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$10 Williamsburg Plantation resale TS or just rent?

Grammarhero

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Been looking and considering Williamsburg TS for 3.5 weeks now. I love the place and can come back yearly. Here are what I’m considering
1) Williamsburg Plantation, EY week 30 7/27/19 to 8/3/19, 4LBR/4BA/F12, $10 sales price, $874 MF, buyer pays closing and transfer costs (TUG ad attached)
2) Just renting on TUG LMR. No exit strategy needed.
Thoughts?
 

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DaveNV

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Fair question.

Your costs are only higher the first year, since you'd amortize in the purchase costs for that first vacation. I don't know what closing and transfer would cost you - maybe $500? So add $500 to $874 + $10 purchase, and consider your first year (ONLY) would cost you $1384. If you rented, could you get the week you wanted, the view type you wanted, the unit size you wanted, for less than $1384? Could you do that more than once? If so, it's a wash. If not, then buying makes more sense.

After the first year, ownership is "only" $874-ish (assuming MFs will increase by a small percentage every year) per year. Your daily costs would go down considerably, but you'd own the week and location you want, without scrambling to have the vacation you want as a rental.

As I read the ad, it's a four bedroom lockoff? Do you need/want something that big? Will you ever deposit it, locked off or otherwise? What sort of trading power does that unit have, in its various configurations? If depositing and such is a consideration, you're better off owning than renting, if that has value to you.

If you're wondering if its a good idea, it sounds like you're unsure of things. What are you really wanting to know?

Dave
 
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Grammarhero

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Fair question.

Your costs are only higher the first year, since you'd amortize in the purchase costs for that first vacation. I don't know what closing and transfer would cost you - maybe $500? So add $500 to $874 + $10 purchase, and consider your first year (ONLY) would cost you $1384. If you rented, could you get the week you wanted, the view type you wanted, the unit size you wanted, for less $1384? Could you do that more than once? If so, it's a wash. If not, then buying makes more sense.

After the first year, ownership is "only" $874-ish (assuming MFs will increase by a small percentage every year) per year. Your daily costs would go down considerably, but you'd own the week and location you want, without scrambling to have the vacation you want as a rental.

As I read the ad, it's a four bedroom lockoff? Do you need/want something that big? Will you ever deposit it, locked off or otherwise? What sort of trading power does that unit have, in its various configurations? If depositing and such is a consideration, you're better off owning than renting, if that has value to you.

If you're wondering if its a good idea, it sounds like you're unsure of things. What are you really wanting to know?

Dave

From what I’ve seen from TUG LMR, you’d get only a 2BR/2BA/F6 for $800 a week. Appears that LMR has almost any week available for Williamsburg.

I’d probably deposit the locked half, 2BR/2BA/F6. Trading power is crap. Depositing a full week, I’d be lucky to get even five weekdays elsewhere. There’s probably a $199 deposit/exchange fee too. But it’d be pretty nice to go elsewhere for a change.


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DaveNV

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From what I’ve seen from TUG LMR, you’d get only a 2BR/2BA/F6 for $800 a week. Appears that LMR has almost any week available for Williamsburg.

I’d probably deposit the locked half, 2BR/2BA/F6. Trading power is crap. Depositing a full week, I’d be lucky to get even five weekdays elsewhere. There’s probably a $199 deposit/exchange fee too. But it’d be pretty nice to go elsewhere for a change.


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Ok, so then back to the original questions: If you want ongoing ownership of a unit that big, and if the annual cost is only ~$874 (after the first year's buy-in cost), then you're money ahead to buy. You say a rental would only get you a 2br, not a 4br. So then, in a sense, your owned 2br side only costs you half of $874, or $437 per year. Renting would cost you essentially twice that much, if you needed to rent 4 bedrooms.

Conversely, if you deposited a 2br lockoff side, you'd still have the 2br to stay in, so your ownership vs. rental costs (for a 2br) would be a wash. Your gain that way is the deposited 2br side will get you some sort of vacation elsewhere, even if you have to pay an exchange fee. So you're money ahead by that much, anyway, IF you don't need the full 4br to stay in.

If you want to go back there every year, owning is the obvious choice. If you want to deposit often, you do have to factor in exchange costs, membership with RCI (I presume) or another trading company, time and effort to find an exchange you'd accept for it, and so forth.

If it were me, I'd probably buy. (Hope this helps sort it out some. Good luck!)

Dave
 

Grammarhero

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Fair question.

If you're wondering if its a good idea, it sounds like you're unsure of things. What are you really wanting to know?

Dave

I will read your deposit advice. I am seriously considering buying. If not now, maybe January 2020 might be a better date knowing I couldn’t use 2020.



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DaveNV

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Another thought would be to buy a 2br at a "better" resort that trades better, and exchange into Williamsburg when you'd like to go there. That way, you could deposit the "better" resort and hopefully get a better exchange elsewhere.

There is no perfect answer.

Dave
 

Grammarhero

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Another thought would be to buy a 2br at a "better" resort that trades better, and exchange into Williamsburg when you'd like to go there. That way, you could deposit the "better" resort and hopefully get a better exchange elsewhere.

There is no perfect answer.

Dave

I was eying a $1 resale 3LBR, 2.5BA at King’s Creek with a better exchange value, but another Tugger took it (maybe I waited too long).

There is Marriott Ford Colony, 2L BR/2BA/ F8. That’s $1,995 resale with $1,200 MF. If I bought that, I feel I would just selfishly be splurging.


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tschwa2

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Summer Williamsburg plantation 2 BR units trade quite well in II. It is now dual affiliated with RCI so that is an option also. It doesn't have preference but for a MF of $460 ish you can deposit the partial kitchen 2 BR and it trades as well as resorts with twice the MF's.
 

Grammarhero

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Summer Williamsburg plantation 2 BR units trade quite well in II. It is now dual affiliated with RCI so that is an option also. It doesn't have preference but for a MF of $460 ish you can deposit the partial kitchen 2 BR and it trades as well as resorts with twice the MF's.

Do you seriously have 13 TS?
 

Grammarhero

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That’s might be the equivalent of 7 EY TS.


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montygz

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Been looking and considering Williamsburg TS for 3.5 weeks now. I love the place and can come back yearly. Here are what I’m considering
1) Williamsburg Plantation, EY week 30 7/27/19 to 8/3/19, 4LBR/4BA/F12, $10 sales price, $874 MF, buyer pays closing and transfer costs (TUG ad attached)
2) Just renting on TUG LMR. No exit strategy needed.
Thoughts?

My 2 cents on renting vs. buying.

If you take 1 vacation a year in a place like Williamsburg, I would rent. They are easy to get and inexpensive. No commitment.

If you take multiple vacations a year, and may like to try some new places, I would buy. The more you can travel, the more your per-trip cost falls. I own 98K points a year and easily get two trips a year out of my timeshare.

For example, to take 1 trip, I pay $800 in maintenance, $100 for RCI membership and $239 to exchange. That is $1,139 and you can usually rent a week for that or less. But for the second trip, I pay only $239.

Thus, the more you use your timeshare, the more value you will get out of it. Also, you do benefit from having control over your own reservations and have a lot more places to choose from, as renting is usually concentrated on certain resorts.
 

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IF you're a planner and really like Williamsburg, BUY. If you're not a planner, rent, either here or elsewhere.
 

qwerty

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Been looking and considering Williamsburg TS for 3.5 weeks now. I love the place and can come back yearly. Here are what I’m considering
1) Williamsburg Plantation, EY week 30 7/27/19 to 8/3/19, 4LBR/4BA/F12, $10 sales price, $874 MF, buyer pays closing and transfer costs (TUG ad attached)
2) Just renting on TUG LMR. No exit strategy needed.
Thoughts?
We bought our second T/S at Squaw Valley 25 years ago because we liked to ski. Even then, paying $6,000.00 seemed to get us what we wanted. Even giving that week away, we never regretted buying a T/S. If you would really like going to Williamsburg every year, then buying a T/S would be practical. To us, renting every year would be cumbersome. When we still skied, we could plan our trip almost two years in advance and watch for an airfare sale. Truth is, we have never been comfortable sending money to someone we didn't know especially so far in advance.
 

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If you really plan to use it that week every year or nearly every year, and you want/need a 4BR unit, this seems like a fairly sensible way to achieve that. If you would expect to exchange out even half the time, it sounds like the exchange value would be only so-so and it would reduce the value a lot. Williamsburg is such an overbuilt area that it doesn’t seem quite as essential to own there as certain beach or ski weeks, for example.
 

tschwa2

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I don't think you need to want to go to Williamsburg every year. You have to be willing to go to Williamsburg if you don't rent it out or deposit with an exchange company. An every other year might be better because you only have to do something with 2 two bedroom units every 2 years rather than 4 ever 2 years. If you can find a summer Colonies EOY , you might like it a little better and it might be worth the extra $70 in MF ($35 per 2 BR unit- both sides have kitchens unlike WP) and maybe even a hundred or two initially. I have a week 33 there which is a little on the late side but probably be staying there this year.
 

Richelle

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I would not pay closing or transfer fees. I got my Williamsburg for $28. I found another on Timeshare Nation for free. Both cases, closing costs and transfer fees were paid by seller. Check out Timeshare Nation. They are completely free. Otherwise, keep looking until you find one where someone is paying the fees. I did help a couple others get williamsburg from some resale contacts of mne, but each was $50. Still, free closing and transfer fee.
 

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I was thinking the same thing as Richelle, Don't I see those in the bargain bin from time to time?
 

louisianab

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I obtained a 4 bedroom LO/EOY Williamsburg Plantation fixed week from the TUG Marketplace for free with all fees paid in May of this year. So they exist, easily.
 

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Do you seriously have 13 TS?

- 13 TS / with some EOY- so 7-ish - is the “low end “of folks on TUG who own multiple TS .

This concept confused me when I first found TUG / makes total sense now .
It is sort of like - a gourmet chef having more than one frying pan .


I don't think you need to want to go to Williamsburg every year. You have to be willing to go to Williamsburg if you don't rent it out or deposit with an exchange company. An every other year might be better because you only have to do something with 2 two bedroom units every 2 years rather than 4 ever 2 years. If you ........

As per hudshut‘s quote below -

Tracey is a true timeshare expert! She is a wealth of knowledge.

and with clear details / and lots of knowledge on many TS systems -
 

Grammarhero

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I would not pay closing or transfer fees. I got my Williamsburg for $28. I found another on Timeshare Nation for free. Both cases, closing costs and transfer fees were paid by seller. Check out Timeshare Nation. They are completely free. Otherwise, keep looking until you find one where someone is paying the fees. I did help a couple others get williamsburg from some resale contacts of mne, but each was $50. Still, free closing and transfer fee.

I was considering this Powhatan Resort in Timeshare Nation, but the MF is $1434/yr. that’s higher than Marriott Ford Colony!
0b2f8afa98246633c231d426c9b29b82.jpg



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Grammarhero

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0b2f8afa98246633c231d426c9b29b82.jpg


Opps. Week 16. Not considering.




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DaveNV

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At one point Powhattan and Greenspring had sub $800 MF's for a 4 br lockoff unit. But then when Diamond took over Sunterra, their thought was we should be comparing these with other 2 BR timeshares and then doubling the MF's. So over the first several years after taking over they continued to raise MF's with double digit increases. Originally saying that Sunterra defferred too much mf and didn't adequately fund reserves which may have been true because Sunterra was selling to a budget minded middle class buyer but Diamond had ideas of upgrading the properties to a higher class of owner, pricing out many of the original owners. So while Manor Club may have MF's in the $1300 range now, its for a 2 BR or 2 BR lockoff, Diamond's rationale is for under $1500 it's like owning two timeshares and $750 is actually under the industry average for a 2 BR timeshare. Of course most of the pre diamond owners didn't buy with the idea that they would be paying the average MF for two 2 Bedroom units.
 
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