Retro decision

[Ckhawaii]

Hi Guys!
So after six months my 1-bedroom platinum Lagunamar week is finally in my name, and I can bring it in the system. This is my third retro process now, I've brought in three 2bdroms over the last three years over two small purchases (I got lucky during summer 2020 and grabbed a 67,100 for like 17k to bring in two weeks).

I have been going back and forth today about what to buy to bring my one bedroom in. I'm trying to decide whether to buy a 44,000 Aventuras Odd year for $11,594 plus 895 closing or spend a little more for 37,000 annual for $15,318 plus 895 closing. Is the extra few thousand worth the options?? I would be about getting a extra 500 club points a year. If I annualized the odd year package, it turns into 732 points and the 37,000 turns into 1232 points. The bonus is 44,000 options or 74,000. The home resort is worthless to me. I rarely book Mexico far in advance and plan on turning all of my lagunamar and aventuras weeks and either using them in the VSN system less then 8 months or flipping them into club points.

Any advice would be fantastic!

 

[dioxide45]

Do you own any EOY ownerships right now? If not, annual will keep things cleaner as everything would be annual. You could even bring in a second retro week with the 37K annual, but who knows if the offer will for sure still be there by the time you could get another week into your name.

 

[cindyc]

@Ckhawaii --I had sent you a PM on May 16. Just wondering if you saw it?

 

[jabberwocky]

How big are your other Aventuras packages? You mention a 67,100 purchased for $17k (@dioxide45 this would be consistent with an EOY purchase). I'm assuming both fit in your budget and the extra annual MF isn't an issue.

If your other package is also small I'd maybe try negotiating with them to buy back the smaller ones in exchange for a single larger contract. If they don't go for that, I'd probably do the odd year (assuming your other contract is an odd year as well) - this lets you combine both packages for a potentially longer/larger unit reservation.

I guess the only other consideration would be your owner benefit level and whether that would benefit from the extra 500 points. I suspect you'll be at the Chairman level based on what you've described.

Lagunamar really seems to push these low-point value packages. Personally, I think a smaller package is harder to get rid of as it doesn't have as much value if a future buyer were to want to retro it in the future. I certainly wouldn't buy anything less than 67,100 and would go with an EOY rather than EY.

 

[Ckhawaii]

@jabberwocky they actually gave me a upgrade option first, i just totally forgot about it!! I appreciate the reminder because that's actually the best deal. I'm taking my 44 odd into 54 annual ownership Aventuras, I get a 10% discount and it will be $12,654 plus 1145 closing cost. They offered to bring it to a 67,100 annual, but my wife will kill me if I spend any more money on timeshare. It completely cleans up my portfolio. Just signed the proposal and sending the money in. So this is what I will have.

148,100 Lagunamar
148,100 Lagunamar
148,100 Lagunamar
81,000 Lagunamar
54,000 Aventuras
67,100 Aventuras

This brings me over 20,000 club points all in.

The 67,100 options is a annual package. I was in Cabo in June of 2020 and my family and one other might of been the only people in the resort. They gave me 67,100 options with a 35% discount if I paid cash and I also applied a explorer package I had for Nanea. It might of been more then 17k but definitely under 20k, and I brought in the 2 Lagunamar weeks. Perfect storm i guess. Im not to concerned with the resale value of my ownership. I have zero plans to ever sell it and my kids will probably fight over it. My dream is to one day spend 1-2 months in Hawaii and now this is 100% attainable. The Lagunamar weeks have actually gotten a lot harder to find on the secondary market.

Thanks for the advice guys, I think doing the 37 annual and having a 44 odd would of just been a pain over time. I book Cancun and Hawaii less then 8 months out, and the rest is going to club points. I love the Cabo resort, but I'm titanium with Marriott now and have a bunch of Bonvoy points so now that Solaz has reopened, we are going there and will get the awesome free breakfast they have. I like the studios and 1 bedroom in Baja Point a lot, but only my wife and I go to Cabo so we will just do Solaz or Waldorf Pedregal (Hilton Diamond as well).

 

[Ckhawaii]

@Ckhawaii --I had sent you a PM on May 16. Just wondering if you saw it?

So Sorry! Just replied!

 

[skolvikes65]

I’m looking at a resale to use in the abound network and also vsn.
So if it’s voluntary then for it to get vsn options and abound it needs to be brought in?
If it’s a mandatory it can get options but not abound?

I’m looking at a few different options. Lagunamar or one of the mandatory Orlando phases. And if I buy club points resale, zero conversion to staroptions, correct ?
If I go with a voluntary and want to bring it in do you need to physically be in sales center? I despise going to those updates but my wife always makes friends with the concierge and there goes two hours of my vacation.

 

[jabberwocky]

@jabberwocky they actually gave me a upgrade option first, i just totally forgot about it!! I appreciate the reminder because that's actually the best deal. I'm taking my 44 odd into 54 annual ownership Aventuras, I get a 10% discount and it will be $12,654 plus 1145 closing cost. They offered to bring it to a 67,100 annual, but my wife will kill me if I spend any more money on timeshare. It completely cleans up my portfolio. Just signed the proposal and sending the money in. So this is what I will have.

148,100 Lagunamar
148,100 Lagunamar
148,100 Lagunamar
81,000 Lagunamar
54,000 Aventuras
67,100 Aventuras

This brings me over 20,000 club points all in.

The 67,100 options is a annual package. I was in Cabo in June of 2020 and my family and one other might of been the only people in the resort. They gave me 67,100 options with a 35% discount if I paid cash and I also applied a explorer package I had for Nanea. It might of been more then 17k but definitely under 20k, and I brought in the 2 Lagunamar weeks. Perfect storm i guess. Im not to concerned with the resale value of my ownership. I have zero plans to ever sell it and my kids will probably fight over it. My dream is to one day spend 1-2 months in Hawaii and now this is 100% attainable. The Lagunamar weeks have actually gotten a lot harder to find on the secondary market.

Thanks for the advice guys, I think doing the 37 annual and having a 44 odd would of just been a pain over time. I book Cancun and Hawaii less then 8 months out, and the rest is going to club points. I love the Cabo resort, but I'm titanium with Marriott now and have a bunch of Bonvoy points so now that Solaz has reopened, we are going there and will get the awesome free breakfast they have. I like the studios and 1 bedroom in Baja Point a lot, but only my wife and I go to Cabo so we will just do Solaz or Waldorf Pedregal (Hilton Diamond as well).

Glad to hear you’ve been able to work it out. I think you got a decent deal and trust this will help you enjoy many future vacations!

 

[jabberwocky]

I’m looking at a resale to use in the abound network and also vsn.
So if it’s voluntary then for it to get vsn options and abound it needs to be brought in?
If it’s a mandatory it can get options but not abound?

I’m looking at a few different options. Lagunamar or one of the mandatory Orlando phases. And if I buy club points resale, zero conversion to staroptions, correct ?
If I go with a voluntary and want to bring it in do you need to physically be in sales center? I despise going to those updates but my wife always makes friends with the concierge and there goes two hours of my vacation.

If it is voluntary then it would need to be retroed with an additional purchase to get any sort of club access (in this case both SO and Abound).

Mandatory you would just get SO but would likely need to pay an additional club fee if it is not brought in.

You can purchase over the phone and retro. We did that with our purchase in 2019. Saved us from having to waste time on vacation. We did have to arrange for a visit with a local notary to sign - but it was a simple process overall.

Lagunamar if bought cheaply enough seems to be the sweet spot for doing a retro. Lots of SO and Abound points, relatively low MF and the resale purchase price seems reasonable since you’re not having to pay for the mandatory premium as in Maui or Kierland.

 

[pacman777]

If it is voluntary then it would need to be retroed with an additional purchase to get any sort of club access (in this case both SO and Abound).

Mandatory you would just get SO but would likely need to pay an additional club fee if it is not brought in.

You can purchase over the phone and retro. We did that with our purchase in 2019. Saved us from having to waste time on vacation. We did have to arrange for a visit with a local notary to sign - but it was a simple process overall.

Lagunamar if bought cheaply enough seems to be the sweet spot for doing a retro. Lots of SO and Abound points, relatively low MF and the resale purchase price seems reasonable since you’re not having to pay for the mandatory premium as in Maui or Kierland.

Do you mean Adventuras? I thought Visatsna wasn’t selling actual WLR RTUs anymore.

 

[jabberwocky]

Do you mean Adventuras? I thought Visatsna wasn’t selling actual WLR RTUs anymore.

Sorry, I wasn’t clear. You can retro in both voluntary and mandatory units with an Aventuras purchase. WLR resale RTU are not being sold. They only do Aventuras sales which you would then use to retro in a unit.

If I were to buy a unit to bring into the system now for future retro purposes it probably would be a Plat+ WLR 2BR, the true plats at SDO are also compelling for SO purposes, but hard to find.

 

[Ckhawaii]

Aventuras is actually held in the same type of land trust as Westin Flex and Sheraton Flex. The real estate is not held in Mexico, it’s in some random county in Florida.
A Mexican RTU usually is a certain time frame, 10, 25, 50 years etc… where you don’t really own anything. That’s why a lot of Mexican timeshares give you the ability to use 10 years of your contract in one year, you essentially own nothing… a right to use the property. This gives Mexican timeshares the ability to keep selling forever.
Aventuras or Lagunamar is not that. In the formers case you own x amount of an undivided interest in a land trust. I work and have my primary residence right now in Guadalajara, if anyone has questions on how Mexican real estate works please ask away (yes Americans can own property outright in the beach in Mexico).

 

[dioxide45]

Aventuras is actually held in the same type of land trust as Westin Flex and Sheraton Flex. The real estate is not held in Mexico, it’s in some random county in Florida.

I don't think that is the case. The Florida land trusts for Westin & Sheraton Flex are recorded in Orange County Florida, but US land trusts can't hold foreign real estate. I suspect Westin Aventuras is setup much the same as Westin Lagunamar. I beleive it is some type of corporate setup where you buy shares in the corporation. It is just the slices being sold off with Aventuras are points instead of weeks.