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TUG direct owner to owner trade

eschjw

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Another member and I have matched our desired week and location for 2019. We are both flex week owners and have never done a direct owner to owner trade before. Because we are both flex week owners, we have to call and reserve the week with the resorts. We both reserve our weeks one year in advance. There is a four month difference in the dates we want and the resorts are not affiliated.

Any insights from veterans on the steps that we should follow to exchange our resort weeks with each other would be greatly appreciated. Thanks - Joe
 

DeniseM

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You could write up an agreement, just like you do when you do a rental. See the sample formats on the Advice Page - top of forum.
 

eschjw

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Thanks DeniseM, I have read the advice page and started a conversation with Terry. They have done 3 TUG direct trades with good results without a written agreement. Not sure if one is needed but it might be good to have one. My main concern would be Acts of God that cause the units to be unavailable. In 2016 that did happen to me twice in the same general locations that we are looking to exchange. If one of our resorts did close during the reserved exchange dates, a reimbursement of maintenance fees clause might come in handy for the party that was unable to receive their exchange week.

Here are the steps that seem logical to me.

1. I reserve my floating week one year in advance.
2. Four months later my trade partner reserves their floating week one year in advance.
3. We confirm that each of us has the desired week.
4. We notify the resorts that the trade partner will be using the week.
5. We send confirmation information to each other.

Is there anything else that I might be missing?
 

DeniseM

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If this is a concern, you can include in the contract, that if either owner is unable to produce their side of the trade, that they will pay a specified amount of money instead.
 
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silentg

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Just seem to be complicating a simple exchange.When you start bringing money and contracts into the play, a reasonable amount of trust, is all we required, has worked for us. So far.
Silentg
 

eschjw

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Just seem to be complicating a simple exchange.When you start bringing money and contracts into the play, a reasonable amount of trust, is all we required, has worked for us. So far.
Silentg

Terry, I do tend to agree with you. I have made several last minute rentals with TUG members without a contract of any kind. After confirming they had a reservation, I sent them the money via Paypal and they sent me a confirmation with my name on it. Easy peasy.

Trust is the secret sauce that makes it all work. Never had a problem with a TUG member, only Mother Nature, so I am probably overthinking things after my series of unfortunate events in 2016.

After trust has been established, steps 1 thru 5 in my OP seem to cover the process to follow. Agreed?
 

TUGBrian

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nothing wrong with wanting to protect yourself in a transaction with a stranger (even a TUG member).

just have to ensure you dont make it so difficult that the other party is no longer interested in making the trade! =)
 

Tacoma

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I have done several owner to owner trades on TUG. I have never used a contract but we have made lots of contact by email and occasionally by phone to build trust. I have never had an exchange that was confirmed go wrong. It is easy to show them the reservation in your name and then change the name on the reservation.
 

Panina

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Just seem to be complicating a simple exchange.When you start bringing money and contracts into the play, a reasonable amount of trust, is all we required, has worked for us. So far.
Silentg
If there are email exchanges, that shows it all.
 

klpca

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I can vouch for Terry. We did a direct exchange with Terry (silentg) and it worked out great for both of us, but I can see where it is not for everyone. On the plus side, you get the exact exchange you want and don't have to pay an exchange fee. But you give up some flexibility and reassurance of a corporation on the other side. In our case, it almost went south because my husband was diagnosed with cancer and we didn't know if we would be able to travel. I didn't tell Terry because I wasn't going to cancel *her* exchange because this wasn't her fault. I figured that if we couldn't go, I would tell her so that she could at least deposit the week with RCI or something, and we'd try to rebook a week in the following year (maybe), but I knew that this was the risk that we took when we made the direct exchange and was prepared to eat the maintenance fees. In the end, the trip was sandwiched between his surgery and his radiation. (And as if that wasn't enough, he was laid off about a week before our trip. We are pretty glad that 2016 is in the rear view mirror!) There are all kinds of things that could come up to prevent travel, including acts of god. Even if you booked an exchange with an exchange company, you could still be out of luck. In the case of this fall's hurricanes, Westin took care of their owners, giving them replacement weeks, Marriott not so much. So even with an exchange company you could still get skunked. Direct exchanges are definitely a leap of faith.
 

WalnutBaron

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We've done a simple direct exchange with another TUG member and it worked out to perfection. We did draw up a simple one-page contract based on the template Denise referred to. We would happily do another trade with a TUGger, but we would also make sure we both have something in writing.
 

silentg

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Our transactions always are thru email and phone calls. Usually talk to the person a few times, didn’t make light of your concerns, we had them too, as did the others we exchanged with.
Like Brian said don’t require too much in paper agreements because you could scare them away.
Good Luck
 

heathpack

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I have also done several private exchanges with TUGgers.

I felt better having a formal agreement that if one of us failed to perform for any reason, we’d owe the other person X dollars. My main thought with that was if my partners life circumstances changed and he/she needed to dispose of the TS before the exchange played out. I never really worried that anyone I was exchanging with was trying to rip me off.

I don’t recall ever signing anything, I think we just both agreed via email on a specific dollar amount.

I don’t think I’ve ever spoken with the other party on the phone, I did everything via email.
 
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