Quick question on Florida deal

[thetimeshareguy]

I have a friend -- a couple actually -- who are considering buying a lock-off unit (two-bedroom one side and studio on the other) and are happy with the price and so on. But they've sought my help with a couple of issues. Any guidance appreciated.

1. The condo is at Vacation Village in Orlando, and my friends hope to exchange it regularly into Weston, where they prefer to be. The vendor says they've never had a problem doing this. Is that a realistic expectation?

2. The vendor says the unit comes with two free extra weeks annually, provided by RCI. They say there is no annual maintenance fee on those weeks, only the original week my friends are considering purchasing. Anyone ever heard of this?

3. The vendor says that they pay only ONE RCI exchange fee ($200) when exchanging all THREE weeks at the same time. Is this likely?

Basically my friends want to stay in Weston every winter for thee or more consecutive weeks and believe this may be a savvy way to do it. The vendor suggests they'll have no trouble exchanging the Orlando interval into Weston, and that the costs will work as described above. Thoughts?

 

[tschwa2]

The 2 free weeks are bonus weeks. They are only good 45 days out and generally to units that would have a tpu of 11 or lower. They are for personal use and you can't add a guest cert to those exchanges. The exchange fee to use is currently $209 (same as a regular exchange). Sometimes both weeks don't transfer on resale, sometimes only one does.

What week is he buying. Most are worth less than $100. A few may be worth in the $500-1000 range plus closing costs. I wouldn't rely on using bonus weeks for late January or February Weston weeks. If he gets enough tpu's from the deposit he can do an internal exchange for $139 for each week.

 

[moonstone]

As stated above those extra weeks are bonus weeks and only available on short notice -good luck getting one (let alone 2) in the winter! We have had trouble using ours in April! Yes they will pay RCI 1 exchange fee -the fees for the other 2 bonus weeks will be paid to Vacation Villages. Even if they exchange their L/O unit for 2 smaller units they'll be paying 2 exchange fees (1 for each unit).

We were given a special "Vacation Village owners" tel # to call to book/exchange our weeks & were told we would get special consideration / priority, but I haven't found that to be the case. :annoyed:

If they want 2,3 or more weeks in south Florida in the winter they'd probably be better to buy when & where they want. JMHO.

~Diane

 

[thetimeshareguy]

This is valuable information. What does "tpu" mean? I'm not up on that term.

 

[tschwa2]

In the weeks system RCI assigns a point designation from 1-60 for every deposit and exchange. An average Weston 2 br in Florida would have a tpu of about 20 or so.

 

[moonstone]

This is valuable information. What does "tpu" mean? I'm not up on that term.

Trading Power Units. The "weeks" version of points. When you have a "week" ( as opposed to X number of points) and you want to deposit / trade that week then RCI assigns it a trading power unit (5-60) depending on resort, what week, size of unit & how far in advance you are depositing / trading it.

Obviously the higher TPU it gets the better/bigger/nicer unit in a more desirable time you are able to trade it for.

~Diane

 

[thetimeshareguy]

Thanks Diane.

 

[DeniseM]

You can easily pick up timeshares in Florida at the top resorts for free. I would never advise someone to buy from the developer in Florida. It doesn't make financial sense at all. They should look for a timeshare at the resort where they want to stay, on the resale market.

 

[thetimeshareguy]

They're not buying from the developer Denise, but I agree with your point. I don't feel the vendor has been candid in his answers to their questions. The purchasing couple sent me a description of the deal that left a lot of questions unanswered. I then forwarded a list of questions, and found the vendor's reply vague, which raised an alarm with me. Now I find out from you guys that my suspicions were justified. I thought it strange that someone who has used their timeshare for many years couldn't answer simple questions about such matters as exchange fees, etc. They were definitely painting a rosier picture of the timeshare than the reality. How amazing that that would happen in timeshare, huh? The problem for these folks is they don't just want one or two weeks but want to go to Florida for a whole month. They formerly stayed at a friend's timeshare who somehow was able to put together a whole month for them, but apparently that's no longer available to them. I had suggested they just rent a regular condo for a month, but they like the idea of being in a timeshare resort, understandably.

 

[vacationhopeful]

I have put together 4+ Winter weeks in a resort .. but it is the resort who "manages" the 1 unit for a 4 week stay ... very rare. They should have 'tipped' the front desk - cash divides nicely.

I have had MORE problems doing that as MORE owners and other are trying to stay longer as a timeshare Snowbird.

Yes, I own MORE than enough weeks for myself to ROOST in South Florida .. but I OWN those weeks. And no, you don't find them as free (Bargain Deals) ... still way cheaper than a 1MM beach block condo.