Newbie with Questions about purchasing [MERGED]

[mmr]

Okay, so last Thursday my DH & I bought a timeshare at Kings Creek Plantation in Williamsburg. We have until Thursday to cancel the sale & I have some questions.

1. What are the negatives of purchasing a unit on Ebay? I realize that I have to sign up for II or RCI myself, but are there any other differences? It seems a waste of money to pay thousands of dollars more to the resort than I can pay to a private seller. Would it be better to go to a website that sells timeshares than to bid on ebay? Is it better to just by from the resort?

2. I received ICE Platinum Rewards & I haven't found any good info. about them. I know they are primarily a cruise company, but I was told by my salesman that they are great for unlimited weeks of travel for $199. This was included in my sale, not extra. Is it worth it? Does anyone on here actually use it for land vacations? Is it hard to get the weeks?

3. I have been told many times by Kings Creek that the week number doesn't matter with II anymore, that II did away with seasons. Kings Creek uses floating weeks & they say that red vs yellow is a Kings Creek issue & that they trade the same with II. Is this true? I purchased a yellow week.

4. The units I'm looking at on ebay are RCI or II, not just one. Can I have a membership in both; do I pay both annually & just pick where to deposit my weeks, or just pay each one every other year?

5. Since DVC isn't working with II anymore, I'd like to possibly use RCI for that. Is it likely that I'll get DVC with my trade, or is it pretty impossible to get DVC?

6. I'd like to use my TS primarily for trading. Would II or RCI be better? I'm a planner, so planning in advance isn't a problem for me. Am I kidding myself about primarily trading my TS? My parents have RCI points & they only trade.

7. Lastly, can I trade a 4 BR lockout unit as (2) 2 BR units, thus giving myself 2 weeks instead of just one?

Thanks for any input to my questions. I've been immersing myself in this for the last 24 hours & I'm pretty confused about what I should do.

 

[Carol C]

Assuming you bought from a developer while taking a timeshare tour, you oughta cancel right now. It looks like you are already aware that deals can be had on ebay. Don't worry about perks like ICE. Williamsburg and Orlando are two US destinations that are over-built; trade power can be iffy. Rescind your purchase via certified mail...do it today.

 

[vacationhopeful]

RESCIND NOW - think later! Save $$$$$$$$.

 

[gmarine]

RESCIND NOW. I bought my annual floating prime season 4 bedroom Kings Creek unit less than a year ago on EBAY for $900 and change. KCP directly got what, around $27,000 ??

 

[FlyerBobcat]

Agree... RESCIND now, and save $$$. And then take a few months to learn what you need to know before you buy.

You can check the Travel Demand Index on II and see the changing demand per week number, which affects trading power.

http://www.intervalworld.com/web/cs?a=1503&resortCode=KCP&parentResortCode=KCP

Ask yourself (and all your fellow TUGgers) things like: Do I really what to buy at "X" location for the purpose of trading?

Good luck!

 

[mmr]

Purchasing for Trading

My DH & I want to purchase a TS for trading purposes. We have 3 children (12, 9,7) & will be needing 2 hotel rooms soon & thought TS would be a better way to go--cheaper in the long run & we love having a kitchen.

How do you know where to purchase? We like Williamsburg, but live close. We go there for long weekends, but wouldn't spend a week there.

We were told by the salespeople that Williamsburg has high trading power. How do you know if that's true?

Do many of you purchase your weeks on Ebay? It seems like they have some good deals.

 

[Bill4728]

Rather than trading, I'd suggest buying into one of the big TS systems which let you make reservations within the system to all their resorts. Therefore you don't need to trade!!

We were told by the salespeople that Williamsburg has high trading power. How do you know if that's true?

While true, there is lots of demand for trades into Williamsburg, there is even more supply, so Williamsburg TS in general don't trade that well. (( the same thing is true for Orlando, Huge demand but also HUGE supply))

Rescind your current purchase, then spend a little time here looking at your options.

The cheapest maybe Wyndham. You can buy a TS in williamsburg run by wyndham and then use the "Fairshare points " that the week gives you to make reservations at most of the >80 different wyndham resorts around the country. I'd guess that a 2 bd week in the middle of the summer could be bought for <$1,000 and get you most of the other wyndham resorts.

BUT this is only one option. There are many others.

Take your time!! It is really easy (and cheap) to buy resale ( from a current owner) and very hard to sell if you make a mistake.

PS Welcome to TUG

 

[judgerey]

eBay is a good option; I purchased a HGVC Bay Club property for a very good price. You should decide on the property you want to purchase first, how much you are able to spend, and then look on eBay. Its very easy to get carried away on eBay . . . be careful.

 

[Bill4728]

This poster and many others asked What are places with very high "trading power"?

IMHO:
-summer beach places,
- winter ski places,
-winter warm places
-Hawaii.

All these places generally have much more demand than supply and therefore have high trading value. BUT the key is places which have more demand than supply.

 

[mmr]

Thanks, everyone! I guess I'll be spending a lot of time on here in the next couple of weeks!

 

[mmr]

Thanks for the advice on rescinding. We have until Thursday. I'll be drafting my letter tonight!

Any other advice? I can use all I can get!

 

[bnoble]

Buying to exchange is a tricky business---in general, you don't know in advance how well any particular week will trade. Worse, today's tiger trader may well be tomorrow's average one.

I second Bill's suggestion of considering a mini-system. On the east coast, Wyndham or Bluegreen might have resorts that meet your needs. WorldMark is another good choice, but they tend to focus more on the western US. I happen to own Wyndham, and like the product a lot---at resale prices.

 

[wackymother]

Rescind now, now, noooooow! We bought at KCP and then rescinded, later bought resale for a fraction of the price (not as small a fraction as gmarine, but much much better than retail).

KCP red weeks are only moderate traders (in RCI, at least). I suspect that KCP yellow or white weeks would be very poor traders! It's almost always best to buy the reddest of red weeks, and fortunately when you're buying resale, those red weeks are only a little more expensive.

When buying on eBay, you want to look for a good seller. I bought a different unit on eBay (not KCP) a couple of years ago and it was very stressful--although in the end it all worked out. You can get a great deal on KCP resales on eBay, or a good deal by going through a reputable reseller or a private reseller.

 

[DeniseM]

Hi mmr! Welcome to TUG!

I combined your two related threads. We can answer your questions better if we can see what's already been asked and answered.

Here is a Rescinding FAQ, it was written for a different system, but almost everything in it applies to you.

Good luck!

 

[wackymother]

2. I received ICE Platinum Rewards & I haven't found any good info. about them. I know they are primarily a cruise company, but I was told by my salesman that they are great for unlimited weeks of travel for $199. This was included in my sale, not extra. Is it worth it? Does anyone on here actually use it for land vacations? Is it hard to get the weeks?

ICE is worthless, absolutely worthless. I doubt that one person here has been able to use an ICE week.

4. The units I'm looking at on ebay are RCI or II, not just one. Can I have a membership in both; do I pay both annually & just pick where to deposit my weeks, or just pay each one every other year?

Yes, you can have a membership in both or in one or the other, if your resort is dual-affiliated. KCP is dual-affiliated with both II and RCI and at the moment I only have an RCI account.

5. Since DVC isn't working with II anymore, I'd like to possibly use RCI for that. Is it likely that I'll get DVC with my trade, or is it pretty impossible to get DVC?

I think I can safely say that you will never be able to get DVC with anything in Williamsburg. You need a vastly stronger trader for that.

6. I'd like to use my TS primarily for trading. Would II or RCI be better? I'm a planner, so planning in advance isn't a problem for me. Am I kidding myself about primarily trading my TS? My parents have RCI points & they only trade.

Different schools of thought on this. It depends on where you want to go. We have an RCI account b/c we live in NJ and we like to stay in the Northeast. RCI has more resorts in the Northeast, so we generally deposit to them.

7. Lastly, can I trade a 4 BR lockout unit as (2) 2 BR units, thus giving myself 2 weeks instead of just one?

Absolutely yes. Not only CAN you, you SHOULD deposit that unit as 2 two-bedrooms. But you're going to rescind the one you have, right?

 

[mmr]

Thanks for the input, wackymother. Yes, I'm rescinding my contract. We were hoping to use a trade this summer, but I think that's too short notice, anyway.

DeniseM, Thanks for the link to the Rescinding FAQ. I was searching threads on rescinding & didn't find that one.

I really appreciate all the immediate help with this. It was really stressing me out this morning! I'm a perennial planner, so buying this TS really threw me into a tizzy.