Advice on Starwood upgrade and retro

[mclay]

Last year, after reviewing the useful information on this forum, I purchased resale weeks at Sheraton Vistana - 1 week in a Cascades 2 bedroom Lockout Platinum season for $1,100 and 1 week in a Fountains unit Platinum season for $1 after agreeing to pay for the assessment that the seller had not disclosed. I also purchased a Deluxe 1 Bedroom at Sheraton Desert Oasis Red 1-52 for $895.

We ended up joining SVN for the Fountains unit and received 76,000 Staroptions, which of course is too little to do much with. As of this date, there is no offer to join SVN for the Cascades phase despite the upcoming assessment of ~$2,000 for the upgrades on my 2 BD Lockoff unit.

One of the Starwood salespeople has offered to let me upgrade the Cascades unit into Vistana Villages (St. Augustine phase) into a regular 2 bedroom platinum season for $7,900. I would get 81,000 StarOptions for that unit and the annual maintenance fees would be ~150-$200 less. I would also get out of having to pay for the new assessment on Cascades which means the net upgrade cost is really only $5,900. In addition, I could retro my annual SDO unit but because it is 1-52, instead of 1-21, 50-52 I would only get 44,000 StarOptions. Still that would give me 201,000 StarOptions total and 3* elite status with SVN.

I've tried to find a 2 bedroom SDO unit under company 49 (1-21, 50-52) to make the retro that much more valuable (i.e. get 148,000 StarOptions in the retro) but alas no luck in finding one. I've also considered buying a 2 Bed SDO for $3K- $4k in resale then retroing to get at least 81,000 StarOptions.

Does anyone have any good advice? It seems like a good deal but maybe I'm throwing away the chance that Starwood will invite Cascades/Lakes resale owners to joing SVN after the assessments. Maybe it would be better to keep the Cascades versus owning in Vistana Villages. (St Augustine is new so I shouldn't expect any assessments for a while.) Any thoughts? It seems like an incremental $6,000 or so is a pretty good deal to get to 201,000 StarOptions and 3* elite.

 

[myip]

I think it is great deal because the real cost is only $5900. I would buy another unit with 148100 staroptions to retr'd. -- Mission Hills price is very low. Perhaps Sheraton Mountain Vista (winter), if you can find a unit for $10K.

 

[Ken555]

I agree. Get a 148k unit, if at all possible, to retro at the same time. If you do that, this would be a great price.

And, I'd expect all phases to be invited at some point, we're just not sure who will qualify for it. Of course, Starwood will probably charge for the conversion now that they're hurting...

 

[tlpnet]

Lakes & Cascades, Fountains I, and Fountains II are already in SVN, so I doubt you as a resale buyer will be invited to join SVN regardless of special assessments. I definitely think upgrading into Vistana Villages is the right think to do with your Cascades unit, however, ask your salesperson if he/she can find a unit in Bella or Key West. These are the mandatory sections (more value should you need to sell down the line), and sometimes they do get inventory back in these sections.

I also agree with others here that suggest getting a 148,100 SO unit to requalify. WMH resales have dropped to almost half of what I paid earlier this year.

-tim

 

[capjak]

I think it is a good deal. The Villiages is a great TS, stayed there this summer and going back springbreak 2009, I think it is worth 5900 to have the Villiages over the other one an get a retro, do it if you were going to retro anyway.

 

[SDKath]

I can help you out with one of those 148,100 units. PM me. I agree with the others. You should retro a 148,100 unit if at all possible to make the deal worthwhile.

Katherine

 

[Bill4728]

upgrading into Vistana Villages is the right think to do with your Cascades unit, however, ask your salesperson if he/she can find a unit in Bella or Key West. These are the mandatory sections (more value should you need to sell down the line), and sometimes they do get inventory back in these sections.

I also agree with others here that suggest getting a 148,100 SO unit to requalify. WMH resales have dropped to almost half of what I paid earlier this year.

-tim

I really like the idea of upgrading into VV but only if they can find you a unit the mandatory sections ( Bella or Key West) IMHO, You'd be throwing your money away to upgrade to a voluntary phase because of how much you'll lose ($$$) when you sell.

 

[nodge]

It seems like a good deal but maybe I'm throwing away the chance that Starwood will invite Cascades/Lakes resale owners to joing SVN after the assessments.

In a rare departure from SVO Management’s code of stoic silence, SVO HAS actually commented on this issue. No, it didn’t post its comments to us owners via mystarcentral.com. No, it didn’t post its comments to us owners via this forum. No, it didn’t post its comments to us owners via SVO’s “VP of Communications,” who has been busy flying around the country, presumably on private jet, firing people and stopping new SVO projects. It informed us owners via a single letter that it sent to the owner of redweek.com, a relatively popular resale and rental website, with a far, far, far less popular bulletin board forum, and the owner of Redweek turned around and posted that letter on that forum.

Thanks to your friends here on TUG (and with a little help from Google) you can now access this buried information as if SVO were speaking directly to you.

Of course, on more than one occasion SVO has said one thing and done another, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on SVO letting Cascades or Lakes resale purchasers into SVN anytime soon.

Good Luck,
-nodge