Liberty Charleston - end contract/sell

[signalvet]

To all,
I have read through many threads and appreciate the helpfulness of this forum. We are just trying to find a place where we trust the advice vs being lied to by salespeople and getting a straight answer - which is why the post...

We bought into Liberty Charleston where we own 4 1br Platinum weeks at 9300 points a piece for a total of 37,200 points. Since we just bought (about 6 months ago) we own a significant amount on the loan - we paid over $7000 for 2021 for maintenance fees and paying around $4k a month on the loan.

The salesperson told us that we could rent one or two of the weeks to cover our costs - but I do not seen how we would rent 2 weeks to cover the $7K maintenance fee - let alone cover some of the loan amounts.

What are our best options of getting out of this contract/loan? I have seen some recommendations to contact Hilton and see if you can just give the deed back to them and walk away; or do a deed in lieu of foreclosure option; or tell Hilton you can't/won't pay any more on the loan and let them foreclose - risk is to your credit score. Mine right now is nearly perfect.

Is it worth anything? I know that this property is deeded as a "CLUB" in the Hilton system different from the other properties. Does this help me at all or not?

Thank you in advance for your candid advice --

 

[rjp123]

Ooof. Thank you for sharing and know you're in the right place to get good, practical advice.

You can try to give them back to Hilton but since you owe money on the mortgage this will be an effective default and will it seriously impact your credit rating and you may be chased by debt collectors. I don't think Hilton will accept this action however given that you just purchased this 6 months ago. You can certainly try.

Another option is to actually try to rent out the weeks - I'm guessing but if you could get at least $1,500 a week for each which would put you almost paying off the maintenance fees every year. The problem here is still that you have the mortgage payments and you're not getting to use what you bought.

The last option, and probably the best is to figure out how to use the property or use the Hilton system to travel to places you would like to go. Hilton is very good system and most of the people here really get good value out of it.

Lastly, if you could pay off the mortgage in full, you could look at selling some of the weeks on the secondary market to reduce your maintenance fee outlays every year or even deeding them back to Hilton which they would probably be more agreeable to given that there's no more mortgage owing.

I'm sure others will have additional thoughts. Good luck with this situation.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

 

[dayooper]

Ooof. Thank you for sharing and know you're in the right place to get good, practical advice.

You can try to give them back to Hilton but since you owe money on the mortgage this will be an effective default and will it seriously impact your credit rating and you may be chased by debt collectors. I don't think Hilton will accept this action however given that you just purchased this 6 months ago. You can certainly try.

Another option is to actually try to rent out the weeks - I'm guessing but if you could get at least $1,500 a week for each which would put you almost paying off the maintenance fees every year. The problem here is still that you have the mortgage payments and you're not getting to use what you bought.

The last option, and probably the best is to figure out how to use the property or use the Hilton system to travel to places you would like to go. Hilton is very good system and most of the people here really get good value out of it.

Lastly, if you could pay off the mortgage in full, you could look at selling some of the weeks on the secondary market to reduce your maintenance fee outlays every year or even deeding them back to Hilton which they would probably be more agreeable to given that there's no more mortgage owing.

I'm sure others will have additional thoughts. Good luck with this situation.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

This is exactly the advice I would give. Good Luck!

 

[Magus]

Charleston is popular so it will have some resale value, especially a platinum week, but no where close to what you paid retail for and likely not what you still owe for your mortgage. The fact its a by hilton club provides some perks within the program, but not a lot of resale value, largely because the maintenance fees/point aren't as good as you can get in markets like Vegas or Hawaii. I picked up over 40k points for about $35k total on resale market with a lot lower MFs than you have - on the flip side that's a nice, brand new resort in a very popular tourist city you can get in prime time if you want to use it.

You may be able to cover your MF renting out 3 of them some years (no way with 1 or 2 weeks), but obviously still have your mortgage. No real way to get out of the loan without risking your credit score. If you decide to go that route, make sure you get mortgage/car loan before you do that. It's a good program so keeping it is an option if you can afford it, but obviously $55k/year is a lot of dough for 95%+ of the country ($4k/month on mortgage + 7k MFs)....might depend on how long the mortgage is for - 10 or more years - I'm not sure my credit score is worth $500k+.

 

[alwysonvac]

Hi @signalvet and Welcome to TUG!

Some states such South Carolina have anti-deficiency, non-judicial foreclosure laws.
Take a look at these two threads.

What if you just don't pay the developer: legal implications

As most of us know, buying from a developer will invariably lead to untold anxiety and sadness once you realize the enormity of your mistake. That is borne out by a recent TUG post (as one example of perhaps hundreds of thousands over the years)...

tugbbs.com

​

Links to Official State Timeshare Laws and Guides/Manuals

@TUGBrian @DeniseM @CalGalTraveler take a look. This weekend, I’m creating a spreadsheet with official links to states’ timeshare laws, as well as their statuses as to non-judicial, anti-deficiency foreclosures. In the meantime, I will just keep adding notes. * Legal Disclaimer: This list...

tugbbs.com

Also be careful of timeshare scams

Spot and Avoid Timeshare Scams

How to spot and avoid Scams that target Timeshare Owners

tug2.net

 

[signalvet]

Thank you so much for the advice and feedback -- I really appreciate this forum!!

 

[TDub1313]

I would start making speculative reservations for high demand weeks/weekends and get them on the rental market ASAP. 4th of July, Labor Day, Spring Break, etc. Do some research on other local events as well. Not sure if you pay the reservation fee or not, but if you don’t have to - go crazy and make as many as you can and keep trying to find renters.

 

[rickandcindy23]

So sorry you were sucked in. The salesperson lied to you, and I am sorry about that. What was the total purchase price? Are you paying this in full in a year, is that the deal? How many years did you finance this?

 

[topdog]

Sorry to hear about your situation. I would first try to give it back to Hilton and extinguish the debt. Best solution by far in my opinion. Good luck.

 

[5finny]

1. South Carolina – SC, inaction or non-objection results in non-judicial, anti-deficiency foreclosure, but objection leads to judicial, deficiency action: https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t27c032.php

Above is from the link that
alwysonvac
posted above. I believe this is the specific state in question

If you wind up deciding on ( or being effectively forced into) a foreclosure- a deficiency is what you want to avoid

 

[DazedandConfused]

We bought into Liberty Charleston where we own 4 1br Platinum weeks at 9300 points a piece for a total of 37,200 points. Since we just bought (about 6 months ago) we own a significant amount on the loan - we paid over $7000 for 2021 for maintenance fees and paying around $4k a month on the loan.

First of all, I am sorry to read this post and this is perhaps the MOST egregious example of any timeshare company taking advantage of a buyer and I actually love the HGVC family, but not like this.

Unfortunately, 37,200 points are worth less than $50,000 and $.19pp annual dues is not that great of a deal these days, so unless you love that location, I would immediately stop paying the loan and let go into default and contact a real estate lawyer (preferable in SC) to have them offer Hilton your "deed in lieu of foreclosure".

There is no positive way to spin this and it make me sad that salespeople are so aggressive in these days of tight finances.

This property does look like a beautiful resort, but online prices seem to be 1 bedroom = $350 per night on the Hilton website