Done Deal
At the risk of kick starting this discussion once again, I just wanted to let you know how we ended up after all of this (I'm already putting on my suit of armor to deflect the incoming rounds).
Thank you, first off, to everyone--both in favor of and opposed to the purchase--who contributed their thoughts to the process. Every single idea was helpful in contributing to our decision making process. I've not been posting on here too terribly long, but what I believe was my first post on here spoke to what a terrific site I thought this was for exactly that reason.
We did go ahead and keep the purchase. Certainly not because it was the best deal we ever could've gotten on it, and yes it's likewise very reasonable to say that as go the $$$ per point it was awfully pricey. But the fact of the matter is it is about a perfect fit for what we want/need for our family and the vacations we'd like to take (even if this is just once every two years), and on the chance we can't use it on any given year due to conflicting plans, we are reasonably assured we can rent it to more than cover maintenance fees and not regress financially over it. Although I think it a stretch to call a timeshare property a sound financial investment as go fiscal rates of return, at least this one has legitimate potential to give back a little at times it is not otherwise workable for us (if we're doing something else on a particular New Year's, etc). From what I've seen, not too many timeshares are easily rented at times they are not otherwise useable by the owner (to include ours in Hawaii, with which we're still very happy). Again, we're buying it to use it, but we consider that a nice safety net and even a benefit.
It didn't hurt the desire to buy that our week at Valdoro from which we just returned was like you read about (I'll reply to the post I started looking for information on Valdoro, with some of that feedback, as promised). I had heard many great things about Valdoro, and just about every single one of them turned out to be true. I'm sure it MAY not be the nicest or most luxurious TS in Breck, let alone the Colorado Rockies, but it more than satisfied our sense of what we're looking for to take the idea of owning there seriously. It's easy to see why that property was in high demand to the point of selling out.
There is obviously much more that went into the decision for us, but this at least hits the highlights.
Thanks again for your help. Feedback is certainly still welcome and appreciated, although at this point I guess it'd be more for the purpose of offering either congratulations or condolences, as appropriate. I like to think I have a kind heart and a thick skin, so by all means don't hold back either way.
See you on the slopes.
