# Would you buy OBX timeshare?



## janej (Sep 16, 2010)

I have an opportunity to buy week 33 at the Golden Strand.  I searched reviews everywhere.  It seems to be a good resort with great location, nothing fancy but clean and well maintained.  MF is $525 for two bedroom unit.  There is a 6 year assessment of $300 each year.  I am not sure if it already started this year.  I don't mind paying the fees.  We can use the week or rent it to cover the fees.  But I am concerned about owning at the OBX.  It seems like there is no value outside of summer weeks.   I checked a few rental sites and found plenty of nice rentals after labor day for under $700 per week including whole unit owners at the resort renting their units for $450 per week.   I don't think the resort can survive with such a small percentage of owners paying the fee.  Am I worrying too much?  I'd love to hear from other OBX timeshare owners.

Thanks a lot for your help,

Jane


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## bccash63 (Sep 16, 2010)

With so many resorts being sold for a dollar or less--I don't know that I would take on an $1800 special assesment unless it was somewhere I wanted to vacation at every yr or had always dreamed of owning at.  There are alot of good deals to be had out there.  Dawn


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## jme (Sep 16, 2010)

First thing, make sure the resort is on sound footing. After that, it's your gut feeling you have to listen to......... If that is where you want to vacation, and that is your dream, then let it fly.   You'll forget the fees very soon down the road, especially when you see the sunsets from "your place". 

 I wouldn't buy somewhere "cheaper" just for the sake of a bargain, especially if you truly wanted to be somewhere else all along.  You'll forever regret it.  Buy where you want to be--- where you'll be happy, period......good luck, and enjoy.  The true test comes when you arrive each year for check-in, and simply sigh in utter relief to be "home again". 

I told my wife early on----don't buy a cheap dress just because of the "deal"....buy it because you love it, and if you don't, look for the one you love......I'll pay for it because i love you.  That's worked out WAY too well.  lol


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## AFARR (Sep 16, 2010)

janej said:


> I have an opportunity to buy week 33 at the Golden Strand.  I searched reviews everywhere.  It seems to be a good resort with great location, nothing fancy but clean and well maintained.  MF is $525 for two bedroom unit.  There is a 6 year assessment of $300 each year.  I am not sure if it already started this year.  I don't mind paying the fees.  We can use the week or rent it to cover the fees.  But I am concerned about owning at the OBX.  It seems like there is no value outside of summer weeks.   I checked a few rental sites and found plenty of nice rentals after labor day for under $700 per week including whole unit owners at the resort renting their units for $450 per week.   I don't think the resort can survive with such a small percentage of owners paying the fee.  Am I worrying too much?  I'd love to hear from other OBX timeshare owners.
> 
> Thanks a lot for your help,
> 
> Jane



Did you win that one on Ebay?

I was watching...if the Closing wasn't the $500, I'd have bought it.


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## AFARR (Sep 16, 2010)

*I'll add...*

I have bought 3 weeks on the OBX this year (my first real TS purchase)..

Wk. 37, 38 (RCI Points) and 39....OBBC II, and BIS Duck x 2.

My only issue is that the kids are in school...(8th and 10th grades)..but not for too much longer.   

We're heading out in a week and a half for the first usage!!

The OBX is a GREAT place to vacation.....it's been about 10 or 12 years since I was there...but I treat patients all the time that go there regularly. 

It's about an 8 hour Drive (less actually) from home now....great fishing, good activities, etc...

Don't sell the place short because people are renting cheaply....that's happening everywhere.    It's still an easy drive from some major Metro areas (NYC, Phil, DC/Baltimore), so will get vacationers looking to rent on a budget instead of flying somewhere more tropical.

AFARR


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## rachel1998 (Sep 17, 2010)

I don't understand. If you can rent a week for such a small amount why buy? I wish I could sell the 4 weeks I own. I would only rent. That to me is the way to go. Rent.


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## timeos2 (Sep 17, 2010)

*Not a good buy*



janej said:


> I have an opportunity to buy week 33 at the Golden Strand.  I searched reviews everywhere.  It seems to be a good resort with great location, nothing fancy but clean and well maintained.  MF is $525 for two bedroom unit.  There is a 6 year assessment of $300 each year.  I am not sure if it already started this year.  I don't mind paying the fees.  We can use the week or rent it to cover the fees.  But I am concerned about owning at the OBX.  It seems like there is no value outside of summer weeks.   I checked a few rental sites and found plenty of nice rentals after labor day for under $700 per week including whole unit owners at the resort renting their units for $450 per week.   I don't think the resort can survive with such a small percentage of owners paying the fee.  Am I worrying too much?  I'd love to hear from other OBX timeshare owners.
> 
> Thanks a lot for your help,
> 
> Jane



The only OBX time, or any other highly seasonal  / beach area , that has real value is the short 6-8 week prime summer weeks. The rest are virtually worthless and can be easily rented very cheaply. Worse the fees tend to be subsidized for those prime weekd by the poor week owners as fees are equal for all in most cases. Add a special assessment and the well publicized trend of exchange company policy changes negatively impacting low value time owners & causing them to "bail" leaving the prime owners with even higher fees eventually. Avoid the problems  and rent or buy into a good system / non-seasonal resort that has year round value more in line with annual fees paid  by all owners.


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## janej (Sep 17, 2010)

Thanks all for your advice.  I decided against the purchase.  AFARR, yes I won the ebay auction.  But the special assessment was not disclosed on the listing.  I believe the seller did not know.  We found out about it from the resort yesterday.   That is why he let me reconsider the purchase.  

It is a week my family would enjoy.  But I can rent for a few hundred dollars extra from the owners or select from many other options and save the worry.  
My biggest concern was the special assessment might push many non-prime week owners to bail out leaving a big hole for the few summer week owners to fill.  Also the resort has very few timeshare unit (less than 30, I believe).  Therefore, the admin cost is higher per unit since they still have to have staff on site full time.


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## kasteer (Sep 17, 2010)

If it's not middle of the sumer, prime, bright red weeks... I wouldn't get it.  I grew up in that area and there's just so much there to rent in the off-peak weeks, it's not worth it.  

Figure this... A house that rents for $14,900/week July-Aug, rents for just $2,995k per week off season.  See 2010 rates: http://www.villagerealtyobx.com/OuterBanks/VacationRentals/KillDevilHills/Details/GreenwavesIII/
That's a major difference!  80% difference! 
(This house was built owned by friends until a few years ago, that's why I used it to compare)

My parents own a bright red week there and use it exclusively to trade... they live an hour away.  They get 4-5 weeks per year from it, but that's red/white and blue units they trade into.


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## pedro47 (Sep 17, 2010)

The best weeks to own on OBX are June until the first week in September.  This is prime time at OBX.


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## Liz Wolf-Spada (Sep 19, 2010)

It is a place I would like to visit. I would want to go when the weather and water was warm enough to swim and relax, but after kids go back to school. What time would that be?
Thanks,
Liz


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## Nancy (Sep 19, 2010)

September, after Labor Day.  Several years ago, we went first part of October and it really wasn't warm enough to swim in pool, but different years may be different.

Nancy


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## Carolinian (Sep 20, 2010)

As to value of resorts anywhere, looking only at the bargain basement, eBay, is not a good gauge.  If you want to see what resorts are really selling for on the OBX, go to the Dare County website and look under Land Transfers Approved for the part of the county where the timeshare you are interested in is located.  Scroll thorugh the brief descriptions and you can easily see the timeshare weeks.  Here is the website: http://www.darenc.com/public/LT/LTbyDist.asp

One thing the OBX has going for it is that its resorts tend to have high percentages of own-to-use members, who are more stable than having a large base of owners who mainly exchange.  Own to use members tend to have more loyalty to the resort and more participation in the HOA.

In a review of ownership patterns of the OBX resort where I served on the HOA board, few summer owners exchanged, only about 10% or so.  In Fall fishing season, from Labor Day until Thanksgiving, it was only about 20%, and for the rest of the year about 30%.  In talking with other resorts there, they indicated observing the same patterns.  For out summer weeks, most had remained in the same owner since purchased new from the developer, and for those which had changed hands, many were to a younger generation of the same family.

In terms of occupancy, our resort was generally full from early March through Thanksgiving, with the only consistenly low occupany weeks being 48-50 and 1-6.

Summer is undoubtedly the most popular time, and a very hard time to trade in.  Next is the Fall fishing season.  I am not a fisherman myself, but we had many members who bought in the Fall specifically for the fishing.  Indeed, I was surprised that we had a good group of Floridians who came up every year in the Fall to the weeks they owned on the OBX for the fishing.  I asked one if it was not closer to just fish on the Florida coast and he responded that the fishing was so much better on the OBX that it was well worth the trip.  The next group is the Spring breakers, and no not the college version. They start coming about week 10 and continue right on until summer hits.

If I were buying to rent, it would be a summer week.  If I were buying to use it would be spring or summer.  If I were buying to exchange, it would be at a high award status resort that is dual affiliating between RCI and II, and that would be OBBC I or II and at the highest demand time I could find.

On the timeshare rental market, the resorts in highest demand are OBBC and BIS-Duck, in that order.  The resorts in lowest demand are BIS-Kitty Hawk and Seascape, in that order.  Any oceanfront resort will have much higher rental demand than any resort off the beach.  BIS-Kitty Hawk weeks, for example, will generally sit there until everything at the beachfront resorts is rented, until anyone is interested in them.


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## Carolinian (Sep 20, 2010)

Most OBX resorts are on the smaller side, but that does not mean m/f's are higher.  Some are self managed as opposed to giving a management company an extra percentage.  Most do not have staff onsite 24 hours, although staff are on call for an emergency.  Indeed, consistently, the lowest m/f on the OBX has been at The Windjammer, which is a smaller resort in Nags Head.

The SA angle is one thing that would worry me about Golden Strand right now.  This is not a good economic time to do an SA.  Also, they are rather close to the surf and vulnerable to a hurricane.  They lost their former oceanfront pool in the last major one.  Takeover bids against HOA's by a  developer or subsequent developer coupled with mishandling of insurance by the same local management company led to two OBX resorts crashing after the last significant hurricane (Bodie Island Beach Club and Sea Ranch II), so I would always ask questions in that area.  Incidentally, a couple of resorts on the OBX which were self managed had just as severe damages in that hurricane but rebuilt with no SA and replaced most major components of their units, putting them way ahead of the game in the reserves department. 




janej said:


> Thanks all for your advice.  I decided against the purchase.  AFARR, yes I won the ebay auction.  But the special assessment was not disclosed on the listing.  I believe the seller did not know.  We found out about it from the resort yesterday.   That is why he let me reconsider the purchase.
> 
> It is a week my family would enjoy.  But I can rent for a few hundred dollars extra from the owners or select from many other options and save the worry.
> My biggest concern was the special assessment might push many non-prime week owners to bail out leaving a big hole for the few summer week owners to fill.  Also the resort has very few timeshare unit (less than 30, I believe).  Therefore, the admin cost is higher per unit since they still have to have staff on site full time.


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## Carolinian (Sep 20, 2010)

If I were looking for an II trader, I think one I would look at is OBBC II on the OBX and perhaps OBBC I.

On the supply side of trading power,  II took a huge hit on the OBX when the former developer brought down Sea Ranch II.  That was the only II-only resort there, so it whacked their supply seriously.  The other resorts that trade in II have dual affiliated in recent years as a reaction to some of RCI's member-unfriendly moves.  Most of their members have stayed with RCI out of inertia and out of nobody actively promoting II membership.  So II's supply on the OBX is going to be very low these days.  II has more of a fixation about ''quality'' than RCI, so since OBBC is silver crown and OBBC II gold crown, I suspect they also have high II ratings.  Of course, I would check that out to be sure.

OBBC I and II have strong hands-on HOA boards and a good management company.


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## Egret1986 (Sep 20, 2010)

*I would never consider a resort with a 6-year $300/yr going in....*



janej said:


> I have an opportunity to buy week 33 at the Golden Strand.  I searched reviews everywhere.  It seems to be a good resort with great location, nothing fancy but clean and well maintained.  MF is $525 for two bedroom unit.  There is a 6 year assessment of $300 each year.  I am not sure if it already started this year.  I don't mind paying the fees.  We can use the week or rent it to cover the fees.  But I am concerned about owning at the OBX.  It seems like there is no value outside of summer weeks.   I checked a few rental sites and found plenty of nice rentals after labor day for under $700 per week including whole unit owners at the resort renting their units for $450 per week.   I don't think the resort can survive with such a small percentage of owners paying the fee.  Am I worrying too much?  I'd love to hear from other OBX timeshare owners.
> 
> Thanks a lot for your help,
> 
> Jane



It doesn't look like an opportunity to me.  I have been going to the OBX for over 40 years, and have bought, owned, rented and sold timeshares there over the years.   I just bought a week 33 at another resort on the OBX (Gold Crown rated by RCI) for less than that 6-yr SA.  I considered it a good deal and was surprised it went for the amount that it did.  

If you can get out of it, I would not go through with the purchase.


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## Carolinian (Sep 21, 2010)

Since OBBC II is now the only GC on the OBX and is a great resort, you did indeed get an excellent deal, regardless of even unit size. Congratulations.



Egret1986 said:


> It doesn't look like an opportunity to me.  I have been going to the OBX for over 40 years, and have bought, owned, rented and sold timeshares there over the years.   I just bought a week 33 at another resort on the OBX (Gold Crown rated by RCI) for less than that 6-yr SA.  I considered it a good deal and was surprised it went for the amount that it did.
> 
> If you can get out of it, I would not go through with the purchase.


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## Egret1986 (Sep 21, 2010)

*I see the Golden Strand Wk 33 is back on eBay*

I was glad to see the SA info included in the auction listing.


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## carl2591 (Sep 21, 2010)

pedro47 said:


> The best weeks to own on OBX are June until the first week in September.  This is prime time at OBX.



aka: wk 23-33 prime time east cost.. that's true from just about maryland to hilton head.. further south in florida you get like weeks 5 - 16 as well are prime along with summer 23-33.

you made a good choice in not getting a 3$00 SA to live with as well as MF's


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