First Purchase Advice

[Ski-Dad]

1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where?

West USA or Can ski resorts in ski season, but non peak weeks (mid January or late March); and Carolinas or Florida in April or May for golf and beach.




2) Do you want to visit your home resort at least half the time, or do you want to trade more than half the time?


Maybe 25-30 %.

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?

West ski; South Carolina, Florida, Mexico



4) How many people do you usually travel with?

2 or 4, maybe 5-6 occasionally.

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule?

Yes. Don’t travel over X-Mas and we own a beach house on the east coast so we have summer covered

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance?

Yes, but more likely planning 3 to 6 months out. We also have capacity to take a week with 4 to 6 weeks notice

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time?

Yes

8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars?

3.5 plus, prefer 4

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?

$2500, if I have too

10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year?

1200

11) Are you a detail oriented planner?

Yes

12) Do you understand that once you buy a timeshare, it may be very difficult to sell or giveaway, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do?

Yes.







We are a couple in our mid 50s with three grown daughters (ages 19 to 27). We are empty nesters, although one daughter still on the payroll while attending university.

We live on the East Coast of Canada and have a cottage at the beach; therefore, we have little interest in traveling elsewhere in summer months.

We take two to three weeks vacation outside of summer.

We are avid skiers. I take one or two trips to Western Canada or US per year to ski (5 -7 day trips). I tend to focus on non-peak weeks for skiing so I can ski without large lift lines. Try to avoid major US holidays and school breaks. For example, I tend to do a week ski trip in January before others start thinking vacation.

We enjoy the beach and golf. Target weeks are April to mid-late May. Interested in South Carolina and to a lesser extent Florida. Maybe the odd year to Mexico in the same time window. Maybe a late fall golf trip to SC or FL.

I have figured out the RCI points thing, including associated fees.

My preliminary idea is to look for something at Whistler or Hilton Head that I can deposit with RCI for points. I would have a deeded week, which would allow me access to cheap weeks at my home resort and have points for other things. Given my preferred travel times and interests noted above, I am thinking I may be able to access reasonable RCI Extra Vacations and Last Call stuff.

It is too far to drive to any of these destinations, so we would likely fly and stay a full week.

Looking at two options now, but open to suggestions:

Whistler: 2 bedroom Gold Crown in week 34, which deposits to Raintree/RCI for 80,000 points. MF is approx $730 USD. Asking price $1200 USD + $650 cdn transfer cost. I would never go in week 34, but I can get January HOA bonus weeks for about $800 cdn/week. Owner managed HOA. Whistler is quite busy in the summer so week 34 should have reasonable demand into the future.

Hilton Head: 2 bedroom Gold Crown week 21 which deposits to RCI for 78,000 points. MF is approx $1050 USD. Asking price $1 with seller paying current year maintenance and transfer cost.

I have focused on these two options as they have more than a 4 month season, which assists with owner retention and resulting lower MF. I have been reading TUG for the past few weeks to learn. I have a handle on the target $0.01 - RCI point target. We have two reasonable incomes in the household so the $700 to $1200 maintenance fees are no hardship. We will spend more on flights.

Is my idea of trying to leverage 80,000 points reasonable?

Given my interests and time targets, is it reasonable to think I can get low point weeks, extra vacations and/or Last Call weeks?

Can I leverage 80K points into 2-3 weeks per year?

I have figured out the RCI thing (mostly, I think). Should I be looking at other systems: II, Hilton or Marriot?

(I am an HH Diamond member if that adds to anything)

My goal is to have access to quality vacations on the cheap, or at least very good value.

Your collective advice is appreciated.

 

[silentg]

My advice is to rent from TUG a few times before you buy. Try out a few places in the areas you are thinking. If you look on Marketplace there are some reasonable rentals on there.
Good luck!
Silentg

 

[K2Quick]

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance?

Yes, but more likely planning 3 to 6 months out. We also have capacity to take a week with 4 to 6 weeks notice

If most of your plans are 3 to 6 months out, you should evaluate your decision very carefully before jumping into timesharing - especially if you're relying on trading (either within an internal system or externally via an exchange company). For almost all timeshare systems, desirable weeks (and I would include even non-peak ski weeks in that category) are booked a full year in advance. I would seek out owners of that Whistler week you were targeting to find out how available those bonus weeks are. My guess is that the bonus weeks will largely be limited to mud weeks or very early ski season weeks where only a fraction of the resort is open.

 

[Ski-Dad]

Thanks to all information on these Forums, I have made my first timeshare purchase. Grandview Las Vegas (Week 20 - 1 bedroom) - 49K points week with MF at $417. Paid $1 plus LT Transfer cost (minus $50). 2019 MF paid and I get full use of 2019 points (49K) plus an additional 78K points accrued by the owner.

I will likely never visit the Grandview. I bought on the premise that points are points and focused on: 1) MF to Points Ratio; and 2) cost of acquisition.

The current year 49K points + 78K accrued points being transferred clearly offset the $415 cost of acquisition on a ratio of $415 to 127,000 points ratio.

The MF to Points annual ratio may not be quite as good as at 122K or 61K Grandview unit, but it is less than 1 cent per point, and when coupled with the current point transfer, makes for a reasonable deal.

How did I do for a newbie?