Lowest Maint. Fee's

[mrgoodwrench69]

Hi,
Can somone tell me a few SA resorts that have some of the lowest maint. fees? I'm just starting my search for a unit there. I'm looking for a 2BR , RED week, doesn't have to be Gold Crown, or RID. I have been told so many different things about buying into SA, its tough to sort it all out. I've been told you should get a Gold Crown to have the best trading power, then another said as long as it's 2BR and A Redweek (Standard), it will trade just as good as any Gold Crown unit, so why pay for a Gold Crown status when a standard will trade just as easily. Thanks in advance for any info on resort maint. fees.

 

[michelle]

Stop Right There

Things have changed significantly as far as SA trading power is concerned. This all happened on Black Sunday - do a search on this board to find out more.

In summary:
* forget about maintenance fees as a prime indicator of where to buy. Yes, it does play a role in determining whether a unit is worth it for you, but it is not a good indicator of where to buy/not to buy.
* Gold Crown is now important
* Red season is now important
* Unit size is now important
* Other things play a role, but.... see below

We have done one trading test after Black Sunday, but it did not have enought results to draw conclusions. We have not done one since - waiting for more resorts to be deposited. But we have found that some red Gold Crowns trade much better than standards, for instance. Unfortunately we dont have a complete list of which Gold Crowns are the good traders yet. Other things, such as location, might now be important, but we do not know which yet.

Time/experience will tell.

Edited to add a warning: there have been some reports of good quality Gold Crown resorts that do not trade well. We do not know the reason yet. Could be an error on RCI's part or it could be that regardless of how great the resort it, its location is not as popular. This makes deciding on where to buy very difficult. At the same time, there might be standards that trade okay, simply because of their location.

If you are a member, and have a particular resort in mind, ask someone here to do a trade test for you, and they can post the results on the Sighting (members only) board.

 

[Mimi]

Buying in South Africa

I used to be an advocate, but not any more. Maintenance fees have gone up tremendously and the trade power has deteriorated. If I knew how to unload my standard Mount Amanzi units, I would.

 

[Mimi]

Black Sunday

Could you please explain more about Black Sunday. I tried searching, but was not successful.

 

[225chs]

Mimi

Black Sunday is a term that has been applied to the day RCI integrated their SA computer with their USA computer. Until then all SA pretty much traded alike (moderate traders) whether red, blue white, studio 3 bedroom etc. After the integration of their network the SA had individual trading power similar to TS here. As a result some of the TS became dogs others became tigers overnight.