Adding timeshares [Where should I buy?]

[Traveler2021]

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

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? Trade

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations? Massachusetts, Arizona, Utah, Mexico and Tennessee

4) How many people do you usually travel with - total, including yourself? 2-4

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

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

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? 4-5

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing? 2500

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? 500

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 give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do? Yes

 

[DeniseM]

Everything is doable on your list, except a $500 maintenance fee. You will need more like $1,000 - $1,500.

 

[sponger76]

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

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? Trade

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations? Massachusetts, Arizona, Utah, Mexico and Tennessee

4) How many people do you usually travel with - total, including yourself? 2-4

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

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

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? 4-5

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing? 2500

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? 500

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 give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do? Yes

Your answers to 9 and 10 (especially 10) are in direct conflict with your desire stated in answer 8. But before even looking at the financial numbers, there are not very many 4-5 star timeshares. Of the ones that some might consider 4-5 star, your annual MFs would probably need to be at least 4x what you stated in 10, and the up front purchase price at least double (for a very good steal of a deal) and more likely closer to 3x, 4x or more than your answer to number 9.

There are quite a few timeshares you can pick up for less than $2500, or even for free. But they are extremely unlikely to be 4-5 star. And these days there are very few timeshares even on the low end that have annual fees of $500, and those fees are almost always increasing. You might be able to get a points package with maintenance fees currently in that range, but the amount of points you'd have wouldn't get you much, you *might* get a couple of nights for a lot of nicer resorts, especially during the more popular times of year.

 

[StarSailer]

You can get 3-star on that budget… but only if the $500 is maintenance-only at an independent place and you make free exchanges on Tugs or use what you own. More likely trading means spending +$400 to exchange with RCI or Interval.

P.S.: As a reminder the star rating is the luxury/amenities level, not the review score. You can find 2-star timeshares with 4.5 star reviews.

 

[Hindsite]

Do you have a preference for exchanging in II or RCI or another exchange? That will drive your decision based ont he inventory that you can see you will want to go to.

If its II, then there are companies that use points systems in II of various kinds, often the demonisations vary a lot, I'd avoid the Hyatt and MVC points systems as they can be expensive to use in II.

If you want something to test out for a few years using II then Northstar do an offering where they deposit their inventory into II as Club interval points and they provide an II gold account, its for a set number of years and just the up-front cost to be paid plus the II exchange fees, there may be others that also do this. I'm not recommending it, just using it as an example as some independents also deposit as Interval points, and other systems use their own points. Sheraton Flex is worth using as a comparison, its not the cheapest from a maint fee comparison, but its a good place to start and then see what is out there that is a better deal.