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extremely in depth article about buying a resale timeshare!

TUGBrian

TUGBrian

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One correction to the article Greensprings Village is a nursing home in Virginia.
 
With just 1 small but vital addition, the article would pretty much sum up the basic Wisdom Of TUG . . .

To wit: There is no such thing as a new timeshare. No matter how much or how little anybody pays for a timeshare, by the time the new owner shows up & checks in, other people will already have been staying previously right there in the new owner's unit. That's used-used-used any way you shake it. It makes no sense to pay new prices for used items. So buy timeshares resale. Save thousands on exactly the same thing as a full-price timeshare, or the equivalent, or something even better.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
Iggyearl said:
Brian, sounds like the author should get a free membership - for life. :clap:
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id certainly welcome them to the community if they are not already a member!
 
I would point out that the RCI points comparison she does is a bit incomplete. Grandview is a good one, but Regal Vistas at Massanutten comes in just under 170 points per dollar for the best weeks and Woodstone come in just under 140 points per dollar, both beating the Grandview for efficiency as RCI points traders.
 
TUGBrian said:
Author definitely did their homework, and alot of reading on TUG!

yourmoneygeek.com

Timeshare Purchases: How To Get the Best Bang for Your Buck | Wealth of Geeks

With $10 billion a year in timeshare purchases (yes, billions!) Americans are spending more money buying vacation ownerships than Major League Baseball’s
yourmoneygeek.com yourmoneygeek.com
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Very well written article which embraces the concept of value. This concept should be simple but, as we have all learned, is not easy to calculate. I particularly like the way the author condensed the idea of value in such a way as to be able to compare one property with another using factors that are capable of doing so. What the author proposes is a practical exercise because it only uses two common variables. Therefore, this got me thinking. Would it be feasible to generate an algorithm that would perform this calculation - and make it available to TUG subscribers? It's very likely that someone within the TUG community possesses the knowledge and skill to take on such a project. In the end, we would be able to rank properties by a tangible financial value and not just other attributes that are typically used to either make a purchase or to exit.

Happy Holidays to all !
 
Arusso said:
Very well written article which embraces the concept of value. This concept should be simple but, as we have all learned, is not easy to calculate. I particularly like the way the author condensed the idea of value in such a way as to be able to compare one property with another using factors that are capable of doing so. What the author proposes is a practical exercise because it only uses two common variables. Therefore, this got me thinking. Would it be feasible to generate an algorithm that would perform this calculation - and make it available to TUG subscribers? It's very likely that someone within the TUG community possesses the knowledge and skill to take on such a project. In the end, we would be able to rank properties by a tangible financial value and not just other attributes that are typically used to either make a purchase or to exit.

Happy Holidays to all !
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I'm not sure that setting up an algorithm like that would be entirely practical. I do like the article author's value metric concept because it provides an effective way to judge between two options when considering acquiring a TS for the specific purpose of trading that TS or the points from it in an exchange system. The value metric is only good for that specific purpose, though; there are many tuggers that prefer the Marriott timeshares, for example, which are not available in RCI, so the RCI points per dollar metric would be mostly, if not completely, useless to them.
 
TUGBrian said:
Author definitely did their homework, and alot of reading on TUG!

yourmoneygeek.com

Timeshare Purchases: How To Get the Best Bang for Your Buck | Wealth of Geeks

With $10 billion a year in timeshare purchases (yes, billions!) Americans are spending more money buying vacation ownerships than Major League Baseball’s
yourmoneygeek.com yourmoneygeek.com
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It's me ;) Thank you so much to everyone for the kind words, and really for all the knowledge that I've learned from veteran owners over the years. Frankly, I'm a bit taken a back that this has gone TUG "viral" but I'm so pleased that the intention of it all is coming true - - to help others! Thank you to those who have pointed out some errors .... if there are any others, please let me know and I will correct them. Also, if anyone has any ideas for future articles, I'm all ears!
 
Eric B said:
I'm not sure that setting up an algorithm like that would be entirely practical. I do like the article author's value metric concept because it provides an effective way to judge between two options when considering acquiring a TS for the specific purpose of trading that TS or the points from it in an exchange system. The value metric is only good for that specific purpose, though; there are many tuggers that prefer the Marriott timeshares, for example, which are not available in RCI, so the RCI points per dollar metric would be mostly, if not completely, useless to them.
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Of course - for the reasons you correctly point out. I'm not proposing a universal "calculator" because there are so many different "ownership" scenarios. Each one of them has unique characteristics, but they can be grouped (or sorted) by developer, location, exchange company, etc. A daunting task. Nevertheless, because we don't have the TS version of a "Blue Book" the value metric concept proposed would apply to everyone interested in determining one parameter of tangible value.
 
MonicaPlanneratHeart said:
It's me ;) Thank you so much to everyone for the kind words, and really for all the knowledge that I've learned from veteran owners over the years. Frankly, I'm a bit taken a back that this has gone TUG "viral" but I'm so pleased that the intention of it all is coming true - - to help others! Thank you to those who have pointed out some errors .... if there are any others, please let me know and I will correct them. Also, if anyone has any ideas for future articles, I'm all ears!
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Refer to my post a few moments ago regarding the possibility of developing an algorithm to evaluate the value metric proposed which would suggest a tangible value with which to compare properties. The algorithm would need to be able to sort by grouping by developer and exchange company0 to be useful to all. Thank you and Happy Holidays
 
Arusso said:
Refer to my post a few moments ago regarding the possibility of developing an algorithm to evaluate the value metric proposed which would suggest a tangible value with which to compare properties. The algorithm would need to be able to sort by grouping by developer and exchange company0 to be useful to all. Thank you and Happy Holidays
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Author's hubby makes software for a living, so you never know ;) Fantastic idea! And thank you for the kind words about the article.
 
SabresFan said:
This was an outstanding series of articles. I just signed up for her newsletter too.
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Thank you so much! Anything I haven't covered yet that you'd be interested in? Some ideas I have floating around are
  • Timeshare Vacation Tips from Veteran Owners: Interview Series
  • Come Along with Me on a TUG Resale Purchase Journey: A Savvy Shopper's Checklist
  • Should I upgrade my membership with my Timeshare Exchange Company?
  • Pop culture-specific Guides that Tie to Timeshare Resort Locations
    • Timeshare to Harry Potter filming sites, Timeshare to GoT, Timeshare to LoTR, Timeshare to Outlander, etc
 
MonicaPlanneratHeart said:
Thank you so much! Anything I haven't covered yet that you'd be interested in? Some ideas I have floating around are
  • Timeshare Vacation Tips from Veteran Owners: Interview Series
  • Come Along with Me on a TUG Resale Purchase Journey: A Savvy Shopper's Checklist
  • Should I upgrade my membership with my Timeshare Exchange Company?
  • Pop culture-specific Guides that Tie to Timeshare Resort Locations
    • Timeshare to Harry Potter filming sites, Timeshare to GoT, Timeshare to LoTR, Timeshare to Outlander, etc
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Timeshare guide to Sundance Film Festival
Timeshare guide to Hamptons Film Festival
Timeshare guide to Coachella
 
Timeshare guide to absorption of sales presentation freebies without buying anything.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
Eric B said:
I would point out that the RCI points comparison she does is a bit incomplete. Grandview is a good one, but Regal Vistas at Massanutten comes in just under 170 points per dollar for the best weeks and Woodstone come in just under 140 points per dollar, both beating the Grandview for efficiency as RCI points traders.
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Thank you so much for these examples! I will add them to the article that I post to my blog. The article pinned here was a guest post for a very well known and read finance site.
 
MonicaPlanneratHeart said:
It's me ;) Thank you so much to everyone for the kind words, and really for all the knowledge that I've learned from veteran owners over the years. Frankly, I'm a bit taken a back that this has gone TUG "viral" but I'm so pleased that the intention of it all is coming true - - to help others! Thank you to those who have pointed out some errors .... if there are any others, please let me know and I will correct them. Also, if anyone has any ideas for future articles, I'm all ears!
Click to expand...

Well done, Monica! Thanks for a very readable and interesting piece. I wish you would write one about Interval International traders, as well!
 
Thanks much! My home resort doesn't play with II, so I can't join. I'd love to write a II article as a companion to this RCI one. Does anyone have any ideas on how I might access II's deposit calculator to get the figures? It looks like it's all beyond the log-in firewall but you never know if there's a PDF floating around somewhere ;)
 
To expand on my comment, Regal Vista comes in at 178K RCI points for the summer weeks with a MF of $1,050 and Woodstone gets 137K RCI points for an MF of $920. Similar to Grandview, they are both Vacation Village resorts and get the extra vacation certificates, but Massanutten has a version that allows booking 2-180 days in advance.

Massanutten also has typically provided an incentive to pay MFs early, giving out RCI week deposits worth 8-22 TPUs with expiration dates in the 2-9 month range through their "Trading Power Boost" program that runs generally May through October for payment of the next year's MF. It's not a contractually guaranteed program and could be eliminated in the future if it were no longer an efficient way to motivate payments and minimize/mitigate defaults, but strikes me as a good use of association-owned weeks deposited in bulk with RCI for rental but unused. I do like picking up the extra week deposits a bit more than the certificates because I get better use out of them since the available inventory has fewer limits.
 
MonicaPlanneratHeart said:
Thanks much! My home resort doesn't play with II, so I can't join. I'd love to write a II article as a companion to this RCI one. Does anyone have any ideas on how I might access II's deposit calculator to get the figures? It looks like it's all beyond the log-in firewall but you never know if there's a PDF floating around somewhere ;)
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Interval is a black box. You never know what the real trading power is. Generally it seems to work both for Interval and for the members. It may be more difficult to write an article that will be as precise as the one you wrote about RCI. But I still think it is worth looking into that, Interval generally has nicer resorts and advantages that you cannot find in RCI (like retrading up to 3 times for one fee). If you read the Sightings section you will have plenty of examples).

I am a member of both RCI and Interval. For RCI I own Regal Vista with 178K points and I agree with others, this is the best contract in terms of points/MF. You can mention that in your article but Grandview is still an exceptional option given that very few high season Regal Vistas are enrolled in RCI points so they are very hard to find. I paid a premium for it (but I will come ahead in the medium/long term)
 
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DannyTS said:
Interval is a black box. You never know what the real trading power is. Generally it seems to work both for Interval and for the members. It may be more difficult to write an article that will be as precise as the one you wrote about RCI. But I still think it is worth looking into that, Interval generally has nicer resorts and advantages that you cannot find in RCI (like retrading up to 3 times for one fee). If you read the Sightings section you will have plenty of examples).

I am a member of both RCI and Interval. For RCI I own Regal Vista with 178K points and I agree with others, this is the best contract in terms of points/MF. You can mention that in your article but Grandview is still an exceptional option given that very few high season Regal Vistas that are enrolled in RCI points so they are very hard to find. I paid a premium for it (but I will come ahead in the medium/long term)
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Thank you so much for these details! Would you mind sharing what your MF is for your Regal Vista ownership? Do you happen to know what weeks are considered "high season?" If I may be so bold, would you mind disclosing your purchase price, since like you said, I probably won't be able to find one on the market right now to use as an example.
 
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