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Massanutten owner vs non owner rci and resale questions, please help!

Railman83

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I am considering buying a small contract at Massanutten and want to verify or understand a few things:

1. Resale owners no longer get gold card for discounts.

2. The one in four rule only applies to exchanges not last call or extra vacations.

3. The one in four rule for exchanges is resort specific (e.g. You could do Woodstone one year and Summi the next).

4. If you own you get a discount on RCI last call and extra vacations.

5. While gold card no longer applies, resale owners still get discounts on hotel and other lodging.

My intent is to spend about a month or two during summer on RCI last call and extra vacations understanding I might suffer an availability gap on a given week. I will generally only need a 1br and there always seems to be one somewhere.

This plan assumes #2 is true. My intended purchase of small resale contract assumes #2 and #4 is true because a small contract of, say $400mf a year would be offset by 8 weeks of a 20% discount on last call (last data I had looked to be a 22% discount but that was back in 2006 thread).

If anyone has some or all of the answers and advice, please chime in.

Also, one of the resales im looking at us a 4br white 10-19 and 45 to 50) in the theory that if I planned two years ahead I ought to be able to get Thanksgiving week, or weeks 18-19 in May but I have no clue if this is remotely possible.
 

jhac007

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I am considering buying a small contract at Massanutten and want to verify or understand a few things:

1. Resale owners no longer get gold card for discounts.

2. The one in four rule only applies to exchanges not last call or extra vacations.

3. The one in four rule for exchanges is resort specific (e.g. You could do Woodstone one year and Summi the next).

4. If you own you get a discount on RCI last call and extra vacations.

5. While gold card no longer applies, resale owners still get discounts on hotel and other lodging.

My intent is to spend about a month or two during summer on RCI last call and extra vacations understanding I might suffer an availability gap on a given week. I will generally only need a 1br and there always seems to be one somewhere.

This plan assumes #2 is true. My intended purchase of small resale contract assumes #2 and #4 is true because a small contract of, say $400mf a year would be offset by 8 weeks of a 20% discount on last call (last data I had looked to be a 22% discount but that was back in 2006 thread).

If anyone has some or all of the answers and advice, please chime in.

Also, one of the resales im looking at us a 4br white 10-19 and 45 to 50) in the theory that if I planned two years ahead I ought to be able to get Thanksgiving week, or weeks 18-19 in May but I have no clue if this is remotely possible.


I can only comment that #3 is correct. I have been doing that the last few years.
 

tschwa2

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I can answer most of these. Answers next to the statements.

I am considering buying a small contract at Massanutten and want to verify or understand a few things:

1. Resale owners no longer get gold card for discounts. CORRECT

2. The one in four rule only applies to exchanges not last call or extra vacations. CORRECT

3. The one in four rule for exchanges is resort specific (e.g. You could do Woodstone one year and Summi the next). CORRECT- BUT MY EXPERIENCE IS IF YOU USE TPU'S FROM ANY MASSANUTTEN RESORT YOU CAN EXCHANGE INTO ANY SECTION AS OFTEN AS YOU LIKE. IF YOU ARE USING EITHER COMBINED TPUS OR TPU'S FROM ANOTHER RESORT YOU CAN BOOK BY PHONE WITH RCI AND THEY CAN BYPASS THE 1 IN 4 TO BOOK AT THE RESORT YOU OWN. I HAPPEN TO OWN IN REGAL VISTA, SUMMIT, WOODSTONE AND MOUNTAINSIDE BUT THE ONLY ONE I HAVE LISTED WITH RCI IS THE WOODSTONE. I EXCHANGE INTO REGAL VISTA AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR, WOODSTONE USUALLY TWICE A YEAR AND SUMMIT ONCE A YEAR. IF i WERE USING AN OUTSIDE RESORT TO EXCHANGE INTO I WOULD PROBABLY BE LIMITED TO WOODSTONE IF I WANTED TO BYPASS THE 1 IN 4 UNLESS I GOT THE OTHER UNITS VERIFIED BY RCI.

4. If you own you get a discount on RCI last call and extra vacations. THIS ONE IS NOT CORRECT. THERE IS NO DISCOUNT FOR LAST CALLS OR EXTRA VACATIONS THROUGH RCI WITH OR WITHOUT A GOLD CARD. WHAT YOU DO GET IS A REDUCED EXCHANGE FEE $159 VS THE CURRENT $239 EXCHANGE FEE

5. While gold card no longer applies, resale owners still get discounts on hotel and other lodging. I BELIEVE THIS ONLY APPLIES WITH THE GOLD CARD

My intent is to spend about a month or two during summer on RCI last call and extra vacations understanding I might suffer an availability gap on a given week. I will generally only need a 1br and there always seems to be one somewhere.

This plan assumes #2 is true. My intended purchase of small resale contract assumes #2 and #4 is true because a small contract of, say $400mf a year would be offset by 8 weeks of a 20% discount on last call (last data I had looked to be a 22% discount but that was back in 2006 thread).

If anyone has some or all of the answers and advice, please chime in.

Also, one of the resales im looking at us a 4br white 10-19 and 45 to 50) in the theory that if I planned two years ahead I ought to be able to get Thanksgiving week, or weeks 18-19 in May but I have no clue if this is remotely possible.

You don't want to buy an off season week even if it is free. You would want to buy an annual or biennial summer Woodstone 4 bedroom (or possibly week 51 or 52) or a 1-52 4 bedroom summit. If you look you can find one of these for $0-500 including closing and transfer and occasionally with a paid week. If you get a good week you will get about 40 tpu's for both half (20 or so each) plus if you pay your MF's early they have been offering short lived tpu's of 10-16 for each. You would also have to pay a combine fee unless you are using the bonus tpu for fall stays because they will expire before the next summer.
 

tschwa2

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June weeks and August weeks (maybe not the first week in August) do go on sale both in terms of tpu's and extra vacations. The July weeks especially the 2 br's ones usually don't. If you are in for multiple weeks a 2 br would be more comfortable and the tpu cost is usually only 2-3 more- 15 for a 1br and 18 for a 2 br. In Woodstone the 1 BR partial kitchens are quite small.
 

Railman83

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I can answer most of these. Answers next to the statements.



You don't want to buy an off season week even if it is free. You would want to buy an annual or biennial summer Woodstone 4 bedroom (or possibly week 51 or 52) or a 1-52 4 bedroom summit. If you look you can find one of these for $0-500 including closing and transfer and occasionally with a paid week. If you get a good week you will get about 40 tpu's for both half (20 or so each) plus if you pay your MF's early they have been offering short lived tpu's of 10-16 for each. You would also have to pay a combine fee unless you are using the bonus tpu for fall stays because they will expire before the next summer.
Currently looking at 2br Mountaiside villas week 28. Plan on actually using that week. The two bedrooms there, even though older, are rated for eight and while most of summer it would be just me and my wife last calling into a 1br, that week we would have a family of six joining us so Woodstone or Summit wouldn't work.

In the reduced exchange fee do you just identify as an owner with rci when making reservation?
 

tschwa2

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No it will automatically give you that exchange fee as long as you are using tpu's from Massanutten or any other Vacation Village affiliate. If you are are using tpu's from another resort or resort system or a combined deposit that includes other resorts (non VV affiliates) you will not get the discounted exchange fee. You can't call in to over ride like you can the 1 in 4. You are either doing an internal exchanging with tpu's from Massanutten (or VV affiliate) or you are using tpu's from somewhere else that does not get the discount.

You may also want to look into renting from an owner for some of those weeks. Owner rentals are probably similar to RCI extra vacation summer rates especially for the July weeks that aren't discounted. If you could make your month or two weeks 28-35 than you will probably be able to get very good extra vacation sale rates for weeks 31 or 32-35.
 

stonebroke

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I bought a tri-annual resale a few years ago just so we could avoid the 1 in 4 as we seem to go there a lot for weekend getaways (we usually get the whole week but only go for the weekend) so it is my understanding and experience is if you are an owner the 1 in 4 rule won't apply to you at all and certainly not if you are trading into your own resort (lets say you own and Woodstone and you are trading into Woodstone). Also Mountainside is a separately manged and I don't think it has any 1 in 4 restrictions. You will not get the Gold Card if you buy resale. I don't know about the discounts on last call or extra vacation (I always seem to have extra tpu and have traded in).
 

Egret1986

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Currently looking at 2br Mountaiside villas week 28. Plan on actually using that week. The two bedrooms there, even though older, are rated for eight and while most of summer it would be just me and my wife last calling into a 1br, that week we would have a family of six joining us so Woodstone or Summit wouldn't work.

In the reduced exchange fee do you just identify as an owner with rci when making reservation?

I always liked Mountainside Villas best for their roominess. Be sure to do your due diligence with the seller since they have zero feedback. :)
 

Railman83

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I can answer most of these. Answers next to the statements.



You don't want to buy an off season week even if it is free. You would want to buy an annual or biennial summer Woodstone 4 bedroom (or possibly week 51 or 52) or a 1-52 4 bedroom summit. If you look you can find one of these for $0-500 including closing and transfer and occasionally with a paid week. If you get a good week you will get about 40 tpu's for both half (20 or so each) plus if you pay your MF's early they have been offering short lived tpu's of 10-16 for each. You would also have to pay a combine fee unless you are using the bonus tpu for fall stays because they will expire before the next summer.

I wound up getting a 4br annual at Summit. How far out can one reasonably expect to be able to get one of first three weeks of July?
 

tschwa2

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Do you mean through RCI or booking the 1-52 directly?
Booking directly the 4th of July week might go before 12 months. If you are looking for a specific unit you will want to prepay and book 24 months in advance. If you are booking to deposit or will take any available, you should probably book that one (4th of July week) 12-14 months in advance. For the other July weeks again if you have specific unit you are looking at, then book as early as you can. Looking for any July week somewhere between 10-11 months prior they usually book up.You might get lucky and still find an available week as late as 8-9 months, it just depends on the year. If the owner didn't pre book something I doubt a July week will be available in 2018 by the time it transfers. When I am using for myself, I usually prefer an end unit (extra window-more light and one less neighbor) with less than 5 steps to enter the second floor. When you visit next you can always walk or drive around to decide which unit you like best and try to reserve that one.
 

Railman83

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Do you mean through RCI or booking the 1-52 directly?
Booking directly the 4th of July week might go before 12 months. If you are looking for a specific unit you will want to prepay and book 24 months in advance. If you are booking to deposit or will take any available, you should probably book that one (4th of July week) 12-14 months in advance. For the other July weeks again if you have specific unit you are looking at, then book as early as you can. Looking for any July week somewhere between 10-11 months prior they usually book up.You might get lucky and still find an available week as late as 8-9 months, it just depends on the year. If the owner didn't pre book something I doubt a July week will be available in 2018 by the time it transfers. When I am using for myself, I usually prefer an end unit (extra window-more light and one less neighbor) with less than 5 steps to enter the second floor. When you visit next you can always walk or drive around to decide which unit you like best and try to reserve that one.
Do they all have full kitchen up and partial down?
 

tschwa2

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Yes. All summit units have a full kitchen on the upper level and a partial kitchen with gas grill (an older model grill) on the lower level.
 

Railman83

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I can answer most of these. Answers next to the statements.



You don't want to buy an off season week even if it is free. You would want to buy an annual or biennial summer Woodstone 4 bedroom (or possibly week 51 or 52) or a 1-52 4 bedroom summit. If you look you can find one of these for $0-500 including closing and transfer and occasionally with a paid week. If you get a good week you will get about 40 tpu's for both half (20 or so each) plus if you pay your MF's early they have been offering short lived tpu's of 10-16 for each. You would also have to pay a combine fee unless you are using the bonus tpu for fall stays because they will expire before the next summer.


Ok so I took you advice to the letter oddly enough and bought a 4br Summit 1-52 float and week 27 4br luxury Woodstone.

Probably will use the Summit as 2br for two weekend trips if, as I assume it is possible to split. Wondering how hard to get a Memorial Day, Labor Day, or Columbus Day Friday check in either as 4 or 2 br.

Not sure about the fixed week. I am going on an Alaskan cruise this year that month and likely won’t use. I’m thinking I could rent out, and likely get at least my mfs given the week involved but not sure best place to do that (redweek? TUG?) or if I should rent as 2-2br or 4br. Not sure how much to ask as no comparable as can be found. Thoughts?

I suppose I could deposit. For float week I assume I make reservations and then deposit? The fixed week it seems like I would be better off renting out if I could figure out how to do it smart.

Tips? Tricks? Sugges
 
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