# Advice on buying into Worldmark



## krypa (Apr 9, 2015)

Hello! I was so grateful to the helpful folks at TUG last month for advising me against getting a too pricey TS. I've since done a lot more research, and am nearing the point of buying a WorldMark contract on the secondary market. Here are the details:

Seller is offering 10,000 WorldMark points for $3,500, plus $800 closing costs. I'm buying through DiscountTimeshares.com. Contract has no points in reserve from prior years, but the 2015 points are intact. Anniversary month is February.

Is this a good deal, or should I keep looking? It seems like a 10,000 point contract often goes on Amazon for approximately $3,000, but often it has other stipulations, like repaying the prior year's MFs.

As for our family's situation, I'm not in any hurry to buy. We'd like just one week of TS per year, as our family is still young and we have to vacation in summer months. We live in Utah, and would like to travel only to places within a day's drive, or possibly two days from time to time.

Thanks for your help! If you think I should post on the WorldMark page instead of this page, please let me know.


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## mash84121 (Apr 9, 2015)

We bought our points through the below site and everything went very smoothly.  This will give you further comparison of prices.  

https://www.worldtimeshareclub.com/inventory/


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## TUGBrian (Apr 9, 2015)

Welcome to TUG, ive moved this to the worldmark forum for you!


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## sue1947 (Apr 9, 2015)

The transfer costs for Worldmark is $299 so the $800 fee has some padding in it.  
You can check here:  http://www.wmowners.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=71
to get a good idea of fair selling prices 
and this thread:  http://www.wmowners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=16837
for feedback on trusted sellers.


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## presley (Apr 9, 2015)

Most resale agents and owners selling direct will only charge you the mandatory $299. transfer fee on top of the selling price. That said, when you add up the costs, you are paying about $4300. for a 10K contract. I think that is an average deal. 

Make sure you comparison shop against the links the others have already posted. You can make offers to people, too. Many people have listed theirs higher than they want to sell for in order to leave room for negotiation.


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## krypa (Apr 9, 2015)

*Thank you!*

Thank you all for your help and advice!


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## uscav8r (Apr 9, 2015)

presley said:


> Most resale agents and owners selling direct will only charge you the mandatory $299. transfer fee on top of the selling price. That said, when you add up the costs, you are paying about $4300. for a 10K contract. I think that is an average deal.
> 
> Make sure you comparison shop against the links the others have already posted. You can make offers to people, too. Many people have listed theirs higher than they want to sell for in order to leave room for negotiation.



That might be an average deal for a fully loaded 10k contract with 20k banked, but for one that is missing 10k from last year, this is overpriced, no?


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## uscav8r (Apr 9, 2015)

krypa said:


> Hello! I was so grateful to the helpful folks at TUG last month for advising me against getting a too pricey TS. I've since done a lot more research, and am nearing the point of buying a WorldMark contract on the secondary market. Here are the details:
> 
> Seller is offering 10,000 WorldMark points for $3,500, plus $800 closing costs. I'm buying through DiscountTimeshares.com. Contract has no points in reserve from prior years, but the 2015 points are intact. Anniversary month is February.
> 
> ...



I do not know anything about DiscountTimeshares, but if they charge $800 for transfer, they might not be very knowledgeable about WM, or may be inundated with a plethora of TS systems (each with different transfer rules). I'd go with a broker that specializes in WM, such as Smartshare or TimeshareAngels or Wolrdtimeshareclub to name a few. Or go to wmowners.com and peruse the Memberships for Sale listings.


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## benyu2010 (Apr 20, 2015)

uscav8r said:


> That might be an average deal for a fully loaded 10k contract with 20k banked, but for one that is missing 10k from last year, this is overpriced, no?



Price is trending up a bit. 

Brokers specialized in WM usually charges resort transfer fee of $299 only. Extra is simply padding to actual sales gross.


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## ronparise (Apr 20, 2015)

And a broker will be asking 40-50 cents a credit for a 10000 credit contract

38 cents a credit (all in) is fair for this, by the time it settles you will be half way to your next allocation of credits

Could you do better?  Maybe...but when. 
As Benyu said, prices are going up.  Why wait this is a fair deal


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## VacationForever (Apr 20, 2015)

You may want to look at eBay for good deals.  Timeshare Angels has several listed there, in fact they have "new" ones listed on eBay all the time.  It specializes in Worldmark timeshare and is a good company.  I bought a 10K contract off their website.


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## jbird2062 (Jun 9, 2015)

*Worldmark buyer beware !!!!!*

I 
I don't know what I was thinking when I bought this thing.  Perhaps it was one of the dozen or so out and outright lies the salesman told me.  I think my favorite lie was that I was actually buying a piece of property that would appreciate in value.  For my 6000 credits per year that I paid $12,000 for has actually appreciated to $2166.  Wait a minute, I think that DEpreciated.

I liked the fact about bonus time being available for $.04 per credit.  9 years later, they are like 8 or 9 cents a credit.  So that has more than doubled.  Maintenance dues which were $102 per quarter are now over $125.

Let's have some fun with math now.  My 6000 credits should be worth a one bedroom condo for a week every year.  They sell 50 weeks per unit.  So figure this out, at $12K X 50 weeks, they just sold this one bedroom condo for $600K.  That is a home run for any real estate investor.  Think about the maintenance dues.  $125 per quarter X 4 = $500 per year X the 50 owners = $25K per year for maintenance.  

Now they have OVATION, to "help" you get out of your commitment.  They offered me $2166 for it.  About 15% of what I paid.  They will then sell those credits to another unsuspecting idiot for $12 to $15K and they continue to collect increasing maintenance dues from the new owner.

Let's talk about this term "owner".  I don't feel that I ever owned anything.  I feel that I am a renter trapped into a never ending lease that has gone up every year since I had aquired it and service that has deteriorated with each and every trip that I took.

The best part of the whole Worldmark deal is try to find a resort that you want to go to and then get a reservation for it.  You will need at least a years notice to get a reservation for virtually anyplace they have to offer.

Instead of buying a piece of Worldmark, just take a big pile of cash and burn it.  At least you won't have any increasing maintenance dues.

If you do buy, you can also get excited about being nickel and dimed to death at the resort.  Anywhere from the arcade for the kids that makes Chuck E. Cheeses look like a bargain to the $10 to $12 a day for wi-fi.  I mean my God, wi-fi is free everywhere.  If MacDonalds can do it for free, why should I not get it for free at some place that I actually own.  I'm sorry, lease.

Before you buy, talk to someone who actually owns one of these.  Not one of the many salesman trying to sell you one of these pieces of garbage.

I hope this little rant will help at least a couple of people make smarter decisions about "vacation ownership".


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## VacationForever (Jun 9, 2015)

jbird2062 said:


> I
> I don't know what I was thinking when I bought this thing.... Snip...
> 
> Before you buy, talk to someone who actually owns one of these.  Not one of the many salesman trying to sell you one of these pieces of garbage.
> ...



TUGgers on this forum are mainly owners and resale Worldmark owners are very happy owners.  The difference in satisfaction level has to do with whether one buys directly from Wyndham vs. resale.  In your case you lost 10k the moment you walked out the door.  For resale owners we will pretty much get back what we paid for when we sell.  Worldmark maintenance fees are one of the lowest, if not lowest, for the quality of resort and customer service that we get.  Maintenance fees are expected to increase each year just as we are faced with rising cost of everything each year.  It is called inflation.

I am sorry that you bought directly from developer.  Many of us do for our first timeshare.  We usually buy resale for additional timeshare after we discovered TUG.


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## ronparise (Jun 9, 2015)

jbird2062 said:


> I
> I don't know what I was thinking when I bought this thing.  Perhaps it was one of the dozen or so out and outright lies the salesman told me.  I think my favorite lie was that I was actually buying a piece of property that would appreciate in value.  For my 6000 credits per year that I paid $12,000 for has actually appreciated to $2166.  Wait a minute, I think that DEpreciated.
> 
> I liked the fact about bonus time being available for $.04 per credit.  9 years later, they are like 8 or 9 cents a credit.  So that has more than doubled.  Maintenance dues which were $102 per quarter are now over $125.
> ...



A lotta truth here but a lot of it doesn't apply to the op because they will be buying on the secondary market  

Another lot of it doesn't apply either  because the rant is just plain wrong about a lot of things


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## LLW (Jun 9, 2015)

krypa said:


> Hello! I was so grateful to the helpful folks at TUG last month for advising me against getting a too pricey TS. I've since done a lot more research, and am nearing the point of buying a WorldMark contract on the secondary market. Here are the details:
> 
> Seller is offering 10,000 WorldMark points for $3,500, plus $800 closing costs. I'm buying through DiscountTimeshares.com. Contract has no points in reserve from prior years, but the 2015 points are intact. Anniversary month is February.
> 
> ...



If you are not in a hurry, keep looking. But don't keep looking and analyzing it to the degree of paralysis. 

Buy if you don't mind overpaying by a few hundred dollars, are anxious to start enjoying the WM benefits, and don't mind if the broker's comparative lack of WM knowledge might delay the transaction or cause some minor mishaps.

This is an average to slightly overpriced deal. In addition, the broker does not specialize in WM - that's a negative. Brokers with a WM specialty know the timeline, know people inside, and know when and whom to call to push the deal along. They also know how the deal should work and the pitfalls to avoid, and can teach you WM knowledge that would make you a better owner.

Peruse this wmowners.com (WMO) forum 
http://www.wmowners.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=71
for good deals (that's where you may find some of the best brokered deals), and this forum
http://www.wmowners.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=72
for knowledge about brokers and the rent/buy/sale process.

If you are a seasoned WM owner, Craigslist and eBay might give you some of the best deals by owners who don't know what they are doing.

You may start reading other WMO forums to gain WM knowledge to make up for a seller's lack of knowledge. A points system takes a lot of know-how and planning. WM is a great system if you know how to optimize its value. It's only a good system if you don't. WMO is full of great system owners.

As soon as you become an owner and have access, read the "Club Guidelines" several times for how the system works.


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## rhonda (Jun 10, 2015)

Welcome to TUG, jbird!  Please hang around. I've been successful grabbing great reservations year after year and am very happy with WM overall.  I'm hoping a few 'favorable' experiences can change your mind on WM.

TIP regarding reservations:  If you can't get the perfect reservation on your first try -- use the Waitlist.  If possible, allow for various unit sizes or even fewer nights than originally intended.  You might be pleasantly surprised by the results!


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