Hi everyone,
I am so glad I found this group/site! You are all certainly a wealth of information! I am new-ish to timesharing. My parents owned one at Wapato Point in Manson/Lake chelan, Washington for 25 years and we went yearly. Absolutely loved it. When I grew up, for the last number of years, I would frequently purchase getaways or buy weeks off of my parents to go to Welk Resort in Escondido. In recent years, it seems to be difficult to get in (perhaps when they switched their affiliation to RCI a couple years ago? Anyhow, they no longer seem to offer their extra inventory as getaways in both RCI or II, and they seem to require a lot of trading power to get into as exchanges).
Anyways, we are now considering buying a timeshare for ourselves - we are my husband and myself and our four boys 7,6,3,2 (yes, we are busy!). My husband is a teacher so we are only able to travel the last two weeks of March (weeks 11 and 12), and summer holidays (july 1 - Aug 30). We live in vancouver, Canada and enjoy our summers here so we are not so much interested in trading during summer. We consider going away during Christmas break, however flights are +++ expensive (any tips to afford Christmas flight travel for 6?!)
That has lead us to renting at Welk for the last number of years during spring break (weeks 11 and 12) as it is warm and we can get flights from Bellingham for about $180/person for our family. We would love to continue going there, but may also be interested in hawaii or mexico for these same weeks too. I've been interested in Marriott's Ko Olina as honolulu is considerably cheaper for us to fly to. Any recommendations on how to swing doing every other year Hawaii/Welk?
I saw a resale listing for week 12 (yearly/fixed), 2BR at welk for $2500. This perhaps seems a bit steep given that I don't think it is a super high demand week and it has been posted for a while. Should I try and negotiate this, or would it be better to buy a floating weeks/points at welk to allow more flexibility if down the road we want to venture away from welk or trade into mexico/hawaii, etc. Is this risky though given that we can only travel week 11 and 12? We would also like to do two weeks wherever we vacation so would it be better to do points or try and find fixed weeks together?
My last question is that I'm not sure that I am in love with the particular unit that is being offered for $2500. If we were to purchase it, is it possible to stay in a different unit on the resort other than the one you own? As we live in Canada I can't go down to view it. We are planning on going there this spring break, however, so can maybe take a look. I wonder if they would consider renting to us and if we want to buy could put that money towards the purchase price.
I guess the appeal in buying this place is that i would not have to worry about getting into the resort for the weeks we need as we are very inflexible. My concern is that we are limited to vacationing there every year (and in that particular unit) and that the trade power for a week 12 at welk would not be great for trading into Hawaii or Ko Olina in particular.
Another option I have considered is owning in both Hawaii and Welk and renting the weeks if we don't want to use?
Any advice, comments, suggestions would be super welcome. Thanks!!
Also to answer a few more questions that were recommended to discuss - I am detailed oriented and don't mind planning. We also have flexibility to plan many years in advance.
How much could we afford? - Maybe $10000? Maybe more? We have money that we can pull from other places if we found something that was the exact right fit for our family.
Other destinations we would like to travel - we love Cabo san lucas/los cabo, have done kauai and loved it, and would love to try maui. We are open to renting or exchanging these places though and wouldn't want to own to go there the majority of the time.
1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where?
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?
3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?
4) How many people do you usually travel with?
5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule?
6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance?
7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time?
8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars?
9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?
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?
11) Are you a detail oriented planner?
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?
I am so glad I found this group/site! You are all certainly a wealth of information! I am new-ish to timesharing. My parents owned one at Wapato Point in Manson/Lake chelan, Washington for 25 years and we went yearly. Absolutely loved it. When I grew up, for the last number of years, I would frequently purchase getaways or buy weeks off of my parents to go to Welk Resort in Escondido. In recent years, it seems to be difficult to get in (perhaps when they switched their affiliation to RCI a couple years ago? Anyhow, they no longer seem to offer their extra inventory as getaways in both RCI or II, and they seem to require a lot of trading power to get into as exchanges).
Anyways, we are now considering buying a timeshare for ourselves - we are my husband and myself and our four boys 7,6,3,2 (yes, we are busy!). My husband is a teacher so we are only able to travel the last two weeks of March (weeks 11 and 12), and summer holidays (july 1 - Aug 30). We live in vancouver, Canada and enjoy our summers here so we are not so much interested in trading during summer. We consider going away during Christmas break, however flights are +++ expensive (any tips to afford Christmas flight travel for 6?!)
That has lead us to renting at Welk for the last number of years during spring break (weeks 11 and 12) as it is warm and we can get flights from Bellingham for about $180/person for our family. We would love to continue going there, but may also be interested in hawaii or mexico for these same weeks too. I've been interested in Marriott's Ko Olina as honolulu is considerably cheaper for us to fly to. Any recommendations on how to swing doing every other year Hawaii/Welk?
I saw a resale listing for week 12 (yearly/fixed), 2BR at welk for $2500. This perhaps seems a bit steep given that I don't think it is a super high demand week and it has been posted for a while. Should I try and negotiate this, or would it be better to buy a floating weeks/points at welk to allow more flexibility if down the road we want to venture away from welk or trade into mexico/hawaii, etc. Is this risky though given that we can only travel week 11 and 12? We would also like to do two weeks wherever we vacation so would it be better to do points or try and find fixed weeks together?
My last question is that I'm not sure that I am in love with the particular unit that is being offered for $2500. If we were to purchase it, is it possible to stay in a different unit on the resort other than the one you own? As we live in Canada I can't go down to view it. We are planning on going there this spring break, however, so can maybe take a look. I wonder if they would consider renting to us and if we want to buy could put that money towards the purchase price.
I guess the appeal in buying this place is that i would not have to worry about getting into the resort for the weeks we need as we are very inflexible. My concern is that we are limited to vacationing there every year (and in that particular unit) and that the trade power for a week 12 at welk would not be great for trading into Hawaii or Ko Olina in particular.
Another option I have considered is owning in both Hawaii and Welk and renting the weeks if we don't want to use?
Any advice, comments, suggestions would be super welcome. Thanks!!
Also to answer a few more questions that were recommended to discuss - I am detailed oriented and don't mind planning. We also have flexibility to plan many years in advance.
How much could we afford? - Maybe $10000? Maybe more? We have money that we can pull from other places if we found something that was the exact right fit for our family.
Other destinations we would like to travel - we love Cabo san lucas/los cabo, have done kauai and loved it, and would love to try maui. We are open to renting or exchanging these places though and wouldn't want to own to go there the majority of the time.
1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where?
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?
3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?
4) How many people do you usually travel with?
5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule?
6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance?
7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time?
8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars?
9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?
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?
11) Are you a detail oriented planner?
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?
