# WM Owners



## LLLRH (May 3, 2011)

I'm thinking of buying WorldMark but I'm still doing research.  Is there anywhere I can find out what the MF's are? 

Thank you


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## ronparise (May 3, 2011)

1) check out the ebay auctions, they publish maintenance fees. Just be careful, some times, some sellers make mistakes. But if you look at enough of them you can get a good feel about what the fees are, or should be

2) the is a worldmark owners forum here  http://www.wmowners.com/
Im guessing the folks there will be as helpful as folks here.


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## rgong (May 4, 2011)

LLLRH said:


> I'm thinking of buying WorldMark but I'm still doing research.  Is there anywhere I can find out what the MF's are?
> 
> Thank you



I'm considering WM as well.

Here's a web page that lists MF's - about a year old but probably in the ball park: http://www.wmtsinfo.com/index.php/item/81


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## LLW (May 4, 2011)

LLLRH said:


> I'm thinking of buying WorldMark but I'm still doing research.  Is there anywhere I can find out what the MF's are?
> 
> Thank you



The current MFs and their formula may be found in this thread on wmowners.com:
http://www.wmowners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25787

There will be a 4% increase effective 6-1-11. This was approved in the WM Board's 11-18-10 meeting.

As has been mentioned, folks on WMO are very helpful. There are a lot of WM info on that site that may be of interest to you in your research, including those on the Timeshare Tips & Tricks and Vacation Info Exchange forums.  Welcome to WM.


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## LLLRH (May 4, 2011)

Thank for all the help.  So I see for owning 12,000 points the MF are around $800.  If I buy resale do I have to pay that all at once every year or I'm I allowed to make payments?  I'm I right on the points I'll need? I'm thinking that I'll only be able to go during the red season since my daughter is in school.  

Lillian


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## Rent_Share (May 4, 2011)

Billed quarterly

Buy - 5K or 6K and rent the difference . . . .

Lower cost of exit


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## LLW (May 4, 2011)

LLLRH said:


> Thank for all the help.  So I see for owning 12,000 points the MF are around $800.  If I buy resale do I have to pay that all at once every year or I'm I allowed to make payments?  I'm I right on the points I'll need? I'm thinking that I'll only be able to go during the red season since my daughter is in school.
> 
> Lillian



If you buy resale you will pay dues every 3 months. The current dues for 12K credits are $695, and will be $723 effective 6-1-11. 12K credits is at the top of the bracket for that amount of MF (MF increases every 2,500 credits - see the table and formula in the link above), so that would be an efficient use of MF.

You will need to check the resorts you want to go to, in the needed season and size, to see if you have enough credits to go every year. Credit values are listed near the bottom of each resort page:
https://www.worldmarktheclub.com/resorts/

Some of the credit values are higher. And each resort has different season date ranges.


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## LLLRH (May 4, 2011)

So if I decided to rent points.  What's a good price for a point?


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## jdunn1 (May 4, 2011)

I just wanted to say I am a new WM owner and love the club so far.  I also want to second the advice about buying a smaller contract.  I bought a 6k point contract but sold 1k of my points to lower my dues.  Renting is so easy and cheap and you can rent unlimited points so there is no real need to own lots of points unless you are certain you will use 12k points every year or you do not want to bother with renting.

Renting points can usually be had for $600 per 10k points and a HK token should also be included.  Often owners will have points that expire within a few months and then the price can be as low as $400 for 10k points but I must admit that does not happen very often and I always seem to miss those deals.  More times than not lately, renters are trying to get more like $650 per 10k points plus $60 for the house keeping token but for all those renters, there are more that sell for cheaper.  The only small problem with renting is that the good deals go so fast, you almost have to check the board every hour when you are ready to rent or post an add.

I definately recommend buying a smaller contract, though.  It will be so easy to sell it when you are done and the buy in costs are much less.  You should also buy from someone on wmowners.com because if you buy from ebay, you will end-up paying closing costs, which are not necessary with WM because WM has an awesome transfer department that is slow, but they do all the closing paperwork for you and it is very safe.  Also, you will get your contract in your name a lot faster becuase if you buy from wmowners.com, you will be buying from the actual owner instead of going through a third party.  There can be some great deals on that site, better than ebay but even is a price is a little high, you can always make an offer.

I bet you will be very happy as a WM owner.  I love it becuase I can get as many trades as I want (can afford to pay for is a better statement) every year even though I only own the smallest possible WM contract.  I love that my dues are less than $370 a year, too.

Good luck.


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## Rent_Share (May 5, 2011)

Clarification

WMowners is a forum - You would be buying from a formum member/reseller or indviidual owner not wmowners.com

The official site WM site allows limited discussion of rentals in a hidden section of their forum with no open discussion of price.  Certain users troll those postings offering 4 cents a point for the purpose of renting a two bedroom at $ 400 or reslling the points @ 5.5 to 6 cents for an immediate profit of up to 50 %

Only uneducated/deperate sellers bite on those offers since 4 cents is less than the underlying maintenance fee.


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## jdunn1 (May 5, 2011)

I was only talking about www.wmowners.com.  I have no experience with the forum on the official WM site.

5.5 - 6 cents a point for renting is the norm on wmowners.com, though an equal amount of renters will offer points a bit higher than 6 cents or a bit lower than 5.5 cents.  Usually, the more expensive points don't expire for 2 years or so and the less expensive expire within months.

If you find a contract on wmowners.com, it will almost always be from an individual owner but there are a few resellers who list there.  A listing on wmowners.com is basically like a free classified add but it is much more effective because the contracts sell so quickly once listed.




Rent_Share said:


> Clarification
> 
> WMowners is a forum - You would be buying from a formum member/reseller or indviidual owner not wmowners.com
> 
> ...


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## Elan (May 5, 2011)

I have a question regarding renting credits.  

  If I have a 5K account, and want to reserve a unit that costs 12K credits, then how do I go about it?  This question is in the context of my understanding that one's only allowed to keep 2 years worth of credits in their account, unless the excess are in the form of a reservation.  

  Does one book a "holding" reservation, then rent the needed credits (thus not exceeding the max allowable), wait for the window to open for the desired reservation, cancel the "holding" reservation, and then book the desired 12K credit unit?


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## cotraveller (May 5, 2011)

Rent_Share said:


> The official site WM site allows limited discussion of rentals in a hidden section of their forum with no open discussion of price.  Certain users troll those postings offering 4 cents a point for the purpose of renting a two bedroom at $ 400 or reslling the points @ 5.5 to 6 cents for an immediate profit of up to 50 %
> 
> Only uneducated/deperate sellers bite on those offers since 4 cents is less than the underlying maintenance fee.



With over 35,000 registered users you are passing up many opportunities for credit rentals if you don't check the Official WorldMark Vacation Forum.  You have to register with your WorldMark owner number and have it verified before you can access the credit rental section.  You know you are dealing with verified owners in the credit rental section of the forum.

There are always folks who are looking to turn their timeshare ownership into a profit making center. It's a fact of life.  Some try to pick up credit rentals cheap to resell them at a higher price.  Others plan to use the cheap credits to reserve units they intend to rent, which many owners view as an innappropriate activity.  If you are a WorldMark owner log into your account and check the WorldMark Owner to Owner Communication site to see a spate of recent complaints on that subject. 

Lowball offers?  If you are a seller decide what price you are willing to accept and just ignore those low offers.


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## cotraveller (May 5, 2011)

Elan said:


> I have a question regarding renting credits.
> 
> If I have a 5K account, and want to reserve a unit that costs 12K credits, then how do I go about it?  This question is in the context of my understanding that one's only allowed to keep 2 years worth of credits in their account, unless the excess are in the form of a reservation.
> 
> Does one book a "holding" reservation, then rent the needed credits (thus not exceeding the max allowable), wait for the window to open for the desired reservation, cancel the "holding" reservation, and then book the desired 12K credit unit?



The two years worth of credits rule went away when they switched computers for the reservation system in 2006.  There is currently no limit on how many credits you can have in your account as long as those credits have not passed their expiration date.


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## Elan (May 5, 2011)

cotraveller said:


> The two years worth of credits rule went away when they switched computers for the reservation system in 2006.  There is currently no limit on how many credits you can have in your account as long as those credits have not passed their expiration date.



  Thanks Fred.   So, I presume one can extend credits (a year at a time?) for a fee?


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## cotraveller (May 5, 2011)

Elan said:


> Thanks Fred.   So, I presume one can extend credits (a year at a time?) for a fee?



Credits have a two year lifetime from the date they are issued.  There is no option to extend the expiration date attached to those credits.  They can be used to book a reservation up to 13 months in advance, so expired credits can be contained in a reservation.  See this link for some ideas on dealing with soon to expire credits.


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## LLW (May 5, 2011)

Elan said:


> Thanks Fred.   So, I presume one can extend credits (a year at a time?) for a fee?



There is no extension option, but you may rent your soon-to-expire credits out, then rent some in when you need them. In all probabilities it would be cheaper than paying a fee. Expiring credits have a lower rental price (and in turn rent out faster), but because WM credits shuffle based on expiration dates (thanks to work done by Rhonda and others), even when they are inside reservations, informed and skilled owners can make great use of the cheap credits. For example, expiring credits in a reservation that is coming up soon (which got shuffled there automatically) will get consumed as soon as the reservation is consumed. Expired credits may not be rented or be outside of reservations, but they do shuffle from reservation to reservation.

All this information (and more) is available on wmowners.com.


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## LLLRH (May 6, 2011)

Thanks everyone for all your help.  I spoke to my husband yesterday and he did bring up the fact that not everyone get's a month vacation like me...haha  So I'm going to look into only getting 5K contract.  I looked at weekend point levels for places we probably would go to like San Diego, Vegas, Pismo Beach and it looks like 5K would be more than enough.  The MF are also manageable at $454 if I read the chart right. Then when I plan the big trips to Hawaii or any where out of California I'll rent the points! I love this website. Thanks again


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## LLW (May 6, 2011)

LLLRH said:


> Thanks everyone for all your help.  I spoke to my husband yesterday and he did bring up the fact that not everyone get's a month vacation like me...haha  So I'm going to look into only getting *5K *contract.  I looked at weekend point levels for places we probably would go to like San Diego, Vegas, Pismo Beach and it looks like 5K would be more than enough.  *The MF are also manageable at $454 if I read the chart right.* Then when I plan the big trips to Hawaii or any where out of California I'll rent the points! I love this website. Thanks again



The MF for 5K credits is only $363.69, according to the chart linked in my post above. You won't have to pay TravelShare dues - resale accounts are not eligible for TS.

To get weekend onlys at the popular resorts, you need to really learn how to use the system. You may book weekends by themselves only within 90 days, at which time availability might be an issue. If you have the knowledge, and if you are lucky, you can do it. You can ask questions at www.wmowners.com.


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## jdunn1 (May 6, 2011)

I'll make a very pleasant correction for you.  The dues for 5k points is actually $363.69.  The price is going up 4%, I guess for 2011 but it's still much less than $454, which is how much the dues are for 6k points.

One other thing to think about is you only get one house keeping token with 5k points and each reservation, be it for a single day, weekend, four weeks, etc... will take one token.  You do not get 2 tokens until you reach 20k points (I think).  So, even though 5k points can be used for a few weekend trips, you will have an extra $70 or so tacked onto your dues after you have used the one housekeeping token that comes with your contract each year.  That is about the only thing I do not like about WM -- those stupid house keeping tokens/charges.





LLLRH said:


> Thanks everyone for all your help.  I spoke to my husband yesterday and he did bring up the fact that not everyone get's a month vacation like me...haha  So I'm going to look into only getting 5K contract.  I looked at weekend point levels for places we probably would go to like San Diego, Vegas, Pismo Beach and it looks like 5K would be more than enough.  The MF are also manageable at $454 if I read the chart right. Then when I plan the big trips to Hawaii or any where out of California I'll rent the points! I love this website. Thanks again


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## brigechols (May 6, 2011)

jdunn1 said:


> That is about the only thing I do not like about WM -- those stupid house keeping tokens/charges.


Some WM owners have no housekeeping (NHK) accounts.


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## LLLRH (May 6, 2011)

That's what I forgot to ask about housekeeping tokens.  So I need one everytime I book a trip? Do I get a new one everytime my points renew? So if I book a trip and already used my token is the price $70 a day or just $70?  

Thanks


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## cotraveller (May 6, 2011)

LLLRH said:


> That's what I forgot to ask about housekeeping tokens.  So I need one everytime I book a trip? Do I get a new one everytime my points renew? So if I book a trip and already used my token is the price $70 a day or just $70?
> 
> Thanks



Housekeeping is per stay, not per night.  The HK (HouseKeeping) fees range from $46 for a studio to $129 for a 4 bedroom penthouse or presidendial unit.  You receive your allotment of HK credits each year on your account anniversary date.  You can find HK information and a table of the HK fees here. The table is current, the fees were last changed on January 1, 2011.


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## LLLRH (May 6, 2011)

Do people sell housekeeping tokens? Are they different prices on tokens? Thanks


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## LLW (May 6, 2011)

LLLRH said:


> Do people sell housekeeping tokens? Are they different prices on tokens? Thanks



Yes, people "rent" HK tokens. Here's the wmowners.com Credits/Tokens for Rent forum:

http://www.wmowners.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=67

Prices vary - it's market-based. The current price is approximately $55-$60. If you have a token and need more, you just need to rent another one, or  save the token to use on a larger-sized unit, and just pay for the smaller one in cash to WM if it's less $$ than you can rent it for.


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## Rent_Share (May 6, 2011)

LLLRH said:


> I spoke to my husband yesterday and he did bring up the fact that not everyone get's a month vacation like me...haha . Thanks again


 

Go without him


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