Considering going for 5 star elite

[Pmuppet]

I rwad SDKathy's guide to five star elite, but i must be missing something.

If i decide on going for 5 star, i will be using either SDO or Kierland in my portfolio of properties. What i am missing is she said it is cheapest to find a rare (platinium) week at SDO and convert it to mandatory.

From my research, you can expect to pay $5k for the SDO platinium Timeshare and an additional $20k for the conversion ($25k total for 148,000 star options.)

What confuses me is you can find a Westin Kierland 148,000 star option unit for $20k total.

Am i missing something? Seems like the better alternative is the kierland property (i do understand kierland's MF are a slightly higher, but not too much)

 

[DeniseM]

I rwad SDKathy's guide to five star elite, but i must be missing something.

If i decide on going for 5 star, i will be using either SDO or Kierland in my portfolio of properties. What i am missing is she said it is cheapest to find a rare (platinium) week at SDO and convert it to mandatory.

From my research, you can expect to pay $5k for the SDO platinium Timeshare and an additional $20k for the conversion ($25k total for 148,000 star options.)

What confuses me is you can find a Westin Kierland 148,000 star option unit for $20k total.

Am i missing something? Seems like the better alternative is the kierland property (i do understand kierland's MF are a slightly higher, but not too much)

Yes, you are missing something - Even if you buy WKV, you still have to buy another week from the developer for $20K+. Resales do NOT count toward Elite Status unless requalified.

So your cost would actually be $20K + $20K = $40K. This whole Elite Scheme is a way to get owners to buy from the developer - when there is very little reason to do so, otherwise.

 

[Pmuppet]

So your cost would actually be $20K + $20K = $40K. This whole Elite Scheme is a way to get owners to buy from the developer - when there is very little reason to do so, otherwise.[/QUOTE]

So, for $40k do you get two weeks and 296,000 star options. Or are you saying you have to retro the one week at $20k.

Therefore, you are spending $40k for one week and 148,000 star options.

 

[DeniseM]

After you requalify a resale, it is treated EXACTLY like a developer purchase.

So after requalifying a resale and buying a developer week, you would end up with 2 SVN weeks, and 148,100 Staroptions x 2.

The figures would be more like $15K WKV + $20K Developer purchase = $35K.

The point I was trying to make is that WKV has Staroptions with a resale, but it still won't count towards Elite Status - unless you requalify it.

After they are requalified, the WKV week and the SDO week will have the exact same value, but the WKV week will cost you $10K more to buy.

 

[Pmuppet]

After you requalify a resale, it is treated EXACTLY like a developer purchase.

So after requalifying a resale and buying a developer week, you would end up with 2 SVN weeks, and 148,100 Staroptions x 2.

The figures would be more like $15K WKV + $20K Developer purchase = $35K.

The point I was trying to make is that WKV has Staroptions with a resale, but it still won't count towards Elite Status - unless you requalify it.

After they are requalified, the WKV week and the SDO week will have the exact same value, but the WKV week will cost you $10K more to buy.

Thanks for the great info (and quick reply to boot). Sounds like starwood is essentially taking back units from owners, and forcing people to buy them back from the developer at a premium if people want to have "elite" status.

This status is required to get the rooms with the best views at their resorts. Btw, in your example, if i bought at WKV (net cost $10k more), would i have two weeks at WKV? Or one week at WKV and one week at a different resort?

Awesome information Denise!

 

[DeniseM]

Pmuppet - If a resort has view categories, that view is also transferred if you buy resale. For instance - you can buy Ocean Front at the Maui resorts, on the resale market.

Your weeks will be where ever you buy and can get Starwood to agree to requalify.

It is possible that you could buy a resale at WKV, AND a developer week at WKV - just depens on what they have in inventory.

 

[jarta]

DeniseM, ... "This whole Elite Scheme is a way to get owners to buy from the developer - when there is very little reason to do so, otherwise."

Respectfully, I disagree. You have every right to "call 'em as you see 'em" but I think there are very adequate reasons for someone who has the vacation time and disposable assets and income stream and the desire not to purchase a 2nd home (for use in only part of the year) to buy from Starwood with a requal in hand as part of getting to 5 Star Elite. In fact, it's the usual way to get to 5 Star Elite without exceeding roughly $125K (3 annual 2-br Plat. Lagunamars at $38K plus 2 resale annual 2-br Plat. retros) in purchase expenses. (I'm not for spending more money than you have to to get to 5 Star Elite. You can do it even cheaper if you buy the right resales and upgrade them with Starwood and convince Starwood to include a retro in the upgrade.)

But, 5 Star Elite is absolutely not for everyone. It's only for a very few because of the expense involved in getting there and the further expense of MFs and travel and expenses while on vacation.

I have no idea if it's a bad or good idea for the OP. Perhaps it's not. But, the OP sure was missing something by contemplating buying a Plat WKV over a true Plat SDO (assuming one can be found). Salty

 

[Pmuppet]

Pmuppet - If a resort has view categories, that view is also transferred if you buy resale. For instance - you can buy Ocean Front at the Maui resorts, on the resale market.

You weeks would be where ever you buy and can get Starwood to agree to requalify.

It is possible that you could buy a resale at WKV, AND a developer week at WKV - just depens on what they have in inventory.

Ahhh, i get it now. The week you are requalifying is not necessarily tied to the week the developer is going to sell me. I suspect the developer will mostly have ROFR properties. Basically, they buy them back and resell them to people who want to requalify.

The starwood rules have more twists and turns than a season of Desparate Housewives.

 

[tschwa2]

I also wanted to point out as jarta mentioned, You are not going to be able to buy a 148,000 Starwood developer purchase for $20,000. The least expensive one would be at Lagunamar (which probably has less resale value than a platinum SDO) for around $38,000.

So it would take you 38,000+4,000 (SDO)=$42,000 for296,000 Star Options

 

[jarta]

"So it would take you 38,000+4,000 (SDO)=$42,000 for296,000 Star Options"

But, 296,000 StarOptions only gets you 45% to 5 Star Elite - you need 649,000 StarOptions. So you need 5 weeks in all (unless you buy at least two 3-br Plat weeks at Harborside giving 196,900 StarOptions each on the resale market - they don't sell for anywhere near $4,000 and have MFs of over $3,000 per year). Then, double whatever the price might be and add another developer purchase of a Starwood week having at least 59,000 StarOptions.

It's very expensive to get to 5 Star Elite and costs lots of money continue to be a 5 Star Elite. However, there are benefits - but only if you can make good use of them for the vacation style which you are already accustomed to. Salty

 

[VacationForever]

I also wanted to point out as jarta mentioned, You are not going to be able to buy a 148,000 Starwood developer purchase for $20,000. The least expensive one would be at Lagunamar (which probably has less resale value than a platinum SDO) for around $38,000.

So it would take you 38,000+4,000 (SDO)=$42,000 for296,000 Star Options

I was going to jump in with similar information that 20K does not buy EY 148100 platinum week and you beat me to the punch! The cheapest I had a quote from Starwood was for WMH at about 32K for 148,100 platinum week.