Buying resorts with low MF

[travel maniac]

While searching the web for good deals, I found the following two resorts that match my crieteria (will hardly go to these resorts but will buy for points so it needs to have low MF):

Crown Point, AR (MF approx $400)
Rayburn Country Club, TX (MF approx $275)

I read their reviews on the resort database but would appreciate if any tugger has any info on the financial health (i.e. the reserve fund) of these properties. Also appreciated, if you have any info on any future MF increase or other "special" charges.

Also, has anyone dealth with Scott @ timeshare-points.com? He has listed some of the Rayburn properties on his site.

Any other property names with low MF will also be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[timeos2]

I own at Rayburn and my purchase was through Scott. Both have worked out great. I haven't reviewed the full financial statement at Rayburn, I probably should, but the resort did recently obtain a Silver Crown ranking and have held the fees steady. On the surface it appears it is being well run and, so far, no surprises. They address the needs of the resort and costs in the information I get from them. Again it appeares they are top of things.

 

[ira g]

Scott

We bought Rayburn from Scott about 3 months ago, with no problems and a very quick turnaround. Haven't used the points yet but the MF are reasonably low compared to some others. Good luck.

 

[JudyS]

My impression of Rayburn is that they are selling a lot of units as low cost entry into RCI Points. This has given them a way to sell even low season units, thus bring in maintenance fees, which keeps the resort stable. If there were substantial changes to the RCI Points program, I suppose it's possible that Rayburn might run into more trouble.

I don't know anything about the AR resort.

Are you only interested in low MFs, or do you care about how many RCI Points you get for your MFs?

 

[timeos2]

Rayburn has a good system

My impression of Rayburn is that they are selling a lot of units as low cost entry into RCI Points. This has given them a way to sell even low season units, thus bring in maintenance fees, which keeps the resort stable. If there were substantial changes to the RCI Points program, I suppose it's possible that Rayburn might run into more trouble.

I don't know anything about the AR resort.

Are you only interested in low MFs, or do you care about how many RCI Points you get for your MFs?

It appears that Rayburn has discovered a way to avoid the doomsday scenerio painted so often here regarding RCI tactics and low season ownership. By setting up a plan were low season owners get into RCI Points at a reasonable fee (vs the thousands most resorts get even though their cost from RCI is $199) they are able to get paying owners for that time thus helping the resort and the new owners benefit by obtaining an inexpensive points account both at purchase and ongoing fees. It is a perfect answer and again shows that the doomsday predictions are a bit premature. Resorts and owners will find a way to survive just as they have under the old weeks system. Except in this case the points owners are getting a fair deal rather than depending on a third party system to give their nearly worthless time value at the expense of other, better owners silly enough to deposit their time into a system that rewards low value units and penalizes the better ones. If the PFD program ever ended or if all resorts suddenly became points affiliated this would have to be revisited - just like low value weeks ownership should be revisited now. People adjust to the current reality and Rayburn has created a perfect vehicle for that transistion.

 

[AwayWeGo]

What Happens To The Dogs & Cats?

By setting up a plan were low season owners get into RCI Points at a reasonable fee (vs the thousands most resorts get even though their cost from RCI is $199) they are able to get paying owners for that time thus helping the resort and the new owners benefit by obtaining an inexpensive points account both at purchase and ongoing fees.

Twice when I took timeshare tours at points resorts, the salespeople stressed the flexibility of the points system (i.e., ability to get reservations at other resorts, not the 1s they were selling), even though 1 of the tour resorts was Gold Crown. (The other was right off The Strip in Las Vegas.)

OK, I get it. I even bought into the points system -- resale -- in a small-potatoes way.

What I don't get is what happens to the dogs & cats -- the unwanted off-season paid-for time at out-of-the way resorts.

Say the points valuation MBAs determine that a summertime week at HGVC Sea World is worth roughly 6 winter weeks at Podunk Pines in Treestump, Ark. So the P-Pines owners save up, do some PFD, & borrow ahead so they can amass enough points to go to HGVC Sea World. What happens to all those paid-for off-season weeks at The Pines? Who wants to go there? Who does go there, after the owners use their weeks' points equivalents for higher-demand locations or prime vacation times?

I assume the 80-20 rule applies to timeshare exchange -- 80 percent of timeshare owners request the top 20 percent of available timeshare weeks. If something similar is true of the points system -- 80 percent of timeshare points are used to get reservations for the top 20 percent of available points-resort weeks -- what happens to that other 80 percent of available weeks? (Especially after points-weeks crossovers get thrown into the mix, with points people using points to raid the weeks inventory.)

On week-for-week exchanges, I understand how it can all work out approximately even, theoretically anyway if not in actual practice.

On points exchanges, there have got to be lots of leftover dogs & cats.

Can anybody out there offer a straightforward explanation of how it all works?

Full Disclosure: Last year I bought, sight unseen, a (points) timeshare week at a resort that for all I know might not be all that far from Treestump, Ark. It might be a very nice place, I don't know. But I bought it strictly for the points, without any present intention of actually going there on vacation. So the question remains: What happens if all the points owners use their points to go to other resorts & nobody else makes reservations for the banked weeks backing up all those points? Something's got to give, no?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

 

[Jolson]

Rayburn Country

Hello,
I don't own Rayburn Country but have contemplated buying from Scott. I previously bought two South African time shares from him about five years ago. He is a very straight up guy and he will also take time after the sale is complete which a lot of people don't do. I think he actually runs three web-sites:

www.tradingtime.net
www.1800mycondo.com
www.timeshare-points.com

I believe he also sells on e-bay and his ID is 'mickey4457'.

 

[timeos2]

An off time, cheap enoiugh, has value

On week-for-week exchanges, I understand how it can all work out approximately even, theoretically anyway if not in actual practice.

On points exchanges, there have got to be lots of leftover dogs & cats.

Can anybody out there offer a straightforward explanation of how it all works?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

Alan - As I understand it the fact that the dogs and kitties in points are taken in cheaply (low point values) they can also be used with low points expense. Thus there is a willing market to use the time as cheap get aways for low amount of points. When you don't have to give up your whole week deposit to spend a week or even a weekend on the beach or in the mountains in off seasons it can be a nice break. Price talks and if it's cheap - either in dollars or points - it can be sold. It's the overvaluing of that time (a term often used by weeks believers to describe areas with many resorts or year round demand) in forced week for week exchanges that leave the dogs with no takers. Sure it might be nice for a getaway or some ice fishing but not at the cost of your 3BR orlando or Branson week! It's a matter of better alignment of cost and value which points does a much better job at than weeks ever could. Of course since the owners didn't get too much for the dogs the rental cost also doesn't have to be very high if they are offered outside the RCI exchange world.