# Buying 3 weeks at Elara from Corporate



## usekstroemd (Nov 22, 2012)

Been offered to buy 3 weeks/34200 points annually at Elara in Vegas for about $180k and an annual fee of $3200. As a bonus for signing I have also been offered an additional 200.000 bonus points. This purchase would also qualify me for Elite premiere, if it has any value?

My question to the forum is if this is a good offer or not?


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## amtuguser (Nov 22, 2012)

I do not know if 180k is a good price, but if you can afford that do you need a grown child?

I can be very expensive like a Timeshare too.


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## itradehilton (Nov 22, 2012)

For $200K you can buy a whole condo in Vegas. For about $60K you could buy 5 resale 2bdr timeshares worth 35K points. 

So the answer to your question is NO that is not a good deal.:rofl:


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## sjuhawk_jd (Nov 22, 2012)

usekstroemd said:


> Been offered to buy 3 weeks/34200 points annually at Elara in Vegas for about $180k and an annual fee of $3200. As a bonus for signing I have also been offered an additional 200.000 bonus points. This purchase would also qualify me for Elite premiere, if it has any value?
> 
> My question to the forum is if this is a good offer or not?



This is a horrible deal. Run (not walk) away for this. Spend time on this forum and learn and save. These three weeks are not worth more than $30K in resale, not even $60K.


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## Ron98GT (Nov 22, 2012)

usekstroemd said:


> Been offered to buy 3 weeks/34200 points annually at Elara in Vegas for about $180k eek and an annual fee of $3200. As a bonus for signing I have also been offered an additional 200.000 bonus points. This purchase would also qualify me for Elite premiere, if it has any value?
> 
> My question to the forum is if this is a good offer or not?



All I can say is "OUCH" 

With that kind of money available, have you considered buying a house or condo here in Vegas?  You can own it, use it, rent it out, etc?  Unemployment is slowly going down and house prices are slowly increasing.  Unfinished commercial properties are being purchased by investors.  Good time to buy.

$180,000 for 3-weeks in Vegas?   You can buy resale Flamingo for a fraction of that and still buy a house and a condo.


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## ricoba (Nov 22, 2012)

Run, run, run....like others have said it's a bad deal for you (but a great deal for the ts sales rep)...

Also, like itradehilton pointed out, you could buy a pretty nice condo (and not even a bad single family home) here in Vegas for that amount of money.


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## Ron98GT (Nov 22, 2012)

itradehilton said:


> For $200K you can buy a whole condo in Vegas. For about $60K you could buy 5 resale 2bdr timeshares worth 35K points.
> 
> So the answer to your question is NO that is not a good deal.:rofl:



I live in Vegas, just North of Sun City Summerlin. My mother, of 82 years, just bought the small, 1200 sq/ft. 3-Bdrm, 1-story home. with an over-sized lot, next to us, for $91,000 cash.

You can easily pickup condo's for under $60,000.


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## phil1ben (Nov 22, 2012)

Surely you jest?


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## GregT (Nov 22, 2012)

usekstroemd said:


> Been offered to buy 3 weeks/34200 points annually at Elara in Vegas for about $180k and an annual fee of $3200. As a bonus for signing I have also been offered an additional 200.000 bonus points. This purchase would also qualify me for Elite premiere, if it has any value?
> 
> My question to the forum is if this is a good offer or not?



This isn't a good financial purchase.  With HGVC, points are points and you can buy an abundance of points resale for approx $1/point and use those points to stay at Elara or one of the other las Vegas properties.  

There are few properties where it makes sense to own the specific property and those sell for perhaps $2/point on the resale market. 

So pass on the purchase from the developer and let us know what you hope to accomplish and where you would like to visit.  

Welcome to TUG!

Greg


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## dougp26364 (Nov 22, 2012)

usekstroemd said:


> Been offered to buy 3 weeks/34200 points annually at Elara in Vegas for about $180k and an annual fee of $3200. As a bonus for signing I have also been offered an additional 200.000 bonus points. This purchase would also qualify me for Elite premiere, if it has any value?
> 
> My question to the forum is if this is a good offer or not?



That is a horrible waste of money IMHO. You can probably pick up 35,000 points on the resale market for around $50,000 to $80,000 depending on how good you are at negotiation. The saved dollars will pay for a lot of MF's. 

http://www.sellingtimeshares.net/category/listings/hilton

http://judikoz.com/


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## pianodinosaur (Nov 22, 2012)

usekstroemd said:


> Been offered to buy 3 weeks/34200 points annually at Elara in Vegas for about $180k and an annual fee of $3200. As a bonus for signing I have also been offered an additional 200.000 bonus points. This purchase would also qualify me for Elite premiere, if it has any value?
> 
> My question to the forum is if this is a good offer or not?



First, I do not consider this a good deal.  I have Elite plus.  The sales reps really talk up the benefits but when the time comes to use the benefits, they are not available.  I have had nothing but a run around every time I tried to set up an exchange into The Select Exchange Resorts.  However, we frequently do get upgrades.  I enjoy my HGVC membership.  However, I think the so called Elite benefits are not worth anything.  I will let this forum know the first time I get a Select Resort Exchange.


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## Talent312 (Nov 22, 2012)

I have a bridge in Brooklyn, an income-producer, I could let you have for less.


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## usekstroemd (Nov 22, 2012)

usekstroemd said:


> Been offered to buy 3 weeks/34200 points annually at Elara in Vegas for about $180k and an annual fee of $3200. As a bonus for signing I have also been offered an additional 200.000 bonus points. This purchase would also qualify me for Elite premiere, if it has any value?
> 
> My question to the forum is if this is a good offer or not?



Thanks for all the replies, they came in more or less as I expected.

If the re-sale value for points is just $1-2, how can they even promote it at over $5 / point?

I do not want a condo in Vegas, I do not even want to go to Vegas more than a few times. What I want is to get a flexible way to spend my points, to be able to go to different placed each year.

The reason why I started to look at HGVC, it seems like a flexible system where I can get future vacations for todays rate. Isn't that basically the only reason for buying into it?

it would be interesting to know what someone else has recently paid for their points when not buying re-sale points.


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## SmithOp (Nov 22, 2012)

usekstroemd said:


> it would be interesting to know what someone else has recently paid for their points when not buying re-sale points.




Search the forum for "rescind" to see all the threads where buyers remorse hits, they usually list what they paid.


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## GregT (Nov 22, 2012)

usekstroemd said:


> it would be interesting to know what someone else has recently paid for their points when not buying re-sale points.



I think I was offered $49k for a 7,200 point week at Grand Waikikian.  I think.  

Resale is so clearly the way to go that I didn't push much for details.  

HGVC is a great system - I love the properties and the system.    If you like the property locations for HGVC, it really can't be beaten.  If you expect to travel outside of the HgVC locations, may not be best. 

Please tell us where you want to travel to and we can give more informed feedback. 

Best

Greg


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## Tamaradarann (Nov 22, 2012)

*I agree with this*



sjuhawk_jd said:


> This is a horrible deal. Run (not walk) away for this. Spend time on this forum and learn and save. These three weeks are not worth more than $30K in resale, not even $60K.



I agree that you should not go through with the deal.  We own six weeks worth 34600 points in 4 properties.  They are all platinum weeks and we paid about $58K.  Our maintenance is about $5K per year so your $3K maintenance for that many points does sound good.  However, you paid more than $120,000 more in initial costs


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## vegasVIP (Nov 23, 2012)

WoW!!!  If that kind of $ is on a small level in your situation and you want Hilton to pamper you, get it.  But business numbers and sense say it is a horrible deal.  Jus sayin


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## timeos2 (Nov 23, 2012)

No timeshare is any type of deal or good value to the buyer when purchased at Developer pricing. None. This is no exception to that very simple rule.


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## bogey21 (Nov 23, 2012)

Ron98GT said:


> You can easily pickup condo's for under $60,000.



I have a friend who lives in N. Las Vegas in a newly (last 5-10 years) developed area.  In the last 12 months he bought 3 or 4 very nice condos (also built in last 5-10 years) as rental properties near where he lives for between $32,000 and $37,500.  These are nice properties in desirable neighborhoods.  He tells me the prices are trending higher.

George


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## Adrienne (Nov 24, 2012)

Everyone agrees you can get the points less expensively resale. That aside:
Did they tell you that you have only 18 months in which to use those 200K bonus points?  You can use them to convert to Hilton Honors or pay your annual fees but that's not such a great deal. 

The 'elite' should definitely not factor into the decision. Free wifi and breakfast..and maybe a shorter line here and there. 

But if you have 180K to spend and you don't care about blowing it out the window in the name of great vacations and family memories, go for it. It's a great company and we've never been happier with money we've blown out the window. 

But, really, resale is the smart way to go. Buy the 34K points resale for a fraction of the price and have fun.   Forget the bonus points and forget elite. You won't miss them.


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