Newbie-- How best to join HGVC with Sanibel home

[uea1]

I'm a newbie. I have been researching joining HGVC via resale. I'm hoping to come in at the 7k point level. Sanibel Island seems like the ideal home location for us, although we envision trading in the network frequently. We prefer to travel during the late March/April period.

Any advice on how to get started? We can spend up to $15k, but hoping for around $12k. Thanks for any thoughts you can provide!

 

[judy23]

I'm a newbie. I have been researching joining HGVC via resale. I'm hoping to come in at the 7k point level. Sanibel Island seems like the ideal home location for us, although we envision trading in the network frequently. We prefer to travel during the late March/April period.

Any advice on how to get started? We can spend up to $15k, but hoping for around $12k. Thanks for any thoughts you can provide!

Contact Seth nook in this forum. He is very knowledgeable.

 

[Blues]

That would be Seth Nock. And yes, he's gotten good reviews on this forum from people who have bought from him.

Your cheapest way into HGVC would probably not be to buy at Sanibel, but to buy elsewhere (Las Vegas is frequently cheap), and use your points to get reservations at Sanibel. However, I understand that the Florida affiliates can be difficult trades, in which case you may want to buy there after all.

Advantage to buying at Sanibel -- You can reserve via HGVC at your home resort up to 12 months in advance. For the rest of us who don't own there, it's 9 months. And presumably, in the years you want to use Sanibel, you wouldn't even convert to HGVC points -- just use your Sanibel week.

Disadvantage -- Converting affiliates to HGVC points is not as convenient as using points from an HGVC-owned property. Check out my post about this here. It's been discussed elsewhere on this board, too. You may have to browse through a lot of threads to find this subject.

Seth or Judi would be good resources to talk to about this. My take would be this -- if you plan to go to Sanibel fairly often, buy there. If you plan to mostly convert to HGVC points and travel elsewhere, buy an HGVC-owned property.

 

[Zac495]

Ditto on Seth Nock. I used him twice- wonderful to work with and very knowledgeable. He can REALLY help you decide if you should get Sanibel or something else. Ditto also on if you want to go to Sanibel regularly, that may be the way to go.

 

[uea1]

Disadvantage -- Converting affiliates to HGVC points is not as convenient as using points from an HGVC-owned property. Check out my post about this here. It's been discussed elsewhere on this board, too. You may have to browse through a lot of threads to find this subject.

Blues, this doesn't appear to be the correct link. Could you link the right thread?

 

[Talent312]

Duplicate deleted.

 

[Talent312]

I'm a newbie. I have been researching joining HGVC via resale. I'm hoping to come in at the 7k point level. Sanibel Island seems like the ideal home location for us, although we envision trading in the network frequently. We prefer to travel during the late March/April period.

March/April is a perfect time of year for SW Florida. Warm enuff, not too humid and not yet buggy. And Sanibel is a great place to vacation. However, IMHO, you should buy Sanibel only if that's where you want to go most of the time; not for the HGVC points-program.

Sanibel properties are affiliates, not HGVC-developments, which means that you'll pay a special fee to join and may find some things, like borrowing future-year points, problematic. If you are buying specifically for the points-program, buy at a HGVC-developed property, like Orlando-Seaworld or Int'l.Drive, Las Vegas-Flamingo or Strip, or such. You'll be in the program by operation of your purchase.

 

[dvc_john]

I own at 2 Sanibel locations (Casa Ybel and Sanibel Cottages) as well as some HGVC developed properties.

I will second what several people have said: Only buy Sanibel if you plan to use it most or all the time. The buy-in cost will tend to be higher than for HGVC Orlando or Las Vegas resales, and mf's will be much higher.

But also keep in mind that trading in to Sanibel would be difficult if you don't own there, particular for the Feb-Mar-Apr time frame. Those weeks are so valuable (and expensive to purchase) that it would be rather foolish (imo) to give them up for points. Also, the resorts are much smaller than the HGVC resorts, and some owners don't even belong to HGVC.

fwiw, I don't have to reserve my units at 12 months out. I have a permanent reservation if I want to use my week(s). If I'd rather have the points, I simply call HGVC and cancel my reservation for that year. I also don't have the problem that 'Blues' mentioned in his 'linked to' thread. I can borrow points from the next year just the same as if they were HGVC developed resorts as opposed to affiliates.

eta: I seriously doubt you will be able to find a Sanibel week in March or April for $12-15K. For instance, I found an old resale price sheet for Sanibel Cottages from about 2004. March-April weeks were priced at $36-40K for mid-April, and a whopping $57-72K for March! Hurricane House had similar prices: $45-67K for March, $30K for April. You'd have to go to May or later to find something in the $12-15K range, and those weeks would only be worth 3500 or 5000 points, depending on the particular week.

 

[uea1]

In my crude searches, I haven't been able to locate Hilton Sanibel resales. Where would I find them?

 

[Cathyb]

dvc: You have been a world of info -- thank you. Have you thought of joining TUG family???

 

[Blues]

Blues, this doesn't appear to be the correct link. Could you link the right thread?

The link works fine for me. The entire original thread is here, but it's mostly about another subject.

 

[tjorhom]

Here is a smoking resale for you:
http://cgi.ebay.com/3-500-HGVC-Poin...39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1309&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

 

[TerriJ]

Why so cheap?

 

[UWSurfer]

HGVC's usually ramp up at the end of an auction pretty quickly. Additionally this is an affiliate, which means it's extra money to convert to HGVC.

They are saying this 2 bdrm is worth 3500 HGVC points (if converted) which tells me it would be a silver season unit. My gold HGVC Las Vegas 1 bdrm is worth 3500 points, and with lower maintenance fee's to boot.

Still, we are now seeing some pretty good bargins appearing recently.

 

[dvc_john]

Also notice that the week is in prime hurricane season, and that the mf's are high. It is a very nice resort though.

 

[dvc_john]

In my crude searches, I haven't been able to locate Hilton Sanibel resales. Where would I find them?

One thing you could do is call the resort directly.
I know Casa Ybel has an on-site resales office.
And Sanibel Cottages and Hurricane House share an on-site resales office at Sanibel Cottages.

 

[dvc_john]

dvc: You have been a world of info -- thank you. Have you thought of joining TUG family???

Thanks for reminding me. I've been meaning to do that for months, so I just did! (I guess it takes a day or so to show up though.)

 

[Blues]

It doesn't just show up after a few days. You have to enter the BBS member code into your profile. This post shows you how.

Welcome to TUG!

-Bob

 

[uea1]

Thanks for reminding me. I've been meaning to do that for months, so I just did! (I guess it takes a day or so to show up though.)

Is anything available in March/April, even May?

 

[dvc_john]

Is anything available in March/April, even May?

Generally they have scattered weeks available throughout the year.

For example, in the old resale availability list I found from 2004, Sanibel Cottages had 2 weeks in March, 3 weeks in April, and 2 weeks in May available for sale at that time.

For the whole year, they had 41 weeks available for sale. (The resort has just 28 units, and 41 weeks equals something under 3% of the units for sale by the on-site sales office. Again, that was at that time.)

btw: The 3 May listings were for $15-17K. The least expensive weeks listed were $9500 for mid August thru September.

 

[dvc_john]

You have to enter the BBS member code into your profile. This post shows you how.

Thanks Bob! That was a BIG help.