There will always be something somewhere at 154 that is worth buying. I’d actually recommend 238k because the program fee is $128 flat and like .56 per thousand whichever is higher. So a 49k or 105k or a 154k will pay $128 until the .56 kicks in around 230 or so. Think of it as a regressive tax on lower point owners.
A lot has been said about maintenance fees being the long run cost and that is true, but only becomes noticeable if you are building a sizable position (I have 1.5 million) and you plan on holding a long time.
For example if you have 154k and you have low mf of, say 5 per thousand that is $64 per month, mid mf of 6 or would be $77, high of say 7 is $89. You can get the 6.5 or 7 for free usually with free transfer and closing which is about $600 or so.
So if you choice is to buy 154k at Grand Desert you might pay $750 plus $600 in closing costs to have those $64 per month fees.
If you bought 154 elsewhere at 6 you would pay $13 per month more but have saved $1350 initial cost. So you would be ahead for 8.65 years, 11+ years if you count the interest on the $1350 you didn’t spend.
When you multiply by 10 or do and you are talking 1.5M and your time horizon is 25 years then the mf become more important.
I’m tied in at 5.5 with 11 contracts of mixed quality. If I had to do over I’d have got 3-5 big contracts, but the upside for my portfolio is I can peal off contracts gradually is I get increasingly closer to death. Some have worth, some are attractive free, a couple would be hard to give away (7-8) and I would have to pair with a larger nicer contract to make someone else’s math work out.
My advice is to look in the 5.5-6.25 range if you can get for $1000-1500 all in for a 231k. I thought I overpaid for one on tug (1900 for 238k with mf of 4.56) but I’m now glad I did.
My second advice is to look a rental sites that have Wyndham properties. Booking.com has a one bedroom for $729 and a two bedroom for $797 on a Friday two night stay at Nat harbor prime summer Using points at my 5.6 rate would save $237 and $336 respectively for using 100k or 60K respectively. Seldom are larger units at popular times available so another plus for owing.
Extrapolating our for your 154 intent you would save $500 to $610 off a retail price for those 154k. You tend to save more with smaller units over retail so your mileage may vary.
One way to find a bargain is converted fixed week anomalies. Essentially you look on EBay and it will be a resort widely known to be a high range mf, except the previous owner had converted a high demand fixed week and got more points for lower fees. Hard to find and you should email seller for estoppel for sure, but a lot of “collectors” will pass because they assume the mfs are higher like rest of resort and don’t bother to read ad.
So let me ask you veteran Wyndham folks then. I think I want to get into Wyndham (I've posted on this, so I won't bore you again with my reasoning and background), but thought it was a good idea to wait, see how my Hilton unit works out for awhile before committing to another Timeshare. However, with the resale market slowing down (from what you have reported) and the Ovation program being pushed (obviously to try and slow down the resale market), does it pay to grab a contract now? I'm looking at 154,000 points so that I can get a 1-BR basically wherever and whenever I want for a week. Maybe get an EOY contract to start?
Just asking the 2¢ of the Wyndham experts on here.
