Help me find our first timeshare!

[MissusBrown]

So, thanks to this wonderful community I rescinded a Bluegreen contract in 2013. Since then timesharing has been on our brains but the right time hasn't been until just recently! We've moved into our forever home, we have our complete family (three young kids!), and we are ready to start making vacation memories. That being said, I need some help finding the best timeshare for us! I am leaning heavily towards Wyndham after several months of research BUT my biggest concern is lack of beach resorts in the New England area (cape cod and coast of Maine specifically). Please advise me with that and the following questions in mind. TIA!



1) Where do you want your home resort to be? New England so we can have the drive there option on lean years.

2) Do you want to visit your home resort at least half the time, or do you want to trade more than half the time? Home resort more than half

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?
New England
Florida
Carribean
California
International (various)
4) How many people do you usually travel with?
5

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule?
School schedule
6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance?
Yes

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time?
Yes

8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars?
3+

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?
$2000 or below for resale purchase

10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year?
Would like to stay below $100/month or $1200/ year

11) Are you a detail oriented planner?
Yes

12) Do you understand that once you buy a timeshare, it may be very difficult to sell or give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do?
Yes!

Last edited: Mar 6, 2016

 

[theo]

You are absolutely correct that Wyndham cannot and will not get you into a single location anywhere in Maine or anywhere on Cape Cod.

With all due respect, you are unlikely to find a "school schedule friendly" 2BR week much of anywhere in New England for a $2k "buy in".
I might recommend a summer week, 2BR townhouse unit at Brewster Green on the Cape, which would also provide some decent trading power, but you're certainly not going to find or obtain such a week for $2k (unless possibly as an occasional, one time, owner-direct rental).

I'd frankly be inclined to recommend that you rent a timeshare week (or a cottage) instead of signing onto the long term annual obligations and constraints of timeshare ownership and / or playing the dicey "exchange game" with its' tilted playing field and inherent uncertainties. Having that flexibility will let you go when / where you choose and can find advertised accommodations. Just my own personal opinion, of course.

 

[WalnutBaron]

I heartily endorse Theo's recommendation. You have a young family and that means you and your husband are in your prime spending years. Rather than sign on to an annual obligation that will require an upfront cash outlay at least three times what you're prepared to spend--as well as an ongoing annual maintenance fee obligation--my suggestion is that you take a look at the For Rent ads on TUG, Redweek, and myresortnetwork.com to see what is out there. For the cost of someone else's maintenance fee, you can usually find an attractive rental that frees you up from the upfront cash and contractual obligation of paying MF's.

The other thing such a strategy does is that it gives you full flexibility to visit several different resorts over the years that place you within driving distance of your home--and then you can decide which place you and your family like best before you purchase.

One last piece of advice: be sure to read Denise's sticky entitled "How To Verify That A Rental Is Legit (when you are the renter)" on this board. It will give you invaluable advice to make sure you don't get ripped off.

 

[MissusBrown]

You are absolutely correct that Wyndham cannot and will not get you into a single location anywhere in Maine or anywhere on Cape Cod.

With all due respect, you are unlikely to find a "school schedule friendly" 2BR week much of anywhere in New England for a $2k "buy in".
I might recommend a summer week, 2BR townhouse unit at Brewster Green on the Cape, which would also provide some decent trading power, but you're certainly not going to find or obtain such a week for $2k (unless possibly as an occasional, one time, owner-direct rental).

I'd frankly be inclined to recommend that you rent a timeshare week (or a cottage) instead of signing onto the long term annual obligations and constraints of timeshare ownership and / or playing the dicey "exchange game" with its' tilted playing field and inherent uncertainties. Having that flexibility will let you go when / where you choose and can find advertised accommodations. Just my own personal opinion, of course.

Thank you for your reply! I was thinking of doing a home resort not on the cape itself but in one the mountain area resorts or possibly even as far south as Atlantic City. I've been looking at the rental ads and what I'm seeing are at least twice the cost of the MF's for resales I've found. Maybe I'm not looking in the proper places?

We typically go somewhat off season to Maine and the Cape already. Last year we did Falmouth and MV the last weekend of the summer and this year we did Maine at spring break right before the official start of high season. I'm hoping that would make stretching points easier?

 

[MissusBrown]

I heartily endorse Theo's recommendation. You have a young family and that means you and your husband are in your prime spending years. Rather than sign on to an annual obligation that will require an upfront cash outlay at least three times what you're prepared to spend--as well as an ongoing annual maintenance fee obligation--my suggestion is that you take a look at the For Rent ads on TUG, Redweek, and myresortnetwork.com to see what is out there. For the cost of someone else's maintenance fee, you can usually find an attractive rental that frees you up from the upfront cash and contractual obligation of paying MF's.

The other thing such a strategy does is that it gives you full flexibility to visit several different resorts over the years that place you within driving distance of your home--and then you can decide which place you and your family like best before you purchase.

One last piece of advice: be sure to read Denise's sticky entitled "How To Verify That A Rental Is Legit (when you are the renter)" on this board. It will give you invaluable advice to make sure you don't get ripped off.

Thank you! I think visiting first would be a wise idea. I am not finding rentals, though that are comparable to the MF's of resales I've considered. But if the general consensus advice is that it's not a good time to buy then I will take that advice to heart.

 

[buzglyd]

Check out Trading Places as well. They took over the VRI properties and have tons of New England stuff

 

[MissusBrown]

Check out Trading Places as well. They took over the VRI properties and have tons of New England stuff

Thank you!

 

[WinniWoman]

Not beach, but have you thought about Smugglers Notch resale in Vermont? There are many for sale- you would have to purchase a benefits package separately- but great for kids. Some are fixed weeks; some are RCI points. Of course, Wyndham is newly involved there now, but the resales are not Wyndham.

 

[buzglyd]

If you look at Hot Deals in Trading Places you will see lots of New England rentals for a decent price. Since it is a drive to destination, I wouldn't worry about owning anything.

It might even be worth getting the Prime membership for the extra discount.

 

[CO skier]

You might be ontrack with Wyndham, but sometimes you need to think outside the box.


WorldMark (and Shell Vacations) is the West Coast part of Wyndham. WorldMark has excellent trading power in Interval International. These are the resorts that II offers for New England.

https://www.intervalworld.com/web/cs?a=1501&regionCode=3&regionName=usa&regionAreaName=New England

10,000 credits in WorldMark will cost about $3500 to purchase ($1000 above your targeted buy-in price), but maintenance fees are relatively low at $790 per year, currently ($400/year below your target). 3 years of ownership in WorldMark, and you are ahead of the game.

10,000 credits will get you a 2 bedroom exchange at any resort offered in Interval International.

If you can plan more than 12 months in advance to take advantage of bulk deposits from resorts to Interval International, you can meet your New England resorts goals with the annual II fee ($89, or less for multi-years) and $189 exchange fee. Do not focus on a certain resort, but put in an ongoing search for multiple resorts over multiple weeks. The II agents can help you maximize your chances for a successful exchange.

$790 + $89 + $189 = $1068 for a week in a 2 BR New England resort – not too shabby. Add in $350/year for the amortized purchase price over 10 years and it is still probably better than any comparable rental.

The downside is that, other than WorldMark Reunion and WorldMark Kingstown in Orlando, there are not many options for reserving within WorldMark on the East Coast.

Many WorldMark owners never stay in a WorldMark resort, and many of these owners probably live east of the Mississippi. Maybe you are one of these types of owners.

 

[WackyLucy]

In reply to the above post, I respectfully note that the OP is apparently new to timeshares, based in the East, wants to be within driving distance of home reort and use it at least half the time. It does not seem to me that Worldmark points fulfills much (if any) of those expressed requirements.
OP may also perhaps not yet be ready (or willing) to tackle the gyrations of managing Worldmark points for "exchanges" in the East (or elsewhere).
Most important and relevant however is the fact that OP is apparently constrained by school schedules for some time to come and, as we all know, the "exchange game" is inherently rife with uncertainty and is always ruled by actual space availability.

Having points to deposit for exchange (including Worldmark, but regardless of which particular system's points might be involved) is not going to change or improve the inherent limitations of availability and the supply / demand situation within school vacation schedules.

It seems to me that individual rentals might fit and suit the OP situation and needs better and more reliably than purchasing Worldmark (or any other) points just to then play the uncertain "deposit and (maybe) exchange" game. Cost is one thing, space availability where / when needed quite another.
Just my own personal opinion and observation.

 

[VegasBella]

I always ask this question: WHY do you want a timeshare?
The answer to this question will help determine if you should buy or rent and if buy then what you should buy. The survey is basically designed for people who already decided they are going to buy. But then Tuggers often tell them to just rent. It's kind of ridiculous - always the same thread over and over regardless of the answers to the survey questions. A few suggestions on what to buy, but mostly lot of suggestions to "just rent."

With all due respect, you are unlikely to find a "school schedule friendly" 2BR week much of anywhere in New England for a $2k "buy in".

This may be true. But I just want to share my experience. I was told that what I wanted was not going to happen. But I got lucky and found my ideal timeshare at the buy-in price I wanted.

Now, I really did get very lucky because it hasn't happened again for many years (believe me, I watch the sales because I would buy another one if it happened again). But you won't get lucky unless you try. So if you do determine what exactly you want, then set up some auto searches in google and ebay and redweek etc to alert you when something comes up that matches. And then jump on it.

Let me also remind you that a list price is just a suggestion. You can always offer lower. The worst that can happen is they say NO and you're in the same position as before.

Also, I did a quick search on ebay and I found some options that I feel are "school schedule friendly" 2BR week in New England for under $2k. One was a Thanksgiving week and one was a float off season but included some holiday weeks (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Presidents day). Those probably aren't perfectly suitable (because what if you can't book the week you want or dont want to travel those times of the year) but they're a starting point. And then there were Summer weeks listed for $8-10k... who knows, maybe they'd take less, it's worth a try. I didn't even check redweek or other websites but I'm sure if you really start looking then you can find something suitable. Get into that bargain-hunter mode and give yourself a year and I bet you can find a good option.