Purchased Princeville yesterday afternoon---need advice

[luke10995]

Just bought our Princeville timeshare yesterday. A momentary lapse from being in beautiful Kauai. I've skimmed through TUG, but have some questions from posters who are clearly well informed. I get rescind, rescind, rescind. But 1) Are there any benefits from purchasing directly from developer? 2) Does the Princeville have more "value" in trading because it is in Kauai? 3)Is the theory to just get your Starwood Options at the lowest price through resale and then use your options in the system? 4) We paid 36,000 for EYO with 60,000 starpoints, gold membership and option to get addition 89,4000 starpoints for 1,800-----not a good deal? Any help appreciated.

 

[bizaro86]

1) Are there any benefits from purchasing directly from developer? 2) Does the Princeville have more "value" in trading because it is in Kauai? 3)Is the theory to just get your Starwood Options at the lowest price through resale and then use your options in the system? 4) We paid 36,000 for EYO with 60,000 starpoints, gold membership and option to get addition 89,4000 starpoints for 1,800-----not a good deal? Any help appreciated.

1) Yes. You get the starpoints, gold membership, and option to use staroptions/starpoints instead of your yearly usage at your home resort

1a) Are any of those things a good deal?--->Maybe, but probably not. You can buy starpoints directly from starwood for a cost of $2100 for 60,000 points. (Note its limited to 20,000 per year, but each family member can have an account) Staroptions for inter-starwood trading can be had cheaper by buying a mandatory resort resale, and trading this ownership for starpoints isn't a very good deal.

2) Maybe, but there seems to be lots of availability now, and as time goes on resale timeshares at this resort will likely get cheaper.

3) That would be a good plan if your goal is to trade throughout the system. The mandatory resorts are listed in the sticky

4) I would say probably not. There is a resale listed here for an annual usage for $35,000. http://www.redweek.com/posting/R387839 So if you like Princeville, you could go twice as often, or rent or trade the other week. Alternatively, every other years are available for $20K. And I bet those prices are negotiable.

Michael

 

[DavidnRobin]

the benefits of buying from SVO (vs. resale) have been discussed ad nauseum - and the overwhelming consensus is RESCIND!

Rescind
Research
Resale

congrats on finding TUG in time...

 

[AwayWeGo]

Yes -- But. (And It Is A Sizable "But")

Are there any benefits from purchasing directly from developer?

For paying full-freight to the timeshare company, you get approximately $1,000 worth of benefits that the bargain-hunting lowball bottom-feeding resale timeshare buyers don't get.

Unfortunately, for that extra $1,000 worth of benefits, full-freight buyers are paying something like $10,000 - $20,000 over & above what the timeshare is objectively worth.

Best TUG-BBS recommendation you will find = Rescinda-Sinda-Sinda.

Buy timeshares resale. Save $10,000

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[SDKath]

Just bought our Princeville timeshare yesterday. A momentary lapse from being in beautiful Kauai. I've skimmed through TUG, but have some questions from posters who are clearly well informed. I get rescind, rescind, rescind. But 1) Are there any benefits from purchasing directly from developer? 2) Does the Princeville have more "value" in trading because it is in Kauai? 3)Is the theory to just get your Starwood Options at the lowest price through resale and then use your options in the system? 4) We paid 36,000 for EYO with 60,000 starpoints, gold membership and option to get addition 89,4000 starpoints for 1,800-----not a good deal? Any help appreciated.

Princeville is also turning out to be a very easy trade for SOs and points right now due the the bad economy, expensive flights, and general good availability at the resort. So I would not bank on it being a super good deal just because of it's location. It's not immune to the problems HI is having in general. I would opt to purchase resale someplace else (like WKV) where you get SOs (it's Mandatory) and have 1/2 MFs.

Katherine

 

[vacationtime1]

You can buy an annual Kierland in the low 20's with MF's of about $1,200 per year (or an EOY for half of those numbers). In this economy, you can easily reserve at Princeville with the 148,100 StarOptions you will receive. That may change as the economy changes, but by then you may prefer to go somewhere else anyway.

If you let the rescind window pass, you will own a property worth $15,000 - $20,000 on the resale market, an immediate loss of 50% of your purchase price. If you buy Kierland resale, you can sell it for close to what you paid for it.

 

[SDKath]

WOw! I didn't even notice that this is an every OTHER year for $36k. Huge ripoff. I can't believe they are selling them for so much money. You can buy EY Princeville resales for about $35,000 now even though the resort is brand new.
K

 

[capjak]

Just bought our Princeville timeshare yesterday. A momentary lapse from being in beautiful Kauai. I've skimmed through TUG, but have some questions from posters who are clearly well informed. I get rescind, rescind, rescind. But 1) Are there any benefits from purchasing directly from developer? 2) Does the Princeville have more "value" in trading because it is in Kauai? 3)Is the theory to just get your Starwood Options at the lowest price through resale and then use your options in the system? 4) We paid 36,000 for EYO with 60,000 starpoints, gold membership and option to get addition 89,4000 starpoints for 1,800-----not a good deal? Any help appreciated.

1. First Rescind your purchase The deal they quoted you will likely be available for awhile so there is no hurry to purchase (even if you decide to buy directly from Starwood)

2. Next Research exactly what you want out of vacations: will go to the same resort every other year or would like to visit several resorts, do you need flexibility when you travel, will you be using 2 bedrooms, is starwood the best TS company you should look at them all prior to purchasing etc...

3. Purchase or Not and enjoy!

 

[calgarygary]

1) Are there any benefits from purchasing directly from developer?

Yes for the developer. You on the other hand are paying twice the value that you otherwise could have to get starpoints (which are being devalued constantly).

2) Does the Princeville have more "value" in trading because it is in Kauai?

Within SVN, no - a staroption is a staroption no matter where it originated. With II, maybe - with the cost of travelling increasing so quickly, it is possible that Hawaii timeshares may lose some of their trading power.

3)Is the theory to just get your Starwood Options at the lowest price through resale and then use your options in the system?

Yes and no. If you are primarily interested in one destination, you should buy there. One of the most talked about lessons here on TUG is to buy where you want to go. However, for many of us, cheap rules!

4) We paid 36,000 for EYO with 60,000 starpoints, gold membership and option to get addition 89,4000 starpoints for 1,800-----not a good deal?

If your EYO is actually meant to be EOY (every other year) than NO. You have paid around $20,000 extra over resale for 60,000 starpoints and gold membership (which really has little value) so it is quite a bad deal.

 

[DavidnRobin]

I should add that I did buy EOY (odd) WPORV from SVO after buying 3 resale SVO TSs - and this is discussed in detail in the Requal thread (sticky).

Bottom-line... paid $24.6K, got around 200K SPs, and got 3* Elite status by requaling our resale WKORV unit. I even considered that I would take a $10K loss buying from SVO, but I (partially) offset this cost with the added benefits.

Most likely - in your case - - as others have mentioned - buy something like WKV (platinum) resale and use this to exchange into WPORV (since there is no view discrimination) - or other SVN resorts - and save tons of $ and pay less MFs.

We own 2 resale WKV TSs (81K SOs each) to either SVN exchange, rent, or use - plus we can drive there in about 10 hours (or fly cheaply).

 

[Ken555]

A momentary lapse [...]

Yikes! Save your $$$ and rescind immediately! Take a deep breath and buy when you're home and not susceptible to the hard sell 'great vacation stories'!

 

[stevens397]

Okay - at the risk of getting stones thrown at me.......

I'd say that the ability to trade into a resort when it is new, building and expanding is not necessarily representative of how popular it will be when it is built out. And it may very well be possible that it won't be so easy to trade into it then. And if you bought resale instead, you would not be part of the Starwood Vacation Network and could not trade internally. Then again, some say that the dramatic increase in the cost of flights will adversely affect the popularity of Hawaii as a destination for timeshares.

So my take on it is that if:

1. You definitely want to visit Princeville 3 out of 4 years, and
2. You want to trade internally within Starwood, and
3. You have a lot of money and don't care if you are over-paying, then

go ahead. But - buy a resale somewhere else first as cheap as you can and requalify it! But the way the economy is, I would probably tell them I'm rescinding and hear what type of additional goodies they throw at you. I'd go for a lot more points. When I bought Kierland years ago, I got 125,000 Starpoints for the purchase and another 27,000 on my Starwood AMEX.

 

[Ken555]

3. You have a lot of money and don't care if you are over-paying

:hysterical:

...this should be the definition of every "inexperienced" developer purchaser, but unfortunately isn't.

 

[DeniseM]

Welcome to TUG! I'm so glad you found us in time!

Just in case you missed this at the top of the board - FAQ - Rescinding/Canceling a Timeshare Purchase

 

[luke10995]

Thanks so much. I know this has been discussed a lot, but my learning curve is at stage one. I couldn't assimilate all the info and terms in the threads and felt pressure to become more informed quickly (becoming filled with the dread that I had made a major mistake.) We did have the rescission period extended by two days because of concerns of the lack of time to evaluate the purchase ---with travel back home, etc.

So, rescind, rescind, rescind and take our time. Thanks again. We are going to enjoy our last Kauai sunset. My mind is definitely more at ease.

 

[DavidnRobin]

extended 2 days!!!!???
watch out for this - is it in writing (or verbal)? Doesn't matter - Do not delay... follow the instructions in you paperwork (now!) - no foolin'...

disregard this advice if you have money to burn - then go ahead and buy and enjoy.

 

[luke10995]

The additional days for rescission were put in writing. They did not have a representative with authority to sign at closing. So the signed document was delivered to the Princeville today (along with a beautiful coffee table book on Kauai--they get you with the freebies).

But, we won't wait until the last date to rescind--will do as soon as we are home. I did ask at closing about a owner blog or website where I could read reviews from real owners . . . the rep said there wasn't one that he was aware of . . . interesting. Glad I found TUG. Thanks again.

 

[DeniseM]

Thanks for the update, Luke! I know I just sighed a big sigh of relief!

Question - I was at WPORV last week and I was curious about all the landscaping/vegetation there that actually blocks the ocean views. Were views discussed in your presentation?

 

[Kildahl]

Well done, Luke. You now have the time to think out what your vacation and travel needs are and whether a timeshare will facilicate your goals. Thank goodness I found TUG (like you) during the recission period. I ended up purchasing at the resort we resinded at but found a better unit and a week that met our realistic future use for about one-half the amount we almost had paid. Good luck. I would suggest that you join TUG to get full access to all the resourses available to members. It has certainly been worth the modest fee to my family.

BTW, who was your salesperson?

The additional days for rescission were put in writing. They did not have a representative with authority to sign at closing. So the signed document was delivered to the Princeville today (along with a beautiful coffee table book on Kauai--they get you with the freebies).

But, we won't wait until the last date to rescind--will do as soon as we are home. I did ask at closing about a owner blog or website where I could read reviews from real owners . . . the rep said there wasn't one that he was aware of . . . interesting. Glad I found TUG. Thanks again.