Newbie!

[carolecat]

Hi guys! New here and considering either purchasing an actual condo somewhere or looking into timeshares, or maybe fractional ownership. Here are my answers. I am curious which program is best for us - Wyndham, Hilton, RCI, ...? Thanks for the help!

1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? We are open to many places including Europe, Hawaii, California, Florida, Arizona...

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? Trade more than half the time

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations? Florida Keys, Gulf Coast, Southern California, Caribbean

4) How many people do you usually travel with - total, including yourself? 2

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

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance? sure

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time? sure

8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars? 4-5 stars

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing? 5-10,000

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? 500?

11) Are you a detail oriented planner? no

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

 

[CPNY]

Hi guys! New here and considering either purchasing an actual condo somewhere or looking into timeshares, or maybe fractional ownership. Here are my answers. I am curious which program is best for us - Wyndham, Hilton, RCI, ...? Thanks for the help!

1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? We are open to many places including Europe, Hawaii, California, Florida, Arizona...

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? Trade more than half the time

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations? Florida Keys, Gulf Coast, Southern California, Caribbean

4) How many people do you usually travel with - total, including yourself? 2

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

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance? sure

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time? sure

8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars? 4-5 stars

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing? 5-10,000

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? 500?

11) Are you a detail oriented planner? no

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

Ok so based on your answers a timeshare or membership in a vacation club can be for you. I would recommend checking out the big systems. HGVC will have ALOT of Florida and southern CA properties and it trades in RCI. Which will have Wyndham options etc. I own Vistana And some resale units have ability to transfer star options to be booked at other resorts in the network. That trades in Interval. Vistana will have Caribbean (Bahamas Atlantis, Westin I St, Johns, and the Westin in Cabo and Cancun. Puerto Vallarta may be coming soon). Vistana is the Sheraton and Westin properties. Then there is Marriott. You can buy a dedicated week at a home resort which can be used to exchange in interval. Or pay for DC points and you can book ANY Marriott property at 12 months. Vistana and Marriott have reciprocal priority in interval over other members since MVC bought vistana. So more options for exchanging weeks. HGVC, MVC and Vistana mandatory deeds all deal with a points based system or some variation of points booking.

HGVC and MVC have some Europe properties but in my travel experience to Europe things like Airbnb and VRBO are a much better option in my opinion. As far as your maint fee answer, depending on how many weeks or amount of points you want, you’ll need to adjust that 500 expectation drastically. Where/when/amount you buy will alter that amount of annual fee. Check where you want to go and buy there. I own vistana because I love the Atlantis resort. That’s my home away from home and it’s worked out great owning in that system. Now I can also use MVC through interval exchange so going to Marriott Ocean club in Aruba is a reality (my cousin just booked a June week two days ago by exchanging her vistana week).

when you settle on system, become obsessed with learning the system and resale restrictions of the system before buying. Always always always buy resale! Figure out points charts and figure out whenand where you want to go. That will help direct you in what you want to buy. When you figure out a systemgo into that systems page here and set up a new post asking for help and the timeshare spirits guides (TUGGERS) will guide you. Good luck!

 

[Passepartout]

The red herring here is that $500 limit on annual fees. You will NOT find 4-5 star accommodations in ANY of your preferred locations with that kind of MF. Maybe triple that number. Readjust your expectations and c'mon back. Also remember that if you are planning to 'trade'- we call it exchanging- there's an annual $100 or so to join an exchange company, and around $300 for each exchange on top of your annual MF.

The initial buy-in cost of a timeshare is just the beginning. The annual costs come every year at holiday time, and increase in the range of 5% every year you own.

Jim

 

[CPNY]

The red herring here is that $500 limit on annual fees. You will NOT find 4-5 star accommodations in ANY of your preferred locations with that kind of MF. Maybe triple that number. Readjust your expectations and c'mon back. Also remember that if you are planning to 'trade'- we call it exchanging- there's an annual $100 or so to join an exchange company, and around $300 for each exchange on top of your annual MF.

The initial buy-in cost of a timeshare is just the beginning. The annual costs come every year at holiday time, and increase in the range of 5% every year you own.

Jim

@carolecat yes to the above post, with a low maint fee you won’t get the level of accommodations you want. You’ll need to spend at least. 1500 or so depending on the room. You could find some for 1100-1200. The exchange company does cost per year unless it’s included in your membership with your systems annual fees. A vistana mandatory deed for example has its annual HOA fees then VSN membership fee of 150 which includes the Interval exchange membership fee.