Rescinding

[pat in colorado]

HELP!

Hi,
We recently went on a trip to the Westin Villas in Maui, where, yes, we got sucked in to the preview and somehow bought a 2 br lockoff. List price, 49,900, and a 2,550 annual mx fee. I still have one more day to cancel, which I am now seriously considering. I brought up the resale market in the meeting, and the salesman told me starwood actually comes in and buys the unit from escrow. Is that true?

I think we will use the program, but I'm nervous about how much I overpaid.
I don't really know anyone in SVO, but it sounded like the trades were pretty easy to do.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[ace2000]

Hi,
We recently went on a trip to the Westin Villas in Maui, where, yes, we got sucked in to the preview and somehow bought a 2 br lockoff. List price, 49,900, and a 2,550 annual mx fee. I still have one more day to cancel, which I am now seriously considering. I brought up the resale market in the meeting, and the salesman told me starwood actually comes in and buys the unit from escrow. Is that true?

I think we will use the program, but I'm nervous about how much I overpaid.
I don't really know anyone in SVO, but it sounded like the trades were pretty easy to do.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Follow the instructions carefully and get out of that agreement quickly!

Want to see what that week is worth on the resale market?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2BR-LOCKOFF...30713099841?pt=Timeshares&hash=item35b7928641

 

[AwayWeGo]

Rescinda-Sinda-Sinda.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Get out of it while you can.

Nothing that the timeshare companies sell at full freight is ever worth the money, & that goes for Westin Villas in Maui right along with all the rest.

I would have to be out of my helmet to pay $49,900 for a timeshare -- any timeshare -- and $2,550 in maintenance fees is more than double my comfort level.

Buy timeshares resale. Save thousands of dollars on exactly the same thing, or the equivalent, or something even better.

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

 

[vacationtime1]

Hi,
We recently went on a trip to the Westin Villas in Maui, where, yes, we got sucked in to the preview and somehow bought a 2 br lockoff. List price, 49,900, and a 2,550 annual mx fee. I still have one more day to cancel, which I am now seriously considering. I brought up the resale market in the meeting, and the salesman told me starwood actually comes in and buys the unit from escrow. Is that true?

I think we will use the program, but I'm nervous about how much I overpaid.
I don't really know anyone in SVO, but it sounded like the trades were pretty easy to do.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Sounds like you bought an annual island view at WKORVN. You can get one of those on the resale market for 15-25% of what you paid.

Take the advice others are giving you - RESCIND.

Then, take your time (3-6 months minimum), do some research, and if you still want to buy, buy resale.

 

[pat in colorado]

thanks! Got the rescind letter ready. But we're still curious about what the salesman said......that Starwood has first right of refusal and will outbid most everything in the resale market. Was that just BS?

 

[Beefnot]

thanks! Got the rescind letter ready. But we're still curious about what the salesman said......that Starwood has first right of refusal and will outbid most everything in the resale market. Was that just BS?

Absolutely.

 

[Ridewithme38]

thanks! Got the rescind letter ready. But we're still curious about what the salesman said......that Starwood has first right of refusal and will outbid most everything in the resale market. Was that just BS?

I paid $1 for my Starwood week

 

[YYJMSP]

I paid $1 for my Starwood week

I assume that's not a WKORV(N) unit...

 

[DeniseM]

thanks! Got the rescind letter ready. But we're still curious about what the salesman said......that Starwood has first right of refusal and will outbid most everything in the resale market. Was that just BS?

Starwood cherry picks the prime weeks, during prime season, and resales them at full sticker. They do not exercise ROFR unless they can resale it for a nice profit. This is a wild guess, but I doubt if they exercise ROFR on 5% of resales.

More info. about rescinding - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74493

 

[DeniseM]

I assume that's not a WKORV(N) unit...

Sheraton Broadway Plantation

 

[Ridewithme38]

I assume that's not a WKORV(N) unit...

Sheraton Broadway Plantation

Yup definatly not a prime location and not really a prime week, because of the location....

But i heard nothing about rofr

 

[pat in colorado]

Denise, as you know the WKORV (N) is all considered "pink" or prime. Do they let any of these go on resale?

 

[DeniseM]

Yup definatly not a prime location and not really a prime week, because of the location....

But i heard nothing about rofr

It's a great TS for YOU - but not one that Starwood can resale for $$$. Nothing wrong with that!

 

[DeniseM]

Denise, as you know the WKORV (N) is all considered "pink" or prime. Do they let any of these go on resale?

Welcome to the Starwood Forum!

In a nutshell, you just need to forget what the sales person told you. They will say whatever it takes to make a sale - in short, they lie.

Starwood only exercises ROFR on units they can flip quickly. Those aren't IV units. IV units are nearly being given away.

My guess is that they only exercise ROFR on ocean front units that they can pick up for very little.

Here is a good example of the resale market - an every other year ocean view 1 bdm. that just sold on ebay for $1,576 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Westin-Kaan...00684905663?pt=Timeshares&hash=item2eb9c0a4bf

Even if you buy the TS of your dreams and Starwood exercises ROFR - it doesn't cost you, the buyer, a penny, and another one will always come along, and another one, and another one...

 

[pathways25]

Starwood only exercises ROFR on units they can flip quickly. Those aren't IV units. IV units are nearly being given away.

My guess is that they only exercise ROFR on ocean front units that they can pick up for very little.

I don't believe that that is an accurate assertion. I've talked with several timeshare resellers and what I've been told is that Starwood is vacuuming up everything including island view units at Kaanapali. When I last checked about 3 months ago, I was told that Starwood was exercising ROFR on island view units in the North up to about 13K.

When I was at WKORVN in April, the sales machine there was going full blast. In looking through the records, Starwood sold 48 units in the South and 87 units in the North just in the month of August. That tells me that the reports I've been hearing are probably accurate.

I will point out that I agree with the other posters here that you should rescind and buy resale. Because WKORV is a mandatory resort, you lose relatively little by buying resale instead of developer. However, you won't be able to buy any kind of 2BR unit there for $1 or anything close to that. You should probably expect to pay $10K or more for an island view if you want the purchase to pass ROFR. Still, that's a big savings over the 50K you paid for the developer week.

 

[PamMo]

A lot of space between ROFR and developer prices at the resort

Your comment, "...we got sucked in to the preview and somehow bought a 2 br lockoff..." tells me you should DEFINITELY rescind! Take your time and figure out why you think you want to buy - then research the options and ask LOTS of questions until you're confident timesharing is for you.

Starwood recently exercised ROFR on an annual 2BR oceanfront at WKORVN that I purchased for $14,500. They will probably sell it for well over $60K. You can see there's a LOT of room between where Starwood will exercise ROFR and their retail prices.

 

[timeos2]

thanks! Got the rescind letter ready. But we're still curious about what the salesman said......that Starwood has first right of refusal and will outbid most everything in the resale market. Was that just BS?

Beyond BS. There is no "bidding" involved in ROFR. IF they deem the week worthy of their action to obtain it rather than letting it go to the buyer you worked hard to locate then they simply queer that deal and take it from you for what the other buyer offered - not a penny more (and in fact it can be less as often they charge fees, "commissions" or other charges that the individual buyer wouldn't).

ROFR is NOT owner friendly. Sales tries to twist it to sound like it somehow protects you or will result in a higher sales price but University studies have come to the educated conclusion that the opposite is true. ROFR depresses prices and favors whoever holds the ROFR rights (the developer - not you the buyer).

Rescind is your best move now as everyone else has also stated. ROFR is just one reason to do so. I would never buy into any resort that holds ROFR rights - not even on resale. But no Developer purchase is a good value as they have to build in far too much sales overhead that is lost immediately after the rescind period ends. Thats thousands lost on the purchase you'll never ever see back. Not a good financial move.

 

[AwayWeGo]

I've Said It Before & I'll Say It Again . . .

ROFR is NOT owner friendly. Sales tries to twist it to sound like it somehow protects you or will result in a higher sales price but University studies have come to the educated conclusion that the opposite is true. ROFR depresses prices and favors whoever holds the ROFR rights (the developer - not you the buyer).

ROFR = ROFL.

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

 

[vacationtime1]

Denise, as you know the WKORV (N) is all considered "pink" or prime. Do they let any of these go on resale?

I don't believe that that is an accurate assertion. I've talked with several timeshare resellers and what I've been told is that Starwood is vacuuming up everything including island view units at Kaanapali. When I last checked about 3 months ago, I was told that Starwood was exercising ROFR on island view units in the North up to about 13K.

As others have posted, Starwood exercises ROFR opportunistically in order to obtain inventory to resell at retail prices. I was at WKORVN last month and saw many sheep sales prospects being led around the property; WKORVN is obviously once again in active sales.

Data I have seen in the past month or two suggests that Starwood will exercise its ROFR on WKORVN annual ocean front units at about $23,000 - $24,000 or less. Which means you could buy ocean front on the resale market for half of what you paid Starwood for island view.

 

[DavidnRobin]

An IV WKORVN 2Bd LO had a preconstruction price of ~$48K (~2006) and has increased since. A ROFR of resales at ~$13K is not soaking them up... they are taking advantage, and selling a huge profit.

 

[DeniseM]

I don't believe that that is an accurate assertion. I've talked with several timeshare resellers and what I've been told is that Starwood is vacuuming up everything including island view units at Kaanapali. When I last checked about 3 months ago, I was told that Starwood was exercising ROFR on island view units in the North up to about 13K.

When I was at WKORVN in April, the sales machine there was going full blast. In looking through the records, Starwood sold 48 units in the South and 87 units in the North just in the month of August. That tells me that the reports I've been hearing are probably accurate.

I will point out that I agree with the other posters here that you should rescind and buy resale. Because WKORV is a mandatory resort, you lose relatively little by buying resale instead of developer. However, you won't be able to buy any kind of 2BR unit there for $1 or anything close to that. You should probably expect to pay $10K or more for an island view if you want the purchase to pass ROFR. Still, that's a big savings over the 50K you paid for the developer week.

Jerome - I hope you are right - but it defies common sense. It seems crazy to me that Starwood would buy IV deeds. It's even crazier to imagine that they are selling them at full sticker in this economy!

 

[pathways25]

Jerome - I hope you are right - but it defies common sense. It seems crazy to me that Starwood would buy IV deeds. It's even crazier to imagine that they are selling them at full sticker in this economy!

I think it makes a lot of sense for Starwood. The IV units are the "cheapest" ones there for their retail buyers who don't want to shell out for even more costly OV and OF units so I'd bet that they sell a lot of IV units. The margin between 50K and 13K leaves a lot of room for profit even after you factor in the sales cost.

Based on what I've been told, the units that move the slowest are the IV deluxe units in the South and the event weeks. My guess is that the volume of event weeks coming up for resale is low enough that they still buy them all back when they're under a certain price threshold. I think they probably don't buy back all of the IV deluxe units that change hands.

 

[PamMo]

... I think they probably don't buy back all of the IV deluxe units that change hands.

Those are tough units to sell these days... eBay has one with a BuyItNow price of $6,000 EOY.

 

[DeniseM]

I understand Starwood's profit motive, but I CANNOT understanding anyone paying full sticker for an IV in this economy!

 

[vacationtime1]

I understand Starwood's profit motive, but I CANNOT understanding anyone paying full sticker for an IV in this economy!

You wouldn't buy it and I wouldn't buy it, but OP -- and many others -- did (at least we all convinced OP to rescind).

I think pathways25 got it exactly right in post #22; Starwood needs inventory to sell at every price point so no uninformed buyer gets away based on price.

Everyone active on this Starwood board understands that a Kierland 2 bedroom platinum resale (approx. $15,000 + $1,289 MF + SVN) has almost the identical ability to reserve a WKORVN-IV unit that a developer purchaser ($49,900 + approx. $2,500 MF + SVN) has. Fortunately for Starwood, 99% of those taking the sales tour don't know that.