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Perplexed (I am Within 10 Day Cancellation period)

PaDave

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I am in the middle of my 10 day cancellation period on a new purchase at Vistana Villages Key West. I have been reading the Tug website but still have questions about the situation I have gotten myself into.

I own a 2 bedroom every other year at Vistana Cascades. It is paid off (bought in 1998) and my MF is $567. We have used and enjoyed it since we bought it.

We feel like every time we visit they try to sell us something else. I bought an Explorer package last year just to get the star points but when we showed up at our meeting last week, they told us all the reasons that we should buy a new place at one of the mandatory resorts. This is the first time I had ever heard about mandatory vs. voluntary. The explanation I was given was that my voluntary unit would be much more difficult to sell. They spoke of Right of first refusal and that the new owner would have to pay $20K to re-qualify the unit into SVN. Eventually selling my time share is one of my biggest worries. I understand it will probably not make me any money and I am ok with that, but I don't want to burden my children with it if they aren't in a position to handle it. The new unit at Key West sells for 22999. They are going to give us over $7K for our unit at Cascades and give a credit from the money we put into the Explorer package of about $1500 and 75000 Starpoints.

So we agreed to buy at Key West so that we should be able to sell it some day if we no longer want it. We are in our 10 cancellation window

After the credits on our unit, the one at Key West ended up costing us $14500.

Ever since we did this I can't get it out of my mind nor can I sleep. I don't know if we got a reasonable deal or basically got blind sided.

I have 2 main concerns:

After looking at Tug and other websites I find that I can buy what appears to be same unit on the resale market for $4000 or less, but to do this I would now have to try to sell my old unit myself. Will I not have the same unit with the same privileges buying a resale unit rather than a unit from Starwood? Am I paying way too much for the same unit "new" rather than from a re-seller?

My other concern is that I don't want to burden my children with a property that they can't sell and may or may not be able to pay the maintenance fee on when it becomes theirs. I have been told that the mandatory unit will be easier to sell than the voluntary. Is this true?

Any feedback on my situation would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave
 

sjsharkie

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Cancel immediately. You can buy far cheaper via resale.

There is no unit (even a fixed week 52) that is worth that kind of money.

Rescind and buy resale.

ryan

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
 

ronparise

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Ever since we did this I can't get it out of my mind nor can I sleep. I don't know if we got a reasonable deal or basically got blind sided.

I dont know whether you got a reasonable deal or basically got blind sided either.

I would rescind and do my research to find the answer to that question with my $14000 safely in my bank account. Then I would craft a solution to deal with my two concerns with the help of the experts here on TUG.
 

gmarine

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Rescind. Youre getting robbed. Again.
 

Roger830

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The question of children inheriting a timeshare has been discussed here.
Nobody has to accept an inheritance. If their names aren't on the deed, then there is no serious problem for them.
 

Rsauer3473

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We bought resale a Key West 2 bdrm gold plus season w/67,100 SPs last Spring for $1,000. During the process, someone on TUG offered a similar unit in Bella for $0.00. You may have overpaid.
 

Sicnarf

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Rescind immediately!!! Don't wait another day. You've been bs'ed by the salesperson

You can always purchase one you are well educated. Take it from me, I've spent over $100K with Starwood and I'd do differently if I can go back in time :-(
 

SDKath

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I am one of the few people on TUG who strongly encourages people to buy from the Developer for various reasons (retro'ing resale units, etc). Over 1/2 of my Starwood timeshares I bought from Starwood directly and never regretted. However in this case there is absolutely no advantage or reason to buy from them and pay that kind of money. Definitely rescind and then rebuy the same unit from a reputable reseller for 1/10th the cost. :)

Katherine
 

LisaRex

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Rescind immediately and continue enjoying the timeshare you already (over)paid for. It's in SVN because you bought from the developer, so you have absolutely nothing to gain from selling it back to them and overpaying for a mandatory phase.

What the salesman didn't tell you:

a) STARWOOD created this mess by making some resorts mandatory and some voluntary. They screwed voluntary resort owners like you in a big way, and now want to capitalize on it by screwing you again.

2) The fact that it's a voluntary resort is immaterial to you. Your unit is in SVN. The distinction between voluntary and mandatory only comes into play IF you try to sell it to a third party. And I agree that it is pretty much a giveaway unit. However, it still has value to YOU and there's absolutely no reason to sell it or, worse, take a LOSS on it now (which is what would happen if you paid another $14.5k to switch to Key West). That's lunacy.

3) You needn't worry about screwing over your children. First of all, they don't have to take ownership of your timeshare after your death. Secondly, the salesman neglected to mention that if you TRANSFER it to a member of your immediate family, the unit will retain its SVN status.

I don't know why I'm shocked at a timeshare salesman's behavior, but shame on him.
 
Last edited:

SMHarman

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14k is two decades of MF. Rescind and use the money for continuing enjoyment of the current unit.
 

presley

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It sounds like you bought because it is easier to resell this one? It is not easy to resell any timeshare. You'll get nowhere near what you paid and suffer a much greater loss in the end than if you keep what you already owned.
 

Ken555

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I'm continually amazed what the sales team says to earn their commissions. Take the truth, twist it, add a dose of fear, and voila - another sale.

Rescind now. Don't wait another day.


Sent from my iPad
 

LisaRex

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I hope we've saved you some money today. Happy vacationing!
 

Retiredrog

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I am an owner at the Vistana Resort in Orlando and use both the main resort and the Villages but Never go to the sales presentation so I don't know the difference between voluntary and mandatory with respect to time share units. Don't be swayed by talk of resale value (that's a joke). Enjoy your timeshares and if you feel the need to buy more Time shares, buy resales. If you don't want to burden your children with the maintenance expenses after you're gone, don't will it to them. They are not legally obligated to take on that financial responsibility.
 
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