Buying in Florida

[PClapham]

I would appreciate any comments/ experience here.
Our son's father in law owns several units in the fall at Island Towers and is on the board. Looking at a list of foreclosure units he (son) asked if it would be a good idea to buy one. This resort has good reviews. Is the Florida market ok? What season is best to buy? I'm thinking that a holiday week would be good. He also asked if the mf is reasonable- $600- I don't know anything about Florida timeshares. would like to receive ANY information/ experience in this matter.

Thanks

Anita

 

[DeniseM]

What is his GOAL in buying in Florida? If he is looking for a trader or a renter, I would pass, even if the MF is low. Florida is way over-built with timeshares so there is far more supply than demand, and that hurts trading power. If he can buy a fixed week 51 or 52, that will have better demand by far.

I'd also look at ebay to see what these weeks are selling for on the open market. Often, the HOA is asking far more than what they usually resale for. It's easy to pick up a TS in Orlando for free, but probably not weeks 51 or 52.

 

[pacodemountainside]

Suggest you spend a few hours here familiarizing self with TSs.

For the most part(Disney, hotel chains and prime fixed weeks exceptions) it is what kind of deal is seller making to get rid of MF liability.

MF depend on unit size, resort, reserves, etc.

 

[DeniseM]

For the most part(Disney, hotel chains and prime fixed weeks exceptions) it is what kind of deal is seller making to get rid of MF liability.

Say WHAT?

Also - the OP has been a TUG member at least since 2005:

BBS Reg. Date: Jun 6, 05

 

[theo]

Random thoughts...

I would appreciate any comments/ experience here.
Our son's father in law owns several units in the fall at Island Towers and is on the board. Looking at a list of foreclosure units he (son) asked if it would be a good idea to buy one. This resort has good reviews. Is the Florida market ok? What season is best to buy? I'm thinking that a holiday week would be good. He also asked if the mf is reasonable- $600- I don't know anything about Florida timeshares. would like to receive ANY information/ experience in this matter.

I have no idea from your post what the son's motivation might possibly be in considering such a purchase in the first place, so I can't intelligently comment on the wisdom of a purchase in his particular situation, but I'll volunteer a few thoughts on the facility itself (...assuming that the "Island Towers" to which you make reference is the one located on Estero Boulevard in Fort Myers Beach).

The facility is Gulf front, good location on FMB, older construction (guessing early 1980's). A decent place, but not stellar, managed by a local company called RAL.
In my personal observation and opinion (RAL manages several other facilities in the area), proactive maintenance does not at all seem to be a high priorty to RAL.

There would not likely be Snowbird (winter) weeks available as foreclosures; such weeks are in very high demand anywhere on FMB and would have definite resale value. Unless the (unspecified) available foreclosed week(s) have high trade value and can be acquired for peanuts, or unless the son is interested in using a specific week and can acquire a foreclosure at very low cost, I'd pass. Personally, I would consider $5k for a prime Snowbird week there to be about my maximum figure --- but I would frankly not be very excited at that price either. For any other non-winter week, I wouldn't likely consider buying there at all. Just my personal opinion. YMMV.

 

[PClapham]

Many thanks for the comments-I believe he has decided not to buy.

Anita

 

[Rent_Share]

Theo what is FMB ?

 

[uscav8r]

Theo what is FMB ?

I was wondering also, but it is Fort Myers Beach, if I read the post correctly... Buried at end of first paragraph.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[theo]

Theo what is FMB ?

Fort Myers Beach. My apologies for being a bit lazy. After I first spelled out (...or "buried" ) the full words Fort Myers Beach in the very first paragraph of my reply, I just abbreviated it thereafter as FMB, forgetting that this thread was not actually in the Florida forum at all, but in the Buying, Selling, Renting forum.

 

[pacodemountainside]

For the most part(Disney, hotel chains and prime fixed weeks exceptions) it is what kind of deal is seller making to get rid of MF liability.

Say WHAT?



Denise:

Your post bamboozles me.


I did not note that OP was a 9+ year tugger since most posters in this forum are newbies. 7 of last 10 posts are.

Based on information provided, it appeared OP was confused. For example, a person familiar with TSs would specify unit size when asking if $600 MF are good.

That most TSs are worth little if any thing has been posted here hundreds of times. " Unfortunately, the resale value on most timeshares is 0-10% of the retail price, so you wouldn't be able to sell it for enough to pay off what you owe - if you are making payments."


Of course, there are the exceptions I mentioned and the other extreme Westgate and Mexico TSs that have thousands of dollars in transfer fees.

The advice to sweeten an offer by seller booking a nice week, etc. is often proffered. Certainly beats giving some one money upfront.

Could you clarify?

 

[chriskre]

SW Florida is difficult to get on exchange for Snowbird weeks and summer weeks when us Floridians vacation.

I've stayed at this resort. It's okay. Not one of my favorites but it's an older timeshare with a great location on Fort Myers beach. Used to be a hotel in the 70's.

I would only take on summer weeks or snowbird weeks and very cheaply.
Then encourage your family member on the board to spruce the place up a bit.

 

[theo]

Good luck with that...

... encourage your family member on the board to spruce the place up a bit.

As mentioned previously, my observation and experience is that RAL as a mangement company truly personifies the very concept of "inertia" --- the tendency of a body at rest to stay at rest.

 

[chriskre]

As mentioned previously, my observation and experience is that RAL as a mangement company truly personifies the very concept of "inertia" --- the tendency of a body at rest to stay at rest.

I never give up on a TS property.
I am the queen of buying the ugly properties.

Ft. Lauderdale beach resort was my first acquisition. It had awful pink cabinets and ugly furniture for years, then VRI took over and spruced up the place.

Then I also own Enchanted Isle an independent in SE Fl. It's an ugly converted motel on the beach but now we have new bathrooms and even granite in the kitchens with flat screen TV's and wifi. I'm thrilled.

And finally CMV cottages. Can you get any uglier than those things but now Bluegreen is really sprucing up the place. We won't recognize it soon.

I am a President of a regular condo board and know how delicately projects have to be addressed if you don't want to be assessing owners. It's difficult but not impossible to turn a pig into a prince.

 

[DeniseM]

For the most part(Disney, hotel chains and prime fixed weeks exceptions) it is what kind of deal is seller making to get rid of MF liability.

Say WHAT?

I was just asking what you meant by your sentence above, since several words, and/or punctuation, seem to be missing from the sentence.

 

[theo]

I never give up on a TS property. I am the queen of buying the ugly properties.
<snip>
I am a President of a regular condo board and know how delicately projects have to be addressed if you don't want to be assessing owners. It's difficult but not impossible to turn a pig into a prince.

I owned at a RAL managed facility in FMB for many years and personally saw for myself that when (local) RAL took over the management contract from a much bigger and much better known (national) management entity, things began to go steadily downhill. Things apparently continue in that same downhill direction today, IMnsHO.
It may have something to do with the fact that the whole RAL operation seems to be something of a too-firmly-entrenched "extended family employment program", largely devoid of independent adult supervision --- "enabled"and facilitated by a passive and disengaged BOD / HOA.

In all fairness, of the (4 total, I believe) RAL managed properties on FMB (and another one out on Sanibel island), certainly none would be called "ugly properties".
It just seems (IMnsHO) that RAL has a very "laissez-faire" maintenance program, almost as if thinking "...if it ain't broke, don't fix it, don't touch it, don't upgrade it --- just leave it alone until it does break --- or until the complaints just get too numerous, too loud and / or too bothersome to just continue to ignore".

P.S. I too have served (...and still do currently) on a (non-RAL property) timeshare HOA / BOD. I certainly understand and fully appreciate your perspective on fiscal responsibility, but the simple fact is that maintenance too-long deferred is generally much more expensive to (finally) correct when it is too belatedly addressed.

 

[chriskre]

I owned at a RAL managed facility in FMB for many years and personally saw for myself that when (local) RAL took over the management contract from a much bigger and much better known (national) management entity, things began to go steadily downhill. They continue in that same downhill direction today, IMnsHO.

In all fairness however, of the the (four in total, I believe) RAL managed properties on FMB, none would qualify as "ugly properties". It just seems (IMnsHO) that RAL has a very "laissez-faire" maintenance program, almost as if thinking "...if it ain't broke, don't fix it, don't touch it --- just leave it alone until it does break".

That's usually cause the majority of the owners are on a fixed income by the time the resort needs sprucing up and don't want to pay for the next generation of owners.