Thinking of buying resale for best trades

[getgem]

Any feed back would be appreciated. We are planning on travelling over the next few years so if we owned a timeshare for trading more than visiting which one trades the best and will probably sell the best down the road when we can no longer travel. We are in Canada and Western US would probably be the best area to own.

 

[Passepartout]

One word: WorldMark. Western based. Good network of resorts without extra charge to exchange. Some back-end value. Probably not the cheapest to buy into resale, and probably not the most luxurious, but it hits most of the targets.

Look here www.WMowners.com

Jim

 

[DeniseM]

I recommend that you do the newbie survey to clarify your wants and needs for us: https://www.tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/what-to-buy-questions-for-newbies.208742/

 

[geist1223]

The problem with the newbie survey is that it mainly takes into account the traditional week ownership.

 

[sue1947]

Any feed back would be appreciated. We are planning on travelling over the next few years so if we owned a timeshare for trading more than visiting which one trades the best and will probably sell the best down the road when we can no longer travel. We are in Canada and Western US would probably be the best area to own.

Take your time to educate yourself more about timeshares. They come in all sorts of variations. The questions that Denise linked to are a good start. They are focused on week based timeshares but it will get the ball rolling as to what type of accommodations you want and where.
Exchanging comes with additional costs to join the exchange company and for each trade. Those costs continue to go up. Your better option is to find a system of resorts that cover the areas you want to visit and then exchange for extras. Look at the 2 main exchange companies and their resort directories and see who has what you want. Intervalworld.com or rci.com. Most timeshares are in one or the other and a few are in both. Ignore locations that have a lot of timeshares like Tahoe or Palm Springs. Look for who has resorts in the less known places you want to visit. It will always be easier to book those resorts by owning within that system vs exchanging. In addition to buying into a system, you might also look at RCI Points. It can all get very complicated very quickly so narrow things down first and research your various options.

Sue

 

[Janann]

There are some timeshare systems like HGVC (Hilton) where you purchase points, and you can get whatever is available in RCI for a certain number of points. For example, if a two bedroom, 7 night unit is available in RCI (either RCI Weeks or RCI Points), then you can get it for 4,800 HGVC points plus the RCI exchange fee. In the case of the HGVC point system, there isn't such a thing as a "strong trader." If you have the points and the unit is available, its yours. "Points are points" in HGVC.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Correct, there is not the concept of "Strong Trader" in HGVC. However there are units that have better bang for the buck in trading with more points per maintenance fee and reasonable buy-in prices at about $1 a point. Specifically the 7000+ pt Platinum Vegas units at BLVD, Paradise, Elara and Flamingo properties. These have MF around $1000 and the points can be easily used anywhere in the HGVC system if available.

Points are points in HGVC except for the by Hilton Club Properties in cities such as NYC, DC and Charleston (forthcoming). In those cases W 57 offers some of the best bHC bang for your buck in that system with the lowest MF in Manhattan.

Check out the HGVC forum stickies for a spreadsheet on MF/point.

 

[Shankilicious]

This is the part I don't like about HGVC. Not only do you need to own at a prime resort and not an affiliate resort, you need to own a great unit in a great season to maximize trading power..... I like a system that is pure points, no owning a specific unit in a specific season and having to figure out if it's a HGVC developed resort or an affiliate.
Or like worldmark and Wyndham where you need to make sure you have enough points and house keeping points or you have to pay an extra fee.... And trading inside the system has an extra fee as well.....
I've only owned Welk and not for very long compared to most people on here. I've been reading up on as much as I can in the exciting and crazy timeshare world and it seems I got very lucky with my first vacation ownership. I have X amount of points, I have one annual maintenance fee ( no club fee, no trading fee, no guest certificate fee, no short stay fee, no day use fee, no parking fee). While I don't have enough points to stay in a 2BR at Northstar during the winter, I can do 5 midweek nights there. Or stay in a 2BR in Hawaii through the Welk collections affiliated resorts. Less than 20 total resorts in the affiliation now but Welk trades very well with but II and RCI.
Just make sure you do as much research as possible, almost everyone here is here to help each other and learn themselves.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

HGVC is not that complicated if you spend a bit of time to understand the sweet spots.

My problem with many trust and pure points systems is that they are ripe for devaluation because you don't know what's in the fruit salad and the developer can alter the mix at any time by adding new deeds; you could end up subsidizing a lot of mud weeks. In HGVC it is difficult, if not impossible to devalue because points are tied to a specific deed. No potential for shell games.

P.S. not sure if this applies to Welk because I know nothing about that system.

 

[SmithOp]

HGVC points are great for trading within the system but not so much in RCI. There aren’t many other 5 star properties in RCI, maybe Disney but only 1 resort ever gets deposited there. Even though the points are less for an RCI trade the fees are much higher so it could be a wash in value.

If you want RCI trades better to get a low cost trader like LV Grandview.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[pacman]

Any feed back would be appreciated. We are planning on travelling over the next few years so if we owned a timeshare for trading more than visiting which one trades the best and will probably sell the best down the road when we can no longer travel. We are in Canada and Western US would probably be the best area to own.

If you are on the west coast, then I have to agree with Jim, go with Worldmark. It is a very flexible, points-based system that is very strong in the west. As mentioned, these are not top-end resorts, but still good. Good locations. Easy to sell the membership when its time to get out.
Do some research. A 10,000 point membership would be a good start. The popular locations are very hard to get into though (Hawaii, Oregon Coast) - in my experience.

 

[Shankilicious]

HGVC is not that complicated if you spend a bit of time to understand the sweet spots.

My problem with many trust and pure points systems is that they are ripe for devaluation because you don't know what's in the fruit salad and the developer can alter the mix at any time by adding new deeds; you could end up subsidizing a lot of mud weeks. In HGVC it is difficult, if not impossible to devalue because points are tied to a specific deed. No potential for shell games.

P.S. not sure if this applies to Welk because I know nothing about that system.

Even straight point resorts like Northstar at Tahoe and Timber Lodge at Branson, you are given a deeded week that equates to your number of points. It's in the contract that they can only sell as many ownerships as they have keys.
When I traded a week into II in April of 18, they traded a summer week in San Diego even though I bought in Branson.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Perhaps Welk holds the trust by property? That might be fairer to distribute the MF load across the resort so the mud week owners don't pay a higher share of burden than the platinum week owners.

I was referring to mega trusts such as Marriott DC which is a humongous mixed fruit salad of many resorts. It's like grandma's fruitcake, you don't know what's in it!

 

[getgem]

Thanks for all the great insight so far, I don't mind World mark and will probably try and rent a few resorts to check them out.

Probably tough to get summer months on the coast but I will keep looking.

 

[VacationForever]

Another vote for Worldmark.

 

[dayooper]

While I’m really only familiar with HGVC, I do know that Worlmark’s strength is its West Coast presence. While HGVC resorts are phenomenal, there really isn’t a that much out West. Yes, there are a bunch of Hawaii properties, but there are only 5 mainland Western resorts that aren’t Las Vegas (though there are 5 in Vegas). Three of those are in Carlsbad California and the other two are ski resorts in Colorado and Utah.

While I would give my vote for Worldmark as well, there are 19 MVC (Marriott Vacation Club) resorts in California, Utah, Colorado, Nevada and Arizona. These are very nice places and they trade with Interval International. II resorts tend to be of a better quality than RCI resorts (who Workdmark is affiliated with). You may want to look into those as well.