Bought a TS at Massanutten

[llenod]

Did the tour and bought from developer. Never thought we would but the offer was reasonable. Bought week 2 3br l/o in shenandoah villas in a fixed unit. I know I overpaid but the wife liked the unit & week. The price was 5k.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Then you know the advice we would give, apparently, because you seem to be defending your purchase. I say RESCIND! Not a doubt. If you are younger, then consider this advice from an older lady who knows. If you are older, you probably already know better and want us to talk you out of it.

I wouldn't buy anything from the developer, and I am sure you can get the same thing for next to nothing. Doesn't matter of the salesperson was nice, or if the price was "reasonable." I bought developer and regretted it for the rest of my life. Don't do it, and don't assume that what you got is better than what ebay sells.

 

[BevL]

I think I'm not sure what the purpose of your post is. If you're just letting us know that you bought a timeshare, welcome and hopefully you'll have many happy vacations. If you're looking for ways to utilize your timeshare for exchanging, this is the place to find out about that. But I agree with Cindy, it sounds like you're looking for confirmation you got a good deal, especially with the details you provided.

If you're happy with what you paid. great. But plesae don't believe the "If you don't buy it today, it won't be available next week at this price," spiel they probably gave you.

Bottom line is, if you're happy with it, keep it and don't look back. But if you're not sure you got a good deal, rescind and really make sure before you commit. If you go in with cheque book in hand a month from today after you've done your due diligence, they're not going to stand on pride and refuse to sell to you.

But truly, no matter what decision you make, welcome to TUG

Edited to add: I just spied on your posts and you've been around for a while even though you haven't posted much and you've been interested in this area for a while.

The expression "A happy wife is a happy life" might be a big part of your post here. So if you're happy that she's happy and you end up keeping what you bought, we wish you the best. But be prepaerd for a list of rescind it now posts.

 

[Tommart]

I've Never been in the Villas

I didn't even know that the developer was selling Villa units. Must be a foreclosed week.

Did you get bonus weeks? Do you ski?

Nice that the developer is selling for semi-reasonable pricing. It would have been over $10K a couple years ago. They probably bought it from the HOA for $1, so they make good profit selling it for $5K.

But I have seen two-bedroom non-summer weeks sell for under $1K. Do not remember seeing a three bedroom lockout for sale.

Needless to say, I also like Massanutten. There's so much to do there and the units are large. We go once or twice a year.

I own one two-bedroom lockout, and one four-bedroom lockout -- both at Woodstone. I bought one from the developer and one from resale. I paid $20K for my two-bedroom summer week lockout. Wish I would have bought both from resale.

If you don't ski, I don't recommend week 2. Many outdoor activities are closed, and the exchange/trading value is about one-half of a summer week. RCI is down with now, but a week 2 Woodstone one-bedroom trading points is worth about 8 TPs the last time I looked. The two-bedroom would be about 10. In the summer, it's 16 and 18 TPs for one and two-bedrooms. I got 32 TPs for depositing my two-bedroom lockout as two one-bedrooms.

On the other hand, if your family skis, $5K is a good value for a ski resort. I once paid $3K rental to ski in Colorado (not a timeshare). It will take a while to wait for a ski week to show up on ebay.

If you decide to rescind, you have 7 days from the time you signed the purchase agreement.

There's five Massanutten weeks listed on ebay right now. There's no Villas and no ski weeks.
There's two 4-bedroom lockout floating Summit weeks (one with a $1400 high bid right now) that would be competitive with the Villas. Summit is high on the mountain and near skiing. It's not on flat of land as the Villas. There's also two Woodstone units at auction: week 20 and 47. The current bids are about $400 for one, and $1 for the other. There's also an Eagle Trace week with no bids. I don't recommend Eagle Trace even though it's high on the mountain. I've stayed at Eagle Trace twice. It's OK, but the other HOAs at Massanutten are better.

Hope this information helps you with your decision. It's not an awful decision if you stay with the developer and there are some advantages.

 

[pedro47]

Did the tour and bought from developer. Never thought we would but the offer was reasonable. Bought week 2 3br l/o in shenandoah villas in a fixed unit. I know I overpaid but the wife liked the unit & week. The price was 5k.

The buyer is happy with the price and that is important . Week 2 is an excellent ski week @ this resort.

Enjoy your week !!!

 

[Patri]

Is it for every year?

 

[Egret1986]

Do you have kids that are or will be in school Wk 2?

Massanutten has one of the highest pressure sales presentations that I have ever attended. My last one about 5 years ago was my last.

I like Massanutten very much also. In fact I bought one of my favorites a few months ago in Mountainside Villas. I love those units. I buy what I see that I like and would definitely use if it's at an excellent price, but I also put them up for sale immediately. I already have a buyer for this at $1995 including closing costs and I made a nice profit. Just waiting for the ownership transfer into my name to take place to complete this transaction with my buyer.

If you have time to recind, I would definitely consider it. There's all kinds of deals on eBay constantly for Massanutten and especially now.

 

[yumdrey]

I know it is a wonderful resort and skiing at week 2 is great, but what about floating week 1-52? You will not have problem reserving week 2 each year, and then when you have kids, you can reserve school break week.
If you are happy with the price and the week, enjoy and welcome to timesharing!

 

[Miss Marty]

Massanutten Shenandoah Villas

Which check in day - Friday - Sat - Sunday

Did the tour and bought from developer.
Never thought we would but the offer was reasonable.
Bought week 2 3br l/o in shenandoah villas in a fixed unit.
I know I overpaid but the wife liked the unit & week.
The price was 5k.

Nod - Did they offer you Developer Financing?

 

[llenod]

I had never seen the chalets before on ebay. A few years back I considered moutainside, but backed out of the deal. As for why I posted, I was just looking for feedback. The unit is deeded yearly. Woodstone seems cheaply built, so we weren't interested.

The developer did finance the unit at 17%!!!! We will pay it off early though.

They said they are selling all deeded inventory to make way for the transition to 20 year leases. It also comes with 2 bonus weeks through rci and the "gold card".

I didn't buy from the sales guy. He made one offer on woodstone for 11k. He told us that rci was collecting info as to what units were resale and were not going to let them exchange. His reasoning was that they have been looking for ways to stop the resale market. I thought that was a bit shady.

Anyhow I bought from the next person who showed us old inventory. We liked the unit as it is private and rustic, and the week is a good ski week, with friday check-in. I do realize woodstone can be had for 300/wk, but man those walls are paper thin.

 

[markel]

First of all, the sales guy and the next guy are one of the same, snakes !! I'm no expert on Massanutten, but I agree with the others that say you should rescind. It's your money and although you and your wife may feel good with the purchase now, I highly doubt that you will feel the same way in one, two years. I can't get into RCI now (either computer or RCI site is slow) but I'd be willing to believe you could get a last call for this week, at one of the resorts on-site. I'm looking at early March and there is TONS of availability very cheap. I've been to Mass many times, and under no circumstances would I purchase from them. Too many units and too much availability.

Mark

 

[Aussiedog]

Looks Mostly OK to Me

Of course frequent posters on this board have a real bias against developer sales and for lots of excellent reasons. However, the facts seem to be that you -

• bought in an area of the resort not often available in the typical resale markets
• bought exactly the unit you wanted and plan on using
• bought the week you wanted
• paid a price you thought was fair and not toooo far out of line for sales at that resort

I wish you did not have to finance at 17% though . That can be a killer and I really hope you can get that behind you ASAP.

Ann

 

[jasenj1]

I wish you did not have to finance at 17% though . That can be a killer and I really hope you can get that behind you ASAP.

We toured, bought and rescinded at Massanutten. Very nice place. You don't mention where you are from so we don't know if you plan to use just the week, or go there frequently to use the "gold card" (that lets you use the health club facility there, for those not familiar). $5k for an annual lockout does seem rather cheap from the developer - still way more than the resale market, but whatever.

The developer ALWAYS gives you their financing. If you keep the unit, just go home and get a loan from your bank or a HELOC or even a 0% credit card.

I agree that the RCI comment was shady, if not a flat out lie. I've also found that some sales people know less about how timeshares REALLY work than I do from reading TUG a bit. So he may not have been lying, just misinformed - but still wrong. :annoyed:

I have two words of advice:
1) If you're happy and your wife's happy, then use the unit the best you can and enjoy. I love skiing, and week 2 at Mass. should be a good ski week.

2) If you have many doubts, rescind! Lots of people do it. Then take the time to evaluate what you want out of a timeshare. Trader? To use every year? A bit of both? Use the resort grounds?

As others mentioned, week 2 is not a good trader. You could buy something resale elsewhere and trade into Mass. for cheaper than the $5k in the long run.

But, having a week pegged to the calendar is a great motivator to actually use the week.

- Jasen.

 

[Patri]

Again, is this an annual week? For that price, it could be once every three years, not a bargain.

 

[Aussiedog]

Patri - He posted that it is annual usage.

Ann

 

[Miss Marty]

Shenandoah Villas


Considered a standard accommodation by RCI

Shenandoah Villas is composed of two distinct types of units
(Shendanoah Villas and Shenandoah Villas at Killy Court).

The Friday check-in units are in pedestal houses usually with
two units to a "house." They are very unique and can be one,
two or three-bedroom units. (All the way up the Mountain)

Saturday check-in units (only 10 units available) were built
in the townhouse style and are two-bedroom units.

AB accommodations can be locked out and is considered a luxury unit.
UD accommodations can not be locked out and is considered a deluxe unit.

Shenandoah Villas - AB Units - Sleeps 10
Annual Assessment Fee 2011 - $599.00

Did your salesperson explain the new
RCI weeks exchange program to you?

How many RCI Trading Value Deposit Points does RCI offer for week 2
How many RCI Trading Value Points does it take to trade back into SV

Enjoy your purchase!

 

[dryden]

Think Hard...

After patiently watching ebay sales for a long time, we bought week 32, AB unit (3 bdr./bath LO) for $1 just before Christmas two years ago. This year I went on the "tour" and was told after the 3rd hard sell that, "you bought it for a $1 because that's all it's worth! You could buy another one for a dollar! You can't trade it for a Gold Crown or anything else worth value in RCI because it's not a rated part of the resort!". What I got from that is the way the sales dept. devalues SV. From what I understand about SV in RCI, this is true, but we don't care- the place works for us. It works because it wasn't a financial strain to buy, $600 MF is affordable for the size of the unit, we don't use it as a trader, and the family loves vacationing there; all equal win-win to me. Though each salesperson/manager was just as rude as the next at hearing the word NO (and the name TUG too), I knew no matter what unit they were trying to get me to "upgrade" to, that same unit could be found resale for much less than what they were trying to sell it for. Thank you TUG for teaching me that.

It's not my place to agree or disagree with your purchase, but I can tell you that the people who post on TUG know what they're talking about and give very credible input. You posted to get feedback and you've gotten quite a bit. Think hard about what has been shared. In the end, you do what's best for you. Good luck.

 

[jrreed]

Bonus Weeks

How do the bonus weeks offered work at Massanutten?

 

[jrreed]

MF

How much do the MF typically go up at Massanutten each year?

 

[llenod]

After patiently watching ebay sales for a long time, we bought week 32, AB unit (3 bdr./bath LO) for $1 just before Christmas two years ago. This year I went on the "tour" and was told after the 3rd hard sell that, "you bought it for a $1 because that's all it's worth! You could buy another one for a dollar! You can't trade it for a Gold Crown or anything else worth value in RCI because it's not a rated part of the resort!". What I got from that is the way the sales dept. devalues SV. From what I understand about SV in RCI, this is true, but we don't care- the place works for us. It works because it wasn't a financial strain to buy, $600 MF is affordable for the size of the unit, we don't use it as a trader, and the family loves vacationing there; all equal win-win to me. Though each salesperson/manager was just as rude as the next at hearing the word NO (and the name TUG too), I knew no matter what unit they were trying to get me to "upgrade" to, that same unit could be found resale for much less than what they were trying to sell it for. Thank you TUG for teaching me that.

It's not my place to agree or disagree with your purchase, but I can tell you that the people who post on TUG know what they're talking about and give very credible input. You posted to get feedback and you've gotten quite a bit. Think hard about what has been shared. In the end, you do what's best for you. Good luck.

Wow - I have looked for that deal, but just can't find it (care to sell?)

I am not looking for Gold Crown at massanutten, as I doubt I will be trading it much. All my research has come up with Eagle trace, woodstone, mountainside, and summit. I am not thrilled about any of those. I like the fact these are homes. I'd recind in a heartbeat if I could find a deal like that...Thanks for the info!


As for the tour salespeople, it was never a hard sales pitch. Our guide, Jeff, was very generous and told me that he couldn't touch resale values, but what do his best to find something I may be interested in. Like I said, he made his one offer and says thats all I got folks, and I proceeded to see a younger girl. She wasn't "scum". She was just trying to make a living. Very sweet 20+ year asking what we were looking for and we told her. She said she find the cheapest thing they could offer and if we didn't want it no problem. I never felt pressured and it is possibly why I pulled the trigger. I guess to myself I am justifying why I went against everything I knew not to do. But dang, $1. Oh well, I talked it over with the wife, and she really wants it. She said she doesn't feel bad about the 5k, and it is the perfect unit for her dad as he has bad knees and can't do a lot of the stairs Massanutten has on a bunch of their units. All in all, thank you for all of the advice. This will be just a fun unit for us to use. I guess you got have some sucker buying from the developer to give a great deals on the resale market . I still have my MB unit that is around 25 pts on RCI.

I know our family will enjoy it every year. Oh BTW, if interested, Regal Vistas are going for 45k To maintain a happy wife, I have come to terms of spending 5k for the unit, and MF of double of what I can book through RCI vacations.

I am not sure why they devalue SV. They are pedestal homes that have just been upgraded with new decks and vinyl siding. They have real fireplaces, and to my understanding, have furniture renovations coming up next, including new TV's and beds. I also have a service dog, so having a yard to walk him in is a major plus in the mornings.

Any other suggestions on the resort itself is welcome. One thing I have researched is this "gold card". It seems like there is no difference between that and the Owner's card. Any clues on that?

To JREED - MF vary @ massanutten. The best thing to do is to check out massresort.com and look at units you like. If you have a never been, its a great place to take kids. Not to mention, Harrisonburg is about 15 min west with everything you need. The bonus weeks work just like exchanges. There are black-out dates, etc. We like to take vacation when the kids are in school. My son is able to bring his work with him and do it while on vacation.

 

[Tommart]

...The developer did finance the unit at 17%!!!! We will pay it off early though.

They said they are selling all deeded inventory to make way for the transition to 20 year leases. It also comes with 2 bonus weeks through rci and the "gold card".

I didn't buy from the sales guy. He made one offer on woodstone for 11k. He told us that rci was collecting info as to what units were resale and were not going to let them exchange. His reasoning was that they have been looking for ways to stop the resale market. I thought that was a bit shady.....

You probably know that Great Eastern offers 0% financing if you pay 50% down, and pay within 12 months.

The bonus weeks are something that you won't get through resale. It's easy to use the bonus weeks at Massanutten even in the ski season. It's difficult in the summer.

My wife and I always go to the sales presentation when we stay. We ask questions about the resort and my wife likes asking the sales person personal questions. We also like the free breakfast and Activity Cards. The salesman typically wants to end the presentation when he learns that I already own two weeks and it definitely ends when I tell him what I paid for my 4-bedroom lockout--so I never feel the high pressure.

It's bunk that resales will get less RCI Exchange credits than initial purchases.

Before we bought the 4-bedroom, a salesman tried to get me to upgrade my two-bedroom lockout to a four bedroom of the same summer week. It would only cost $11K to upgrade. He said that it would increase the number of possible exchange resorts by 400% since 80% of resorts are two bedrooms or more. (I now know that it would increase my Trading Points from 32 to 36. Not exactly 400%.)

In early September we stayed with a bonus week in Eagle Trace, and the salesman stated that they would soon go to 20 year leases. Told me that this would be my last opportunity to buy a deed. At the time, I knew that deeded properties would always be available in the resale market. I now wonder if leases are better ways to go. You don't need to worry about selling.

 

[llenod]

You probably know that Great Eastern offers 0% financing if you pay 50% down, and pay within 12 months.
QUOTE]

That was never offered, nor did I inquire. I figured the small amt of interest I will actually pay will be next to nothing as it is a small amt and I can afford to pay off quickly. My only hiccup is, I see Summit going for around 2k on ebay for floating week 4br l/o. Can't convince the wife that is the way to go... ugh..

 

[Tommart]

Regal Vistas

......Oh BTW, if interested, Regal Vistas are going for 45k ....

I've met several people who upgraded to Regal Vistas from Woodstone and paid a lot. They are nice one story units with garages, as you probably already know.

What surprised me is that Regal Vistas get the same exchange points as Woodstone.

It probably doesn't surprise you, but Mountainside gets 1 or 2 more points than Woodstone/Regal Vistas. There's also several Regal Vistas weeks available as bonus weeks. I plan to use a bonus week in the spring and hope to get a Regal Vista or Mountainside unit.

Tom

 

[Tommart]

Financing

You probably know that Great Eastern offers 0% financing if you pay 50% down, and pay within 12 months.
QUOTE]

That was never offered, nor did I inquire. I figured the small amt of interest I will actually pay will be next to nothing as it is a small amt and I can afford to pay off quickly. My only hiccup is, I see Summit going for around 2k on ebay for floating week 4br l/o. Can't convince the wife that is the way to go... ugh..

Even though I agreed that I would pay 50% down and 0 financing, I still received a letter from Great Eastern about one month after I signed my contract explaining my financing options --including the 0% and 17% options. The letter asked me to call the loan officer to discuss and I think I had to mail them something, but I don't remember. So when you're contacted, ask about the 0 financing if it's not stated in the letter. You will pay the 50% in about 5-6 weeks, and then pay the rest in 12 monthly payments. So it actually takes about 14 months to pay it off. The contract that you signed does not bind you to the 17% option.

Tom