Hello Everyone

[Justin M]

My name is Justin and I just registered tonight. I live in Spokane, WA and married with 4 kids. My wife and I recently took vacation to Maui and sat thru a time share presentation. It was actually very interesting and something I may buy into later.

The name of this club was "The Shell Vacations Club". I liked the way the points seem to work and the price wasn't too bad. The price was 14k with 25% down and then monthly payments of $200 with a high 16% interest rate. You received 3500 points per year and could rent a 2 bedroom condo in Hawaii, one week, for 1400 points. The length of the time share was something like 25 to 30 years. This seems a little too good to be true?

Are there others that are set up the same way (points) as this one was? If so could you please give me the names of a few good ones. We have kind of fell in love with hawaii.

Also the one we spoke too said if I bought it under my business "dba" I could write it off. Another "too good to be true" ? I took two of my employee's with us on this trip and could possibly write it off I guess. I know, my accountant would probably be best to answer. But seeing that many of you have probably been thru this, I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to ask.

Totally new to this and thanks in advance for any help.

 

[DeniseM]

In a nutshell, you can buy Shell Vacation points for pennies on the dollar on the resale market - this is the norm with timeshare resales.

If you bought, you should should find the instructions in your sales materials and rescind immediately.

Here are some Shell ebay Ads to look at - they are mostly going for $1 - http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...5897&State%2FProvince=Hawaii&_dmpt=Timeshares

My best advice: rescind, and then come back to TUG and spend 6 mos. doing your homework.

 

[Justin M]

In a nutshell, you can buy Shell Vacation points for pennies on the dollar on the resale market - this is the norm with timeshare resales.

If you bought, you should should find the instructions in your sales materials and rescind immediately.

Here are some Shell ebay Ads to look at - they are mostly going for $1 - http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...5897&State%2FProvince=Hawaii&_dmpt=Timeshares

My best advice: rescind, and then come back to TUG and spend 6 mos. doing your homework.

I didn't buy. Personally I don't make split second/minute/or even hour decisions.

I did a little research online and couldn't find what I was looking for. I don't have 6 months of time to research this as I run a business that takes almost 7 days a week of my time. Thus I thought someone in the forum could direct me to a good club.

Reading a little bit of the forum, I'm seeing that what I may be looking for is a Destination Club. I didn't realize that was different than a time share. Can someone recommend a reputable DC?

Oh and thanks for the advice and looking out for me, Denise. I'm sure a lot of people do buy them without knowing what they're getting into.

 

[DeniseM]

If you don't have time to do a little research, I don't recommend that you buy a timeshare at all. To make timesharing work for you, you need to understand the product.

Destination Clubs are on the fringe of timesharing, and many of them have gone belly up, taking their owners money with them. They are also very expensive.

 

[PassionForTravel]

Justin welcome, you've come to the right place. We have worldmark and its a point based system and its a good program with a lot of resorts on the west coast. If you want to learn more check out wmowners.com. They have resorts on the big island, Maui, and Kauai.

HGVC is sort of point based very well thought of and has really nice resorts on the big island and Oahu. Check out the stickies in that forum.
Not sure about Marriott and Starwood but they both have nice resorts in Hawaii.

She'll just got bought by Wyndham so no one knows what's going to happen

The first step is to figure out who has resorts where you want to go and who has resorts there.

Ian

 

[DeniseM]

Here is the TUG forum for Destination Clubs - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=48

The traditional timeshares listed in the post above, aren't Destination Clubs.

 

[slip]

Your not going to get a week in a two bedroom in Hawaii or anywhere else for
That matter for 1400 shell points.

 

[Patri]

Listen to Denise. Timesharing takes time to do it right. $14k is not a good price. It is pretty assuredly not tax deductible. Minimal at most. The interest rate is bad. If you can't afford to pay for a timeshare outright, don't get one. Expenses only go up, and it's hard to get rid of one when you no longer want it.

 

[BoaterMike]

Justin, welcome to the TUG forum. I certainly agree with the others. Do not rush the process of researching your purchase. (Note that I did not call it an investment.)

Read here and any other source you can find. Ask questions. And, above all, be patient pulling the trigger on a deal. Personally, I researched for 4-6 months before I found something that I liked at the right price, making several offers along the way that were not accepted.

Good luck.

Mike

 

[Rent_Share]

1. Shell is in the process of selling to Wyndham, it doesn't make sense to buy developer or resale points until the ramifications of that acquisition are released.

2. The knowledge base for the various timeshare systems is embedded in BBS systems like this. It is inefficient.

What the moderator was suggesting is spending 20 -30 minutes a day for an extended period to pick up on the buzz of what's working for people and what's not. Post a few questions and allow for people to respond, which leads to more questions. Those answers provide you with some specific searches etc.

It's not a six month full time research project but a casual pursuit becoming informed about a market that is stale, the risk is the wrong purchase has ongoing maintenance fees that continue to be due whether you use the product or not.

You can clearly save 15 to 40 Thousand by doing your research, although one may look at the resale market as almost no risk based on the low values, there is no walk away strategy especially of you a a credit worthy debtor.

As to the Tax Implications

If you allowed a customer to use it all current year operating costs ad allocated costs for the at years usage (Most likely 1/25th of the acquisition cost (On a Resale I would use 10 years) as a deduction.

If you allowed an employee to use it, that would be a taxable event to them and they would owe income tax on whatever value you reduced your tax liability.

 

[geekette]

if you liked Shell, look into Bluegreen as we have the ability to book some Shell resorts. BG is also 'a mini system', a network of resorts, called Vacation Club. BG is reasonably-priced and there are several ways to economically get the benefits you want or just get the points resale.

BG has one Hawaii offering but thru the partnership with Shell, we have the ability to book at 4 others without having to use an exchange company (so lower cost by cutting out the middleman).

Shell should have some kind of cross-over to booking BG resorts, but I do not know which of the BG resorts are available to Shell owners.

Check us on the Yahoo Group forum for Bluegreen for much more info.

 

[Passepartout]

Justin, living where you do, A good fit (IMO) for you might be WorldMark, or Vacations Internationale. Lots of well managed resorts in the West and Hawaii. They DO cost more to get into than the usual $1 eBay offerings, indication that they hold some value. Both are 'point' based systems, where you use their points as currency, so the cost is higher for larger- in season- units, but if you can travel off season or a smaller unit meets your needs, you can stay longer or more often.

Look at www.wmowners.com or www.viresorts.com

Buy Resale only, and Welcome to TUG

Jim

 

[Rent_Share]

I didn't buy. Personally I don't make split second/minute/or even hour decisions.

I did a little research online and couldn't find what I was looking for. I don't have 6 months of time to research this as I run a business that takes almost 7 days a week of my time. Thus I thought someone in the forum could direct me to a good club.

Without any input or research can you tell me what car I should buy

Reading a little bit of the forum, I'm seeing that what I may be looking for is a Destination Club. I didn't realize that was different than a time share. Can someone recommend a reputable DC?

What do you think a destination club is


Oh and thanks for the advice and looking out for me, Denise. I'm sure a lot of people do buy them without knowing what they're getting into

You came for advice, seem to be pushing back

 

[geekette]

Justin, living where you do, A good fit (IMO) for you might be WorldMark, or Vacations Internationale. Lots of well managed resorts in the West and Hawaii. They DO cost more to get into than the usual $1 eBay offerings, indication that they hold some value. Both are 'point' based systems, where you use their points as currency, so the cost is higher for larger- in season- units, but if you can travel off season or a smaller unit meets your needs, you can stay longer or more often.

Look at www.wmowners.com or www.viresorts.com

Buy Resale only, and Welcome to TUG

Jim

ooops, yes, I did not take notice of location - Bluegreen is mostly SE with some West; the affiliation with Shell provides more W locations.

 

[ampaholic]

Justin, welcome to the TUG forum. I certainly agree with the others. Do not rush the process of researching your purchase. (Note that I did not call it an investment.)

Read here and any other source you can find. Ask questions. And, above all, be patient pulling the trigger on a deal. Personally, I researched for 4-6 months before I found something that I liked at the right price, making several offers along the way that were not accepted.

Good luck.

Mike

+1 from me as well.

Thanks for not buying at the presentation and thus establishing more evidence that Spokanites are not impetuous.

I studied for a year before I bought and I still goofed and bought too many RCI Points - not realizing how much I was able to "leverage" my ownership into more weeks than what I owned. Luckily I was able to get rid of the overage at minimum cost to me by giving them away here on TUG.

What level of accommodation are you seeking? I have an MROP membership which has Hawaii resorts - but I always exchange into at minimum a Wyndham in Hawaii since I dislike some of the more "economy" resorts there. While on the mainland I find MROP resorts just fine.

Have you considered just renting for awhile?