Do you buy close to you or far away?

[pwrshift]

You've got some good advice here. In my case, I wanted to buy Marriott and the closest one was Williamsburg - about 11 hour drive from home in Toronto. It was my first. My second was in Fort Lauderdale where I've been going every Feb-Mar for the last 30 years or so. When I bought BeachPlace it was so much better than my Ft. Laud timeshare (weeks 7&8) that I sold those weeks and bought another BeachPlace. I always drive to Lauderdale (33 hours) to have my own car and stay 4 weeks (2 split lockoff weeks). Then I bought another at Manor Club ... then one at Canyon Villas Phoenix which is a resort to which I have to fly. My intent was to trade it EOY for points and use it in other years.

So I have 5 weeks to which I can drive and 1 that I can't ... 10 weeks in all with lockoff splits. Nice...and big savings if you can drive and have the time to do so.

Brian

 

[trice01]

Mixed Results

There are some resorts in high demand-low supply areas that are great to own whether you live there or not, and are very hard to trade into in prime seasons, like the Florida Gulf or Southern California beaches. Buuuuuutt....

If you buy a resort that you intend to hang onto and use for a long time, you will want to stay on top of the operation and upkeep of the resort through the Owner's Association. That is very hard to do when you are a long distance away, and really puts you out of the loop if problems develop.

 

[ownsmany]

close to home - not really

2 in Aruba
1 in Orlando
2 & almost another one in Hilton Head.

Love them all.

 

[bogey21]

I bought 5 of my 7 intending to use them and do so most of the time. Two are within driving distance of Fort Worth (Biloxi, MS and Ruidoso, NM). The other three are flights or really long drives (Myrtle Beach, SC; Mesquite, NV; and Deerfield Beach, FL). Most of the time I actually do use them.

I also own one in Park City, UT (why I don't know) and use it for trading every year. It is a member of the ORE (now VRI/ORE) System. It trades pretty well with lower fees than RCI. I own another "el cheapo" in Texas just to be a member of RCI Points. RCI Points is my repository (via PFD) for Weeks I end up not using. As I am retired I can often convert one Week into three by taking advantage of RCI Points 45 day window specials.

My most expensive Weekis $1,200 (the Park City one I don't know why I own) and my least expensive (Ruidoso) which I always use cost me only $1.26 (plus closing costs) on Ebay. Because I'm in so cheap ($100 in Biloxi; $250 in Myrtle Beach; $250 in Mesquite, etc) I just plan to give them away or sell them for $1 on Ebay if I ever get in the position where I can't travel anymore.

My model is pretty good for someone who is single, divorced or retired. Back when I had a young family I owned a number of Marriotts like I know many of you do also.

GEORGE

 

[ladycody]

We bought in WM because it offers about 10-15 resorts in our own system (read no exchange fees) that I can easily drive to and can get ample bonus time getaways to as well (paying a low cash fee for any availabilty within 2 weeks of booking date). We cant often do airfare...so this is important to us. In addition, it offers me the ability to travel further within my own resort system, should I choose to (Australia/HI/Fiji/Cabo, etc), and has outstanding trading power should I choose to go outside my own system. It works for us.

 

[mapper]

We bought in WM because it offers about 10-15 resorts in our own system (read no exchange fees) that I can easily drive to and can get ample bonus time getaways to as well (paying a low cash fee for any availabilty within 2 weeks of booking date). We cant often do airfare...so this is important to us. In addition, it offers me the ability to travel further within my own resort system, should I choose to (Australia/HI/Fiji/Cabo, etc), and has outstanding trading power should I choose to go outside my own system. It works for us.

We too bought WM for flexibility and the many drive to resorts. We bought Grand Pacific Palisades, (Carlsbad), because it is a drive to, we were able to get a 3 bedroom/Oceanview, and it is an awesome place for kids, as well as a high demand resort when and if we ever decide to trade and/or rent it out.

Heavenly Valley THs and Palm Canyon resort were both purchased inexpensively, and we love both areas. Heavenly gives us the 3 bedroom/3 bath we require in Tahoe right at the base of the ski lifts and Palm Canyon in Palm Springs is only about 40 minutes away with Day Use privileges.

We bought Sundance Meadows in Sage because we love the camping and horseback riding and the fact that we get 90 days use every year. We do not pay for hookups if we want to RV it instead of tent it and we do not have to make reservations. It is 35 miles from our front door but a whole nother world!

Now even though we own Palm Canyon, we bought Monarch Grand Vacation credits too because we like the flexiblity of using the other resorts in their system and the day use privileges. Marriott Grand Chateau was purchased because it is a drive to, allowed us to purchase the 3 bedroom/3 bathroom, is a great location barely off the strip, platinum luxury, high demand, and worth every penny.

We are considering a EOY Hawaii Marriott just to force us to take a vacation off the mainland. (We just can' t bring ourselves to do exchanging yet and we are II and RCI members!) For us doing the drive tos was very important because of our work and our children, but we made sure to purchase where we would enjoy spending our time.

Diana

 

[Carolinian]

Your core ownership should be close enough to home to easily travel to, in a place you like to go, and one that is not overbuilt.

Additional weeks for trade should be selected based on trade power, maintenance fee, initial cost, and liklihood of special assessments. I have owned all over the world. My core ownership has always been on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, but I have owned for exchange in Europe, Australia, the Caribbean, and South Africa. Due to the weakness of the US dollar and changes at the exchange companies, I have been reducing my overseas ownership.

 

[McFail]

In my opinion you purchase where you will get the most value.

When you determine how to evaluate value personally you're probably stuck with more homework and research.

Some of the factors are cost, MF's, location, season, trade value, your own personal usage, resort stability, flexibility, fixed vs floating...

They all interact. How close is driving distance anyway? Some say 3 hrs of highway while others will say a 12 hr marathon.

Don't confuse popularity with trade value. Orlando is extremely popular.