaughter has children of her own so we can show them the pictures and tell them the story about their mother.


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## bnoble (Jun 5, 2019)

Jan M. said:


> From the reviews I read there were some that are the type I have learned to ignore. Even the best resorts can sometimes have issues with a unit or the staff not being responsive to problems. And some people aren't satisfied if a resort isn't their idea of top of the line and has every amenity


Jan, I read the reviews and had exactly the same impression. I will be sure to enter a review in the TUG review database when I get back!


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## OldGuy (Jun 5, 2019)

Just got rid of the last of our three weeks there.  Took me about ten years to get them to do a deedback.

It is what it is, kinda a big, awkward condo resort from the past.

Believe it or not, it was a top trader in the circa 2000 Trading Power tests, and we used a studio to get a 3-bedroom at OLCC Christmas week (as an example).

Not any more.


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## chellej (Jun 5, 2019)

We owned a quartershare at inn of Silvercreek for a number of years.  It wasn't fancy. Rustic is a good description.  There were some management problems.  A couple came in and bought a bunch of units . Enough to get control of the board.  They did not consider that they wouldn't be occupied year round.   In order to cover their investment they started doing long-term rentals and the result was occupants that weren't of the highest moral caliber.   We fortunately sold before it got too bad.

That is probably 10 years ago.  I will be very interested to hear what it is like now. We really enjoyed it when we owned it.And what old guy said....I could use a studio ski week and get anything I wanted


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## rickandcindy23 (Jun 5, 2019)

The new management company is pretty great.  It's the same management we have at Twin Rivers and Pines at Meadow Ridge.  I would be fine with an exchange there.


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## OldGuy (Jun 6, 2019)

chellej said:


> We owned a quartershare at inn of Silvercreek for a number of years.  It wasn't fancy. Rustic is a good description.  There were some management problems.  A couple came in and bought a bunch of units . Enough to get control of the board.  They did not consider that they wouldn't be occupied year round.   In order to cover their investment they started doing long-term rentals and the result was occupants that weren't of the highest moral caliber.   We fortunately sold before it got too bad.
> 
> That is probably 10 years ago.  I will be very interested to hear what it is like now. We really enjoyed it when we owned it.And what old guy said....I could use a studio ski week and get anything I wanted



More than I wanted to say.



As I have reported, probably without mentioning the resort, they finally agreed to allow deedbacks, and we did the last of our three weeks last months.  As part of that, I found out they have combined into full ownership condos some of what they have taken back, and have sold them to ease their financial strain.  

We owned there since '92.


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## silentg (Jun 6, 2019)

We had an exchange in Lehigh Acres over New Years afew years ago. We were not impressed driving into the resort which is located in back of a vacant gas station.
We were pleasantly surprised when we got to our timeshare was a very nice one bedroom unit. With a golf course on property. Not that far from Ft. Myers where other timeshares and golf course were more expensive and crowded.
We were able to get an exchange for October 2019 this time a two bedroom unit.
Looking forward to going back to this hidden Gem. I wrote a review on TUG

Silentg


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## Panina (Jun 6, 2019)

There are many diamonds in the rough out there.  I have some of my favorites, nothing extravagant, few amenities, smaller but clean, friendly and in great areas.  I remember a thread that we all listed our favorites.


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## OldGuy (Jun 7, 2019)

Wow!

Inn@SilverCreek

Lehigh Resort Club . . . don't even have to look; it's RCI Resort 0101.

I think Sherman put me in the Wayback Machine!


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## OldGuy (Jun 8, 2019)

OldGuy said:


> Wow!
> 
> Inn@SilverCreek
> 
> ...



It's funny how things evolve.  

When we first started trading (1990), of course everything was proprietary and we could only get what a Guide said we could get.  What we got was the Lehigh Resort Club, Kimberling Inn, Inn@SilverCreek, type places.  Resorts where we owned or traded into were generally badmouthed as being inferior, not even trades for people with the _better_ timeshares.

Then came RCI.com, and we could actually see all that was available, and we discovered a whole new world of _better_ resorts.  We did things like trading into a 3-bedroom at OLCC Christmas week, Club Regency in Snowbird Season, EVR at Poipu (as it was called back then), _et al_. 

Then came _faux points, _and all that ended.

Then came the fancy Schmancy, corporate-controlled mega-resort mini-systems that everyone became so fond of.

Then we aged and had a change of lifestyle, so, like was always suggested, bought where we like to go, and we go there all Winter. 

Now the places we frequented before we knew there was something better are _*diamonds in the rough*_, and we even bought a week at one that has been the criticized here, for year-round amenities rights, and love it more than anything we have done in timesharing.

go figure

It reminds me of a customer service sign I once saw:

_*If we don't meet your expectations, lower them.*_


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## silentg (Jun 8, 2019)

I’m not sure...did you like Lehigh Acres?
We do and are going back in October.
We don’t own there don’t want to we have had offers to purchase.
Nice place to visit but don’t need another maintenance fee.
Silentg


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## OldGuy (Jun 8, 2019)

silentg said:


> I’m not sure...did you like Lehigh Acres?



Probably more than anyone needs to know . . . .

Before RCI.com, when we had to rely on RCI Guides, in other words, prior to 1996 (*1996  RCI.com is launched), *we would trade into LRC for at least two weeks in January, because that's the only thing the Guides ever said was available.  At that time, it was situated behind, but not as a part of, a 1950's era vintage-Holiday-Inn-style golf resort named the Admiral Lehigh Golf Resort and Spa.  Check-in for LRC was at the office for the Admiral Lehigh.

We were tickled to get it, to be able to use our timeshares near a location where we did business . . . we did a show at the Lee Civic Center, so would go to Lehigh after the previous show, and stay two weeks.

This was located m/l across from the main office for the Lehigh Development Corporation, a land sales scheme where people had the option of buying one of 152,000 residential lots platted out in the area, or, later on, a week at the Lehigh Resort Club (1982, I believe).

_Despite the early consumer enthusiasm and rapid sales of land, no one on the original development team had actually expected people to move to Lehigh. _

http://www.dreamsforsalemovie.com/about-lehigh-acres.html

Originally LRC owned the building adjacent to the little lake, and it was the activities center.  I would put down my drivers licensed and take a small boat, or paddleboat, whatever was available out on the lake, and catch HUGE bass, sometimes turning the hems and haws of guys on the tee box into "Holy ---t!  Did you see that bass!!!???", I suspect because OMG had not been discovered yet.

See the lake?

https://www.google.com/maps/place/L...x5b70824dd3aa2c4a!8m2!3d26.60944!4d-81.605702

There was an English bloke named Brian there, who served as Activities Director, and there were beaucoup planned activities. . . golf, swimming, the 30-mile ride/outing to the beach, cook-out, games, etc.  I went with the group to play golf at Mirror Lakes, and we normally had a half-dozen foursomes, and prizes like RCI bonus weeks.  Brian also handled sales and resales.  He kept it busy and fun.

Then, in 1992, Lehigh Acres was declared to be blighted, the American dream getting a bit fuzzy.

When we returned one year, the only thing out front along the road was a car wash.  The Admiral Lehigh Golf Resort and Spa had been bulldozed, LRC no longer owned the activities center building, so the lake was off limits, and the golf course had gone under.  The last year we stayed there, we had a studio on the ground level, and in the middle of the night our bedroom window _exploded, _showering us with glass while we slept.

Lee County had bought the golf course, and was starting to develop it as a County park, but the remnants of the golf was still there, thus the tee marker getting thrown through our window.

Then it got worse. 

In the boom days leading up to the bust of 2009, Lehigh Acres became the last affordable housing in SW Florida, low(er) priced housing started to fill in the 152,000 vacant lots, and Lehigh Acres became at the same time more economically developed (more businesses), and economically depressed.  During the foreclosure bust, Lehigh Acres was ground zero.

Today it is even more economically depressed and crime-ridden, and Lee County is trying to do something about it.

Relating to timeshares, and RCI, as I said, when we began it was the only thing we could get in SW FL in Snowbird Season.  Then, at the peak, through RCI.com, I would have the choice of as many as 18 resorts in Snowbird Season.  Nowit's come full circle.  If there is ever anything available through RCI, it's LRC.  There is so little available any more in Snowbird Season in SW Florida that a few years back RCI moved LRC from "Inland" to Southern Gulf Coast, so it would look like they have something on the coast there.

There are others here who know this history.

Friends who used to stay with us in the 90s still come down to visit us in the Winter, and a few years back we detoured over to Lehigh and drove through.  That will probably be the last time for us.


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## silentg (Jun 8, 2019)

OldGuy said:


> Probably more than anyone needs to know . . . .
> 
> Before RCI.com, when we had to rely on RCI Guides, in other words, prior to 1996 (*1996  RCI.com is launched), *we would trade into LRC for at least two weeks in January, because that's the only thing the Guides ever said was available.  At that time, it was situated behind, but not as a part of, a 1950's era vintage-Holiday-Inn-style golf resort named the Admiral Lehigh Golf Resort and Spa.  Check-in for LRC was at the office for the Admiral Lehigh.
> 
> ...


Yes, we know about the demise of Lehigh Acres. The resort is being kept up, the pool was renovated a couple of years ago. And the golf course is a 9 hole. We got a two bedroom for October and look forward to going back. We had a one bedroom the first time. Have not stayed in a studio there. As long as there are beds to sleep on that aren’t Murphy or sleep sofa we are fine with accommodations. We knew going in that the resort wasn’t Gold Crown, but it is a family oriented resort. Most people were owners and seemed to know each other. We were welcomed poolside and enjoyed staying here.
I understand your disinterest, there are a few resorts we won’t go back to either.
Silentg


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## OldGuy (Jun 8, 2019)

silentg said:


> As long as there are beds to sleep on that aren’t Murphy or sleep sofa we are fine with accommodations.



Guess why I'm chuckling?


- - - - - -
BTW, I just hate it when someone badmouths a resort they don't own at.  It strikes me that they are saying they don't want to associate with anyone or anything that is beneath them.

There's not much that is beneath me.  

I think you can tell from what I wrote that we always loved our time at LRC.  We loved Bonita Resort and Club, and The Lahaina Inn, and Caribe, Englewood Beach and Yacht Club, Sea Oats Beach Club, and others like them.  Our 30 years of timesharing is about _diamonds in the rough._

But, now, it's a matter of safety.  As long as the lead story every night on the Ft. Myers news is who got killed, or mugged, or shot, or knifed in Lehigh, we're not going there.


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## silentg (Jun 8, 2019)

OldGuy said:


> Guess why I'm chuckling?
> 
> 
> - - - - - -
> ...


Does this happen at the resort? We stayed in a timeshare last May in Pittsfield MA this is supposed to be the heroine capital of Massachusetts. We didn’t stray far from the resort at night and had a nice time.
We don’t look for trouble, luckily we have not been bothered at a timeshare vacation. If you listen to the news, everywhere is dangerous. We are very careful but if I worried about traveling I would not go anywhere!
Silentg


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## bnoble (Jun 8, 2019)

OldGuy said:


> There's not much that is beneath me.


There used to be a lot that I thought of as beneath me. A personal crisis a couple of years ago shook my foundations pretty hard, and helped me realize that, in general, I was the problem. I've since been to a lot of Those Places, and hung around with Those People, and have discovered that they are nice people at nice places, that are worth visiting and getting to know.


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## Panina (Jun 8, 2019)

bnoble said:


> There used to be a lot that I thought of as beneath me. A personal crisis a couple of years ago shook my foundations pretty hard, and helped me realize that, in general, I was the problem. I've since been to a lot of Those Places, and hung around with Those People, and have discovered that they are nice people at nice places, that are worth visiting and getting to know.


I find at the nice smaller resorts that are not high end, the people seem to be more relaxed and friendly.


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## Dori (Jun 8, 2019)

We actually liked Lehigh very much, when we exchanged into it. The pool was lovely and warm, the staff was very friendly and helpful, and they ran some fun activities. We took advantage of their Immokalee Casino give-aways. Another diamond in the rough that we liked was Brian's Spanish Cove. We stayed there twice, back in the late 90's.

Dori


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## OldGuy (Jun 8, 2019)

silentg said:


> Does this happen at the resort?



Come to think of it, I don't believe I have ever heard of anyone killed, or mugged, or shot, or knifed, or assaulted, or raped, or a drug bust, or domestic abuse, or a house burnt down exactly at the resort.

*The overall crime rate in Lehigh Acres is 71% higher than the national average. For every 100,000 people, there are 12.89 daily crimes that occur in Lehigh Acres . . . . In Lehigh Acres you have a 1 in 22 chance of becoming a victim of any crime.*


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## OldGuy (Jun 8, 2019)

Dori said:


> We actually liked Lehigh very much, when we exchanged into it.



So did we.


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## silentg (Jun 8, 2019)

OldGuy said:


> Come to think of it, I don't believe I have ever heard of anyone killed, or mugged, or shot, or knifed, or assaulted, or raped, or a drug bust, or domestic abuse, or a house burnt down exactly at the resort.
> 
> *The overall crime rate in Lehigh Acres is 71% higher than the national average. For every 100,000 people, there are 12.89 daily crimes that occur in Lehigh Acres . . . . In Lehigh Acres you have a 1 in 22 chance of becoming a victim of any crime.*


I’m not taking your posts lightly, thank you for your concern. I’m not going to panic either!


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## OldGuy (Jun 8, 2019)

Dori said:


> Another diamond in the rough that we liked was Brian's Spanish Cove. We stayed there twice, back in the late 90's.
> 
> Dori



Orlando has a lot of rough, diamondy places.


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## chellej (Jun 9, 2019)

Panina said:


> I find at the nice smaller resorts that are not high end, the people seem to be more relaxed and friendly.



Soon after 911, I went into Magens Point on St Thomas...I owned it at the time and is the only time I did a solo timeshare trip. While waiting for our rooms they had drinks around the pool and there were 3 or 4 other single travelers and one couple and we ended up hanging out and exploring all week as a group...it was a blast.  I can't imagine that happening at one of the mega resorts


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## OldGuy (Jul 1, 2019)

Speaking of Lehigh, if you hurry, there's probably a lot or two still available:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/L...49d476dcbd3453!8m2!3d26.6253497!4d-81.6248026

There's plenty in Charlotte County, too:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/P...e4c8ee21342bec!8m2!3d26.9761707!4d-82.0906448


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## timeshare trader (Jul 3, 2019)

bnoble said:


> I was looking for a low-cost escape during the third week of August. I grabbed an extra vacation at the Inn @ Silvercreek in one of their studio loft units. Less than $350 all-in (including the Platinum 10% discount), less than 30 minutes from the Western entry to Rocky Mountain National Park in Granby. Still in peak season. The resort is on the basic side, and reading the reviews it seems pretty clear that I'll need reasonable expectations going in. But, I'm looking for a good base camp for hiking, kayaking, and getting out and about in nature. This seems perfect for that!


I love Mountainside at Silver Creek.  Inn at silver creek had some great amenities but, I heard the units are tired.  If you can get to Mountainside at Silvercreek it is a higher quality exchange.


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## Jan M. (Aug 22, 2019)

bnoble said:


> I was looking for a low-cost escape during the third week of August. I grabbed an extra vacation at the Inn @ Silvercreek in one of their studio loft units. Less than $350 all-in (including the Platinum 10% discount), less than 30 minutes from the Western entry to Rocky Mountain National Park in Granby. Still in peak season. The resort is on the basic side, and reading the reviews it seems pretty clear that I'll need reasonable expectations going in. But, I'm looking for a good base camp for hiking, kayaking, and getting out and about in nature. This seems perfect for that!



I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of the resort and how your week went.


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## bnoble (Aug 22, 2019)

I'm here right now; getting ready to head out to Milner Pass to hike up above the treeline. I will report back, but it has grown on me and i am very glad I came. The hiking has been outstanding!


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## OldGuy (Aug 22, 2019)

Yeah, we liked it, too.

Your timing is bad.  We could have given you our last week, a prime Spring-break ski week.

Come to think of it, PM me if you are interested, and I'll let you know what week and unit.  They got the 2020 fee from us, and an exit fee, so they are already ahead of the game.  Heck, you could just tell them you know me, and you know they are ahead on that week, and you will be glad to take it off their hands.  Maintenance fee is still under $400, and they have an Owners' Rental Program to get you some of it back.

We found out about the place in 1992, when we exchanged into Winter Park, and got a foreclosure held by Elk Horn Realty, who used to do resales in that area.

In those Trading Power tests of almost 20 years ago, ISC and Mountainside were always #1.

Funny, we owned there, at the Western Entrance, and used it to trade to those hard-to-get Estes Park weeks, at the Eastern Entrance.  But, that was back _in the day,_ when timesharing was much simpler.



This is almost as fun as a Goodwill store in SW Florida!


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## bnoble (Aug 22, 2019)

We just added a couple weeks to our portfolio earlier this month, so now is probably not the time.


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## rapmarks (Aug 22, 2019)

We stayed at Lehigh resort for six weeks in 2003.  We went to a real estate office the mirning after check in, and he actually told us, you don’t want to buy here. He set us up with an agent in estero.  But we enjoyed our time there, enjoyed the activities and the people.  Two incidents that cast a bad light, one persons truck was stolen between five and five thirty in the afternoon right out of the parking lot. The other time we went to the movie theatre in the evening. When we came out, kids were panhandling in the lobby,and it looked like gangs loitering in the parking lot. We had actually moved on to another area when the real estate agent called us on a Thursday about a property. We called a Rci and were able to book a studio for thanksgiving week and when our offer was accepted the next Wednesday evening, we were able to get a unit at Lehigh for the following week to take care of business.  We got those weeks for between $129 and $189, which was very significant savings for us.  
However I have nothing nice to say about Sea Oats, dirty towels, dirty dishes, smoky room, moldy bathroom.


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## OldGuy (Aug 22, 2019)

How did Lehigh and Sea Oats come up?

We've been talking about a Colorado resort.


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## rapmarks (Aug 22, 2019)

OldGuy said:


> How did Lehigh and Sea Oats come up?
> 
> We've been talking about a Colorado resort.


Silent made a brief message, you followed up.


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## bnoble (Aug 22, 2019)

There is a flyer on the bulletin board outside the real estate agent's office here at ISC; two of the first-floor studios are being sold "as-is" for $80K (facing the parking lot) and $85K (the other side).


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## OldGuy (Aug 23, 2019)

Oh, yeah, awhile back.



rapmarks said:


> Silent made a brief message, you followed up.


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## OldGuy (Aug 23, 2019)

bnoble said:


> There is a flyer on the bulletin board outside the real estate agent's office here at ISC; two of the first-floor studios are being sold "as-is" for $80K (facing the parking lot) and $85K (the other side).



That's because ISC is not all timeshare.  There is full ownership, fractionals, and intervals.  The full ownership HOA is the predominant one, and the IOA is subordinate.  The history is that the couple who controlled the HOA attempted to purchase as many units as they could to be in majority control, and things got out of control instead.

Also, as I've mentioned elsewhere, the association(s), not sure which ones, have instituted a program of taking back fractionals and intervals, and combining them into full-ownership condos, which is what you are seeing for sale.

I just looked at the QCD I saved on my LT, and we deeded it to the IOA.

They also attempted to turn that big convention room into a casino, it being an inconvenient drive to Black Hawk and Central City.

All that, and a lot more in the 27 years we owned there.


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## bnoble (Sep 7, 2019)

This was a good week, but probably one that required a certain sense of adventure.

First, the not-so-good. The physical plant is worn. It was clean for the most part, but worn. I'm not sure if it is because the week was maybe just one week past prime summer season, or because there are a lot of whole-ownership units, but the place didn't really have that "people on vacation" vibe. Then there were the two different people working on their cars in the parking lot, and the camper van that appeared to have people sleeping in it on the edge of the lot for three days. The swimming pool only has one entrance; through the changing rooms, and all the gates along the outside of the fence are padlocked. I assume that is because not all the whole-ownership units pay for the resort amenities, and this is how they enforce it.

But, the good parts: the unit was comfortable, and reasonably equipped. The staff is friendly. The location is a good home base for hiking RMNP, with most any trailhead between 30 minutes and 1.5 hours away. There is a Kroger-affiliated grocery story right across US-40, and Grand Lake is much less of a tourist magnet than Estes is, though there is enough of an infrastructure that you can have a good week. Winter Park is just 25 minutes in the other direction if you need a better slate of restaurants---I was in the kitchen most evenings so I didn't really bother.

Would I go again? Yep. $350 for a studio in that location during the summer is a pretty good deal, and the scenery on the trails I hiked was _awesome_. It was a fantastic vacation, and well worth it. Would I own there? I don't think so. And, if I were to go back to the area, I might try Mountainside next time so that I can bring the kids and maybe a friend or two of theirs.


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## wackymother (Sep 9, 2019)

We trade through RCI bc if you want to stay within driving distance of north Jersey and you don't mind somewhat run-down places, they have many more options than II. So we have a string of dumpy places in the Poconos and the Northeast that we like and go back to over and over.


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