I've answered the questions, please give suggestions

[irandy1948]

Here are my answers for the "beginner" questions. Can you folks tell any thing from this?

1) Where do you want your home resort to be? Gatlinburg TN. area

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? 1/2 the time

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations? Hilton Head, SC, Myrtle Beach, SC, Williamsburg, Orlando, Edisto SC

4) How many people do you usually travel with? 2

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule? any time

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? 4

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing? $2000.00

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? $1200

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

 

[Jan M.]

There is a listing on eBay for 92,500 annual RCI points with ownership at Vacation Village at Parkway. The seller is timesharespecialists. All the closing costs are included, even the 2017 maintenance fees. You would pay the winning bid and the $224 or $99 RCI enrollment fee depending on whether you already are in RCI or are a first timer. The annual maintenance fees and taxes are $838. You would pay an annual fee to RCI to keep your week/points in their system and the current best deal is $107 a year if you pay for 3 years. I pay the extra to be a platinum member because we make good use of the benefits. For every week you book with your points you will pay a $230 booking/exchange fee but RCI often has sales and you can pick up weeks for around $199-$299 with no points used.

The reason I'm suggesting you look at this listing is that it gets you a lot of points at a good maintenance fee. I frequently see availability in the Gatlinburg area so in my opinion it isn't really necessary for you to own there. If you can go last minute, 2-3 weeks out, you can find weeks for 7500 points and at great resorts. I've booked Hilton Head for myself several times and Williamsburg is usually available. Myrtle Beach in June, July and August might require some advance planning but if you don't mid going in May, September or October the weather is beautiful and it isn't as crowded.

You are welcome to pm me if you have any questions I might be able to answer.

 

[vacationhopeful]

I was thinking a points system .. but Gatlingburg does not have a good/large chain plus his $1200 yearly MF limit does not favor 4 star resort chains.

RCI Points is a great alternative.

 

[littlestar]

I was thinking resale Wyndham points - they have resorts everywhere you mentioned except Hilton Head. You could exchange your Wyndham points through RCI for Hilton Head.

 

[irandy1948]

Thanks for the info. If I purchase on the resale market am I treated as the original owner as for as information or privileges.

 

[theo]

If I purchase on the resale market am I treated as the original owner as for as information or privileges.

There is no "one size fits all" answer to this question, but generally speaking resale buyers have all of the exact same rights and priviliges as developer-direct buyers. Owners are owners, all paying the same maintenance fees for the same comparable product when all is said and done.

Exceptions include slimy Westgate, which deliberately undermines and devalues Westgate resale purchases by having created unfair and completely arbitrary reservation constraints and restrictions upon resale buyers --- but you really don't want anything to do with Westgate anyhow, IMnsHO.

Wyndham has "VIP" status for developer-direct buyers of large points packages, but I have never heard or read of anyone claiming that whatever those "VIP benefits" might be are actually worth the truly exorbitant cost of obtaining that "VIP" status.

I am inclined to think that a sufficient Wyndham points package might provide the flexibility and latitude you seek within the cost range you've identified (but not necessarily at "4 star" resorts). Just make sure that it's enough points for your plans, with a reasonable fees $$ / points ratio.

 

[Jan M.]

Being Wyndham owners we like their resorts and you can actually book Wyndham resorts with your RCI points. The Wyndham resorts I've booked or seen a lot just in the past year with my RCI points are Bonnet Creek, Cypress Palms and Star Island in Orlando, Ocean Walk in Daytona Beach, Great Smokies Lodge and Smoky Mountains in Sevierville/Gatlinburg, Fairfield Bay in Arkansas, Sea Gardens, Santa Barbara and Palm-Aire in Pompano Beach, FL, Grand Desert and Desert Blue in Las Vegas, the Wyndham Williamsburg resorts. I'm sure there are others but like I said these are just the ones I've booked or remember seeing frequently. I often use my RCI points when I get the last minute discounted point weeks because it is more cost effective than using my Wyndham points to book Wyndham resorts.

There are two things that I should mention about booking Wyndham resorts with your RCI points. It is rare that you will find a three bedroom units but if one or two bedroom units are big enough for you then you will be fine. The other thing I know is that at Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach if you book through RCI, you will not be on the ocean side buildings but will be in the building across the street and may not have much or barely any view of the ocean.

We live in Florida and my husband has all of Florida from Sarasota across to Fort Pierce clear down to Key West as his territory so when he has a few days work in an area I book a week at a resort. I especially like to book weeks around paid holidays when he can get a 4 or 5 day weekend using only 1 or 2 vacations days. There is a fantastic selection of resorts in Florida to choose from through RCI, we've stayed at 18 different resorts here through RCI and there isn't a single one that I wouldn't go back to again. Five of them were Hilton Grand Vacation Club resorts: Plantation Club at Indian River in Stuart, FL, Casa Ybel in Sanibel, FL, Plantation House and Plantation Beach Club at the South Seas Island Resort on Captiva, FL, Charter Club on Marco Island, FL.

I mastered using the Wyndham system but only finally learned to use the RCI system about five years ago because it was the second time we had RCI points that couldn't be extended any more. Had I learned how to use the RCI system sooner we would have stopped at being Wyndham gold VIP. We didn't know about TUG when we bought Wyndham developer points but at least 90% of my RCI points were purchased resale.

 

[VegasBella]

Is $2k all you can afford or all you want to spend?
If it's the former then I suggest you do not buy a timeshare.

WHY do you want a timeshare? What is it about timesharing that interests you? Your answer will help guide our responses.

 

[taterhed]

I would have suggested you buy a cheap Marriott lock-off and use it to exchange to the other locations.

Williamsburg, Orlando, Myrtle, HHI are all in the Marriott bag (and easy exchanges except during peak weeks...) and Marriott trades very well thru II for other resorts and locations....such as Gatlinburg... But Wyndham is probably better if you're going to be spending a lot of time in Gatlinburg; RCI probably has better weeks there as well. Besides, Marriott wouldn't fit the $1200 MF; that's pretty tight even for Wyndham. Ditto Theo's comments: Wyndham has some very nice resorts (especially at the high-point levels) but it's not a classic 4* resort. More of the 2-4 star I'd say. If you're on RCI for an exchange, you can pick up some nice HGVC from time to time, but many of the RCI resorts (and there are a lot of resorts and a lot of availability) tend to be less than 4* IMO.

I'll also point out: the summer beach weeks at MYR, HHI are not easy to get unless you have home-unit advantage or Marriott preference or something similar based on the resort brand.

Remember too: MF's tend to rise every year (5%?) and just keep on coming, year after year after year. Did I mention assessments? Smaller/independant resort systems tend to be more likely to make special assessments (again, in my limited knowledge).

good luck.

 

[JohnPaul]

Here is somewhere I'd suggest you investigate. We own here but have never visited or stayed there.

I'm talking about Oakmont Resort in Pigeon Forge, TN (next to Gatlinburg). We own a 2 bedroom 4th of July week. We paid very little for it on Ebay 5 or 6 years ago. Our maintenance fees are a ridiculously low $405 a year. We get close to 50,000 RCI points from our ownership there (we have 144,500 from 3 low MF ownerships and I forget exactly how it breaks out).

Maintenance fees have stayed at this low level for many years (a few dollars increase in some years). The resort seems to be well maintained (if not necessarily fancy).

My thought was that you could stay there when you want and use the RCI points for exchange.

It might not suit you but it seems as if it would be worth looking into it. I'm pretty sure you can buy units from the owners association for a nominal amount.

 

[silentg]

Join tug, check out Marketplace. Try renting first lots of good offers. Good Luck!
PM me for more info.
Silentg