[2017] Just Joined Marriott Vacation Club - Was it a good choice?

[catharsis]

Question remains -- is there a valid reason to purchase Marriott direct if there are resale points available for purchase?

It was my impression that AFTER the junk fees were paid to marriott there was NO discernible difference whatsoever between developer and resale points?

I'd be very interested in hearing if that were not true.



Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[MOXJO7282]

Having said that, as TUGgers know, you can get some great values with weeks-based trading - we traded a lowly Silver HHI Barony Beach Club Gardenview week to get a September 2017 week at HHI Grande Ocean (Gold season). We placed the request in early April 2016 and gave II a wide possible travel window from mid-Sept through the end of October 2017, but we didn't get a match (a mid-September week) until late November right after Thanksgiving. Having said that, booking the same reservation at Grande Ocean with points would have required 3450-4000 points (depending on view category), so that equates to a maintenance fee cost of roughly $1,825 to $2,100. Our maintenance fee cost on the 2017 Barony week was only $1,351 (and that was inflated by the $75 Hurricane Matthew special assessment). So it was a good financial deal to trade this time instead of using Points, and we may play the weeks trading game from time-to-time, but I am very glad we own both an enrolled week and Points, so we have the option to use either system. I can't imagine being forced to revert back to weeks based trading for EVERY trip we want to take. That's why we sold a non-Marriott week we used to own that traded in RCI, and bought into the Marriott system in 2014. I detest the waiting and uncertainty of trading. While Points come with no assurances either, it's much closer to "what you see is what you get."

As far as the rental approach is concerned, I guess I don't have the patience for that either, and based on the OP's comments, I wonder if they would have the same concern. I'm also not enamored with the person-to-person rental market, either acting as a renter or as a landlord. My one experience with trying to rent something on Redweek was not positive, so that does taint my perspective a bit. We had to cancel a summer 2016 trip to Maui, so before canceling the reservation and getting the Points back, we first tried to rent the week on Redweek. We priced it in line with the other summer 2BR OF Maui Ocean Club weeks, waited about 3 or 4 months, and only got one nibble from someone looking to see if we would cut the price significantly. About 90 days before the date of the booking, I gave up and canceled the ad and called Marriott and had the points refunded to our account. We then used those points freed up from the one week Maui trip to book 14 nights at other MVC locations in 2016 and 2017.

Two more cases that for me shows traditional weeks have more value. First as Jim and others still state and I can attest, Marriott weeks, even off-season, trade extremely well. I've done the same 1/2 dozen times this year trading a gold for plat and fair units for great units. Just last Dec I scored a Maui 2BDRM for Pres week and multiple Grande Oceans for some lower cost Harbour Pointe weeks.

Second, the reason Jim couldn't rent his Maui unit was because it was acquired via points and his out of pocket costs for the points is much higher than weeks MFs so it prevents him from completing with the weeks owners.

Points are great for flexibility and that is about it as far as I can see. I do see a few value spots to maximize value but not compared to trading a week through II and scoring a big uptrade like Jim and many others have.

 

[Saintsfanfl]

It was my impression that AFTER the junk fees were paid to marriott there was NO discernible difference whatsoever between developer and resale points?

I'd be very interested in hearing if that were not true.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

I don't think that has ever been true. In the OP's example they were comparing the recent ROFR threshold against their net purchase price after incentives, both direct and indirect. With the recent report of points passing ROFR at $2.50 a point the comparison isn't close even after liberally applying the incentives.

 

[Fasttr]

I don't think that has ever been true. In the OP's example they were comparing the recent ROFR threshold against their net purchase price after incentives, both direct and indirect. With the recent report of points passing ROFR at $2.50 a point the comparison isn't close even after liberally applying the incentives.

I read the question the same way you did at first....then re-read it and I think catharsis was talking about the USAGE of resale points vs the USAGE of MVC purchased points are treated the same. At least that was the conclusion I came to.

 

[catharsis]

Yes,. Usage of course

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[GregT]

All,

Wow, this is an interesting thread -- alot of information going on here.

To the OP -- welcome to TUG and to Marriott, I believe both will enrich your life immensely as timeshares have changed the way I vacation and the family time is terrific. We found timeshares when my kids were young (5,3,1) and we've taken over 60 vacations/long weekends over the last 10 years, the vast majority with timeshares. We've been many places, with many more to go, and the memories are priceless. It sounds like you are a quantitative person and I think you will come to enjoy maximizing the opportunities presented by Marriott (and perhaps one day, other timeshare systems).

Your 4,000 points are an excellent base from which to book future vacations, and renting points from others allows you to leverage your base significantly. You don't need to buy more points, and once you find a favorite property (Grande Ocean, Maui Ocean Club, Ko Olina, Aruba Ocean Club), you may find you should buy a full week cheaply and inexpensively and use your points to extend those trips. Fasttr did this, starting with points, and then buying (at least) one week at Grande Ocean.

I like MoxJo's strategy of buying more than you can personally use, and then renting the extra's to pay the MFs for everything. I own far more of these things than I use, but I like the interplay of the different systems/fixed weeks/high quality trading weeks where I can do most things I want. This does assume that your mind enjoys the game of maximizing the opportunities, but your quantitative approach does suggest it. I don't view my timeshares as an investment -- other than an investment in my family, which is well worth that.

Good luck with this purchase, and enjoy your time here on TUG. There is a wealth of wisdom that goes far beyond timeshares here, as you interact with strangers who have life experiences and wisdom that can be invaluable. I credit JME with a fabulous post on the Time Value of Money -- and timeshares. I included the link below (I couldn't embed?) -- and it has pearls of wisdom that are important for us, especially when we have young children.

[ 2014 ] Buy a Grande Ocean week....or just keep renting??

Welcome again, and please ask any and all questions!

Best,

Greg

 

[Saintsfanfl]

Yes,. Usage of course

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

It looks obvious now but my brain was wired for cost comparison with the way some of the other posts were going.

 

[JIMinNC]

Two more cases that for me shows traditional weeks have more value. First as Jim and others still state and I can attest, Marriott weeks, even off-season, trade extremely well. I've done the same 1/2 dozen times this year trading a gold for plat and fair units for great units. Just last Dec I scored a Maui 2BDRM for Pres week and multiple Grande Oceans for some lower cost Harbour Pointe weeks.

Second, the reason Jim couldn't rent his Maui unit was because it was acquired via points and his out of pocket costs for the points is much higher than weeks MFs so it prevents him from completing with the weeks owners.

Points are great for flexibility and that is about it as far as I can see. I do see a few value spots to maximize value but not compared to trading a week through II and scoring a big uptrade like Jim and many others have.

No question some very good trades are available. But the question is not whether good trades can be had - they most certainly can. In this case I think the question is whether a particular individual is willing to go through the 1) book a week; 2) deposit it; 3) request a trade; and then 4) play the "wait for who knows how long to get that trade to come through" game for every trip they want to take. For me, being able to book something at 12-months out (or whatever) with Points and then knowing I have what I want is so much more satisfying and less uncertain. In specific situations (like my Grande Ocean trade above), I'm willing to use my week and play the game, but I couldn't imagine doing that 1/2 dozen times in a year as you say you did. Obviously, you don't have any major issues with the trading process, so it works well for you. I'm not 100% sure whether the OP comes down closer to my philosophy or closer to yours, but I just wanted to make sure he heard both sides of the story, so he could figure out what will work best for him and his family. Clearly, there is more "value" in weeks trading, but IMHO it does come with a hassle factor that can't be explicitly quantified.

You are correct that my out of pocket Points "cost" for the Maui week I was trying to rent on Redweek was higher than someone who owned a week there. But I priced the week at the lowest price for mid-June to mid-July 2BR OF weeks (it was a second half of June week), so it was competitive with other similar listings (and about half of what it would cost to book the same week online with Marriott) and I would still have made a few bucks over my cost. My cost did mean that I couldn't put in a low-ball listing, and that's actually become my impression of Redweek - it's a bargain basement where only fire-sale priced weeks actually rent.

 

[Fasttr]

No question some very good trades are available. But the question is not whether good trades can be had - they most certainly can. In this case I think the question is whether a particular individual is willing to go through the 1) book a week; 2) deposit it; 3) request a trade; and then 4) play the "wait for who knows how long to get that trade to come through" game for every trip they want to take. For me, being able to book something at 12-months out (or whatever) with Points and then knowing I have what I want is so much more satisfying and less uncertain.

Another benefit to not having to play the waiting game is being able to book flights very early on...with ability to snag FF seats, etc because you have your ressie locked in 12 or 13 months out. As many have pointed out, the points game is costly, but it also does have some advantages.

 

[Hi I'm new here]

Long time lurker here, I just registered to say a few things to the OP. For the record we are former owners of a Marriott platinum HHI week. We bought from the developer, I wanted to rescind but my pride was on the line. We paid cash, had young kids and enjoyed our weeks for the first seven or eight years. We didn't have flexibility to trade much, demanding jobs and employers with inflexible vacation policies. I sweated bullets every year that I could get the week off. As the kids got older the appeal decreased. Then kids reached a point they didn't want to go unless they could take a friend, then they didn't want to go period. Then we got to the point where they couldn't go due to band camps, summer school, summer jobs. We sold the unit through Marriott just before the market collapsed and just before Marriott raised its commission to 40 per cent.
I'm not a financial analyst but I could make a case we broke even since we used the weeks for vacation. At no time did we consider this to be an investment and selling it was a big relief.
We like Marriott and still are loyal to their hotel properties. We have rented Marriott weeks as well as condos and units from private owners.


OK! Here goes
If you think posters here are giving you a hard time wait until you tell friends, coworkers and family you bought a timeshare. They will think you are nuts and a poor financial manager. Yes these are time shares but they call it something different involving points.

Why buy something you can rent? Why pay ridiculous maintenance fees when you can rent a week and forget it.

Why are you taking out a loan to finance this? I think I read you are carrying two homes already. Timeshare owners defaulted left and right during the recession. Health problems, job loss and a myriad
Of things can go wrong.
You should not buy from Marriott
You should not buy from the secondary market
You should not be renting points.
Don't commit to a timeshare purchase until you can pay cash. Wait until you are in a strong enough position that you won't notice how expensive the ownership is.

Good luck
Thanks for listening

 

[taffy19]

What an honest post by "Hi I'm new here". You have only one chance to rescind.

We love our timeshares and have owned some of them since the early 80's but we use them every year in a time period that we like to go. Most of our timeshare units are fixed weeks with a fixed view so we don't have the headache to make reservations and also worrying about the view.

The resorts want to make them as liquid as they can today (from fixed week/units to floating units and views and now mostly points) so that they can rent condo units to hotel guests and certainly if it is a point based system and they are point owners too in that system. Most of them are so it is completely legal. In other words, they are competing with you.

In some of the documents they even mention a lottery if there is too much demand. It may happen one day if they keep selling their top locations but the points are coming from resorts in less popular destinations.

I would read this post so you get the idea. Who are they targeting here?

 

[Saintsfanfl]

Long time lurker here, I just registered to say a few things to the OP. For the record we are former owners of a Marriott platinum HHI week. We bought from the developer, I wanted to rescind but my pride was on the line. We paid cash, had young kids and enjoyed our weeks for the first seven or eight years. We didn't have flexibility to trade much, demanding jobs and employers with inflexible vacation policies. I sweated bullets every year that I could get the week off. As the kids got older the appeal decreased. Then kids reached a point they didn't want to go unless they could take a friend, then they didn't want to go period. Then we got to the point where they couldn't go due to band camps, summer school, summer jobs. We sold the unit through Marriott just before the market collapsed and just before Marriott raised its commission to 40 per cent.
I'm not a financial analyst but I could make a case we broke even since we used the weeks for vacation. At no time did we consider this to be an investment and selling it was a big relief.
We like Marriott and still are loyal to their hotel properties. We have rented Marriott weeks as well as condos and units from private owners.


OK! Here goes
If you think posters here are giving you a hard time wait until you tell friends, coworkers and family you bought a timeshare. They will think you are nuts and a poor financial manager. Yes these are time shares but they call it something different involving points.

Why buy something you can rent? Why pay ridiculous maintenance fees when you can rent a week and forget it.

Why are you taking out a loan to finance this? I think I read you are carrying two homes already. Timeshare owners defaulted left and right during the recession. Health problems, job loss and a myriad
Of things can go wrong.
You should not buy from Marriott
You should not buy from the secondary market
You should not be renting points.
Don't commit to a timeshare purchase until you can pay cash. Wait until you are in a strong enough position that you won't notice how expensive the ownership is.

Good luck
Thanks for listening

Your advice is not to buy or rent anything? Don't go on vacation? Maybe I missed something but I don't get it. I agreed with much of your post until the don't buy secondary or even rent.

The OP is not your average regretful timeshare purchaser. They are holding two homes because they can afford to. I agree on not financing but I think they probably could have come up with the cash if they really wanted to.

Where most of us tuggers try and squeeze every ounce of monetary value out of our ownerships and trades the OP is probably more like the minority of tuggers that view the vacations as priceless. They make more than enough at their day jobs to afford it so it really isn't about the money. If the OP fits this profile then Dioxide's and GregT's posts are the best advice in the thread.

 

[catharsis]

You have only one chance to rescind.

This is inarguable .... and worth highlighting again even if the OP thinks that he likes the offering.

Resale points at half or 2/3 the price seems like a good idea if points makes sense in the first place!

Can purchase through re/max or reputable brokers.



Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[larryallen]

Oh ya, and if I was doing the timeshare thing all over, and had little kids still I would go DVC hands down!

 

[Saintsfanfl]

Oh ya, and if I was doing the timeshare thing all over, and had little kids still I would go DVC hands down!

That's a good option if you like Disney a lot. Otherwise I think there is a property on HHI and one in Hawaii. Marriott has a much better selection where use can continue after Disney gets old. And Marriott still has some pretty good properties in Orlando. Not necessarily knocking DVC but if you wanted one system to stay in for 20 years then it's MVCI over DVC.

 

[GoldenVIKE]

This is very insightful, thank you! Yes, the things you've pointed out as frustrating would be endlessly frustrating to us. We want the ability to have access to nice properties, pick the specific days we go, be able to cancel or change plans, etc. Basically we don't want to sacrifice any of the flexibility we have in just booking Marriott.com, but we want access to more and bigger 2/3 bedroom places and to save a little money from if we were booking straight on a website. As our kids grow the timing and types of our trips will likely change, so we don't want to be locked down. I can see that there are many ways to take trips - and it's certainly temping to consider less flexible options when I see that you can get a week in a 2br villa at Frenchman's for $10k + $1600 maintenance during platinum season, and in many years that may be exactly what we do. In those years the points thing will not have been as good as buying a week would have been. But in other years we may want to do 4 nights in Vail and 5 nights in Orlando. Those are the years were the points system would seem to work for us based on what I'm learning.

 

[GoldenVIKE]

You're right this is the key variable in the value calculations. The website isn't letting me upload an Excel file, does that seem normal? Below I've pasted it. I've expanded the number of searches since the original 50. I've omitted the first two as outliers and in some examples have omitted all Ritz properties since they likely aren't too easy to get for 4,000 pt level. The last figure in each row below is the "value per point". Sorry for the awkward pasting of a spreadsheet, but hopefully you get the gist...

Property Location Time Nights Unit Points Comp1 Straight
Ritz-Carlton Tahoe March Sunday-Friday (5) 2-bd Apartment 3375 14176 $4.20
Ritz-Carlton Tahoe March Sunday-Friday (5) 3-bd Apartment 4625 19217 $4.16
Ritz-Carlton St Thomas March Sunday-Friday (5) 2-bd Apartment 3500 9500 $2.71
Ritz-Carlton Tahoe July/Early August Week 2-bd Apartment 5175 12000 $2.32
Ritz-Carlton St Thomas Early/Mid December Week 2-bd Apartment 3900 8657 $2.22
Ritz-Carlton Tahoe July Sunday-Friday (5) 2-bd Apartment 2625 5500 $2.10
Mountain Valley Lodge Breck Late March Sunday-Friday (5) 1-bd Villa 1125 2307 $2.05
Ritz-Carlton Vail Most of Jan-March Week 2-bd Apartment 7725 15701 $2.03
Ocean Club Aruba March Sunday-Friday (5) 1-bd Oceanview 1875 3798 $2.03
Ritz-Carlton Vail June Sunday-Friday (5) 3-bd 2625 4968 $1.89
Ocean Club Aruba March Week 1-bd Oceanview 2975 5424 $1.82
Grand Residences Tahoe Mid June Sunday-Friday (5) 1-bd Villa 675 1225 $1.81
Frenchman's Cove St. Thomas July Sunday-Friday (5) 3-bd Villa 2625 4517 $1.72
Frenchman's Cove St. Thomas August Sunday-Friday (5) 3-bd Villa 2625 4517 $1.72
Maui Ocean Club Hawaii March Week 1-bd Islandview 2925 4994 $1.71
Frenchman's Cove St. Thomas December Sunday-Friday (5) 3-bd Villa 2625 4460 $1.70
Surf Club Aruba December Week 1-bd Oceanside 2350 3968 $1.69
Mountain Valley Lodge Breck Mid March Sunday-Friday (5) 1-bd Villa 1375 2307 $1.68
Frenchman's Cove St. Thomas August Sunday-Friday (5) 2-bd Villa 1875 3116 $1.66
Frenchman's Cove St Thomas February Week 2-bd Apartment 4125 6837.6 $1.66
Grand Residences Tahoe Mid June Sunday-Friday (5) 2-bd Villa 1000 1641 $1.64
Ko Olina Hawaii April Week 2-bd Mountainview 4050 6254 $1.54
Frenchman's Cove St. Thomas July Week 3-bd Villa 4125 6267 $1.52
Marriott St Kitts Early/Mid December Week 2-bd Apartment 2975 4500 $1.51
Maui Ocean Club MM&L Hawaii March Sunday-Friday (5) 1-bd Gardenview 2250 3385 $1.50
Frenchman's Cove St. Thomas May Week 2-bd Villa 2875 4324 $1.50
Maui Ocean Club Hawaii July Week 1-bd Gardenview 3550 5313 $1.50
Mtn Valley Lodge Breck December Week Studio 1675 2440 $1.46
Streamside-Evergreen Vail June Sunday-Friday (5) 2-bd 750 1090 $1.45
Ocean Club Aruba December Week 1-bd Oceanview 2350 3385 $1.44
Surf Club Aruba December Week 1-bd Oceanview 2350 3355 $1.43
Surf Club Aruba June Week Studio 1600 2282 $1.43
Frenchman's Cove St. Thomas August Week 2-bd Villa 2975 4142 $1.39
Ko Olina Hawaii April Week 1-bd Mountainview 2925 4060 $1.39
Ocean Club Aruba December Week 2-bd Oceanview 3500 4842 $1.38
Mtn Valley Lodge Breck December Week 1-bd Apartment 2225 3025 $1.36
Ko Olina Hawaii April Week 2-bd Oceanview 4925 6653 $1.35
Kauai Beach Club Hawaii December Week 1-bd Ocean front 3325 4438 $1.33
Surf Club Aruba December Week 2-bd Oceanside 3500 4620 $1.32
Kauai Beach Club Hawaii March Week Studio 2700 3564 $1.32
Custom House Boston Labor Day Week Week 1-bd Villa 3175 4180 $1.32
Waiohai Beach Club Hawaii May Week 2-bd Islandview 4225 5549 $1.31
Maui Ocean Club Hawaii July Week 1-bd Oceanview 4475 5867 $1.31
Maui Ocean Club Hawaii December Week 1-bd Ocean Front 4125 5390 $1.31
Custom House Boston June Week 1-bd Villa 3175 4146 $1.31
Kauai Beach Club Hawaii December Week 1-bd Oceanview 2750 3564 $1.30
Surf Club Aruba December Week 2-bd Oceanview 3500 4505 $1.29
Frenchman's Cove St. Thomas September Week 2-bd Villa 2350 3020 $1.29
Maui Ocean Club MM&L Hawaii March Sunday-Friday (5) 1-bd Oceanview 2875 3663 $1.27
Maui Ocean Club Hawaii November Week 1-bd Ocean Front 4125 5075 $1.23
Maui Ocean Club Hawaii November Week 1-bd Oceanview 3900 4675 $1.20
Waiohai Beach Club Hawaii May Week 2-bd Oceanview 5025 5946 $1.18
Waiohai Beach Club Hawaii March Week 2-bd Islandview 4850 5549 $1.14
Ocean Club Aruba December Week 2-bd Oceanfront 4525 5149 $1.14
Marriott Newport Coast SoCal December Sunday-Friday (5) 2-bd Apartment 1500 1644 $1.10
Kauai Lagoons Hawaii May Week 2-bd Islandview 4125 4520 $1.10
Kauai Lagoons Hawaii May Week 3-bd Islandview 4875 5230 $1.07
Kauai Lagoons Hawaii November Week 3-bd Islandview 4875 5230 $1.07
Grand Residences Tahoe July/Early August Week 2-bd Apartment 4225 4526 $1.07
Barony Beach Club Hilton Head April Week 2-bd Garden View 2900 3095 $1.07
Ritz-Carlton San Fran October Week 1-bd 5225 5534 $1.06
Streamside-Evergreen Vail December Sunday-Friday (5) 2-bd 1625 1717 $1.06
Grand Residences Tahoe July/Early August Week 1-bd Apartment 2950 3044 $1.03
Maui Ocean Club Hawaii September Week 1-bd Oceanview 3900 3995 $1.02
Waiohai Beach Club Hawaii March Week 2-bd Oceanview 5875 5946 $1.01
Kauai Lagoons Hawaii November Week 2-bd Ocean Front 6075 5946 $0.98
Kauai Lagoons Hawaii May Week 2-bd Oceanview 5100 4915 $0.96
Kauai Lagoons Hawaii May Week 3-bd Oceanview 5850 5630 $0.96
Kauai Lagoons Hawaii November Week 3-bd Oceanview 5850 5630 $0.96
Grand Residences Tahoe June Week 2-bd Apartment 3225 3067 $0.95
Ritz-Carlton Vail Early/Mid December Week 2-bd Apartment 6500 6049 $0.93
Mayflower D.C. June Week Hotel room 3275 3014 $0.92
Playa Andaluza Spain March Week 2-bd Garden View 1925 1694 $0.88
Barony Beach Club Hilton Head April Week 2-bd Ocean Front 4000 3518 $0.88
d'Ile France June Week 2-bd Apartment 2700 2356 $0.87
Grand Residences Tahoe June Week 1-bd Apartment 2400 2067 $0.86
Playa Andaluza Spain March Week 3-bd Garden View 2450 2023 $0.83
Grand Chateau Vegas April Week Room 1600 1167 $0.73
Grand Chateau Vegas New Years Week Week Room 2225 1528 $0.69
Grand Residences Tahoe June Sunday-Friday (5) 1-bd Apartment 1500 975 $0.65
Grand Chateau Vegas April Week 2-bd Apartment 3675 2356 $0.64
Grand Chateau Vegas New Years Week Week 2-bd Apartment 4625 2917 $0.63
Grand Residences Tahoe June Sunday-Friday (5) 2-bd Apartment 2250 1419 $0.63

 

[GoldenVIKE]

Long time lurker here, I just registered to say a few things to the OP. For the record we are former owners of a Marriott platinum HHI week. We bought from the developer, I wanted to rescind but my pride was on the line. We paid cash, had young kids and enjoyed our weeks for the first seven or eight years. We didn't have flexibility to trade much, demanding jobs and employers with inflexible vacation policies. I sweated bullets every year that I could get the week off. As the kids got older the appeal decreased. Then kids reached a point they didn't want to go unless they could take a friend, then they didn't want to go period. Then we got to the point where they couldn't go due to band camps, summer school, summer jobs. We sold the unit through Marriott just before the market collapsed and just before Marriott raised its commission to 40 per cent.
I'm not a financial analyst but I could make a case we broke even since we used the weeks for vacation. At no time did we consider this to be an investment and selling it was a big relief.
We like Marriott and still are loyal to their hotel properties. We have rented Marriott weeks as well as condos and units from private owners.


OK! Here goes
If you think posters here are giving you a hard time wait until you tell friends, coworkers and family you bought a timeshare. They will think you are nuts and a poor financial manager. Yes these are time shares but they call it something different involving points.

Why buy something you can rent? Why pay ridiculous maintenance fees when you can rent a week and forget it.

Why are you taking out a loan to finance this? I think I read you are carrying two homes already. Timeshare owners defaulted left and right during the recession. Health problems, job loss and a myriad
Of things can go wrong.
You should not buy from Marriott
You should not buy from the secondary market
You should not be renting points.
Don't commit to a timeshare purchase until you can pay cash. Wait until you are in a strong enough position that you won't notice how expensive the ownership is.

Good luck
Thanks for listening

Totally agree with this. I didn't give a detailed rundown of our financial position but it's very comfortable. The only reason we're financing is to get the incentive associated with it, then we'll pay it off after 18 mo. We could easily pay cash if we wanted. But yes, I'm sure there are tons of people that get themselves in over their heads w/ stuff like this and your advice is rock solid if that were the situation.

 

[GoldenVIKE]

This is inarguable .... and worth highlighting again even if the OP thinks that he likes the offering.

Resale points at half or 2/3 the price seems like a good idea if points makes sense in the first place!

Can purchase through re/max or reputable brokers.



Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Talked to a great broker today and seriously considering this, thanks!

 

[dioxide45]

It seems that time and time again, the only way to financially justify a DC developer point purchase is to compare it to prices on Marriott.com. That is what the sales folk do in a presentation, at least in the old days of weeks presentations. We would often see how prepaying for our vacation beat out Marriott.com rates. I do agree that if you are only willing to book on Marriott.com then buying DC points is going to save you money.

I simply don't understand the hesitance of person to person rental transactions. Tens of thousands of these things happen every year. VRBO, Home Away, Redweek. Very few people are out there to rip you off The true scam artists have much easier ways to take your money. The vast majority of renters, say more than 99.9% are just trying to recoup costs and make some profit. Sure, a little due diligence is needed and you may want to buy travel insurance in the event you need to cancel, but you still come out way ahead than if you had bought on Marriott.com. Plus we have to keep Joe in business

 

[Hi I'm new here]

I didn't say not to vacation. I said not to rent points as an adjunct to owning some points.
I said to rent condos, timeshares from owners if you want this accommodation. We've done it and in the days of Redweek, VRBO, airb'b, Trip advisor and other sites it is incredibly easy. We've rented Marriotts and places in Hawaii far nicer.

I strongly suggest not to buy a timeshare. Why buy what is easy to rent? Why buy a lifetime of high maintenance fees? A possible exception is buying on eBay . We know someone who picked up a few including a Marriott for less than $500 bucks each, he is retired and flexible.
If you must buy do not finance a timeshare. Never ever go in debt for one.

We've owned a Marriott timeshare, we sold just before the timeshare market collapsed. I'm thankful we got out before the Destination club rolled out. Why would I pour more money into something unlikely to be worth much at resale.. No way would I pay $2200 per year maintenance fee on a modest destination club package. I'm thankful we got out before the maintenance fee on our old place hit $1350 per year.

We've owned a number of local income properties and our children's inheritance is secure. We are not financial novices.
I truly wish the OP all the best. I'm hoping he is not really a buyer. I would love to read he is a student doing research or a salesman in training.

 

[dioxide45]

Talked to a great broker today and seriously considering this, thanks!

If you are considering this, don't wait around to recind your developer purchase. Once you are past your 5, 7, or 10 days, you are stuck with those points. No going back, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. However, if you rescind and later decide to go back to Marriott, they will be happy to take you money again. Given that you are even considering resale DC points, rescind now before it is too late.

 

[dioxide45]

Totally agree with this. I didn't give a detailed rundown of our financial position but it's very comfortable. The only reason we're financing is to get the incentive associated with it, then we'll pay it off after 18 mo. We could easily pay cash if we wanted. But yes, I'm sure there are tons of people that get themselves in over their heads w/ stuff like this and your advice is rock solid if that were the situation.

The problem with financing is the high interest rates you pay for Marriott financing. ON a $40,000 loan at 12.5%, you will pay almost $7,200 in interest. Are the financing incentives worth that much money?

 

[davidvel]

Amazing how the OP had all these units broken down using DC point value and supposed Marriott price, then comes here with first post and says "Was it a good choice?" He's got a great Within a day he has convinced himself its a great choice and is not rescinding.

And, as I suspected the list includes hand-picked mid-week and short stays. I swear I'm sitting through my last presentation at Shadow Ridge. The 5 day mid-week Ritz Carlton sounded familiar to me. Is it you SeaDoc?:

I can do a five day 3 bedroom Ritz Carlton Northstar during ski season for 3500 points which is worth $4000 nightly on the Ritz website. A $20000 vacation.

Good luck getting those reservations at the Ritz, etc.
This thread comes to mind: http://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?...or-newcomers-to-marriott.242321/#post-1891702

 

[Saintsfanfl]

Amazing how the OP had all these units broken down using DC point value and supposed Marriott price, then comes here with first post and says "Was it a good choice?" He's got a great Within a day he has convinced himself its a great choice and is not rescinding.

And, as I suspected the list includes hand-picked mid-week and short stays. I swear I'm sitting through my last presentation at Shadow Ridge. The 5 day mid-week Ritz Carlton sounded familiar to me. Is it you SeaDoc?:

Good luck getting those reservations at the Ritz, etc.
This thread comes to mind: http://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?...or-newcomers-to-marriott.242321/#post-1891702

It's human nature to what to convince yourself that you made a good choice, especially while still emotional. That said, would someone with ulterior motives post under their real name?