Lisa is 100% correct in her advice. Buying a resale EY 1 BR at WKORV would be a much better deal for you. First, you get a better view for sure as the 1BRs are closer to the beach. Second, you would have a large 1BR EY rather than the small studio the other years. And price is comparable for a resale EY 1Br vs. EOY 2BR LO. Oh, and you get 12 month priority for the time you want. Pay attention.....
Thanks for the advice. We are looking at the 2BR for the added flexibility, not necessarily to use it every year in Hawaii. We may choose to use the 1BR in Hawaii for a week and then bank the remainder for use at another SVO property (as pointed out below, the remainder 67.1k SOs get value elsewhere, i.e. a week in Cancun on the off year). Down the road, we may appreciate a 2BR if we travel with friends or family. We may even trade our 1BR week into the II pool for use at a non-VSN property. There are lots of additional options when considering a 2BR vs. 1BR that justify the additional purchase price and MF.
I would advise to stay away from the 1Bd WKORV resale - it has some of the highest MF per square foot.
The extra studio side is cheap when you compare MFs to the 2Bd LO (Prem), and allows for an extra 67.1K SO which can be used in VSN (at 8 months) to add on vacation days that are no longer confined to a weekly reservation.
(For example - use the extra 67.1K SO to add on 6 nights (e.g. Sat-Fri) in a 1Bd at the 8-month mark)
The studio costs about an additional $360 (approx.) in annual MFs for an additional 67.1K SO - those are the cheapest SO/MF available.
Be careful...
Congrats to anyone who finds TUG in time to rescind - too many do not.
Thanks for the suggestions. This has been our thinking all along - a 2BR property provides great added flexibility regardless of where we choose to use the 1BR. Our initial purchase at WLM was for a 2BR for that exact purpose (actually, our hope was to just use the SO from the WLM purchase for a Hawaii stay every other year). Glad we found TUG though as by rescinding we can get a much better deal at a property we would like to return to frequently with SOs left over for the off year.