SVV Bella/Key West just for SO

[dave1979]

Hi everyone,
I live on the west coast and I am looking at my first time share purchase. I would like to vacation the last week of January every year.
I was zooming in on Vistana mandatory properties and the only ones I would actually stay at are the WKORV and WKORVN.
Given their high acquisition cost ($15k for OV), I started looking at SVV Bella/Key West. I found some 2bd 81,000 SO for ~$3k and ~$1300 MF.
Any advice on buying two of them, save $8k vs WKORV and exchange them on VSN every year for properties in Hawaii, Virgin Islands and Mexico?
My travels are very predictable and I can book 8 months out no problem. Using that strategy, I could actually afford a OF every other year.
I am worried about VSN inventory and getting stuck with a timeshare I do not actually stay at. I am also not sure about Sheraton management vs Westin.
Your feedback is deeply appreciated.

 

[buzglyd]

I own 1 Bella and do exactly that. However, You might want to get a 148,000 point Westin Kierland and save yourself some maintenance fee cash.

 

[dave1979]

I own 1 Bella and do exactly that. However, You might want to get a 148,000 point Westin Kierland and save yourself some maintenance fee cash.

I started looking at it as well, they go for about $15k. That gives a break even point at ~6 years.
Any other consideration when buying Kierland vs SVV?

 

[EnglishmanAbroad]

Hi everyone,
I live on the west coast and I am looking at my first time share purchase. I would like to vacation the last week of January every year.
I was zooming in on Vistana mandatory properties and the only ones I would actually stay at are the WKORV and WKORVN.
Given their high acquisition cost ($15k for OV), I started looking at SVV Bella/Key West. I found some 2bd 81,000 SO for ~$3k and ~$1300 MF.
Any advice on buying two of them, save $8k vs WKORV and exchange them on VSN every year for properties in Hawaii, Virgin Islands and Mexico?
My travels are very predictable and I can book 8 months out no problem. Using that strategy, I could actually afford a OF every other year.
I am worried about VSN inventory and getting stuck with a timeshare I do not actually stay at. I am also not sure about Sheraton management vs Westin.
Your feedback is deeply appreciated.

You probably won't find OF Maui at 8 months apart from the occasional Studio. Even owners are reporting problems reserving OF at 12 months.

 

[DavidnRobin]

I started looking at it as well, they go for about $15k. That gives a break even point at ~6 years.
Any other consideration when buying Kierland vs SVV?

Yes.
Location. Location. Location.

You live on West Coast and therefore can easily get to Kierland if anything ever goes awry with your Ownership or Vistana/MVC future.
Using the age-old TUG adage "Buy where you want to go" - if you want Maui, buy Maui. That way you get availability at 12 months and better villa locations. Cost is about same as Kierland and higher MFs than Kierland, but consider ease of use (not competing with others in VSN and Abound) and location.

Kierland is a great resort on its own, and its rentability in Plat+ season has been great. Maui's ability to rent is also good. We rent our OF studio side (and use the 1Bd side), and that helps to cover the high MFs.

We have owned two 1Bd Plat+ (81K SO) since 2007/08 - best weeks we have owned value-wise. Stayed there 3 times, exchanged for a 1Bd at WKORV 4 times (twice getting upgraded to OF), and the rest of weeks have easily rented for more than MFs to the point that have paid for themselves. We paid ~$10K for each originally, but it was pre-2009/10 recession. I think they are worth about $8K on resale market.

And, for us since we owned pre-Aug 2022, they were bought into Abound at an excellent value ($0.44/CP). Unfortunately, at this point in time, Abound is not available unless potentially requalified with a Developer purchase.

 

[dioxide45]

Break even might be moot. Realize that a high end Vistana resale really won't lose a lot of value over time. I suspect the WKORV, WKORVN and WKV will resell later for the same as what you pay for them today. Of course, Abound might have an impact on resale prices, btu they all rent well and high rental over MF is what keep the resale prices up at these three resorts. So if you have the cash, just go for WKV.

 

[dave1979]

You probably won't find OF Maui at 8 months apart from the occasional Studio. Even owners are reporting problems reserving OF at 12 months.

Thanks for the heads up, what about 2bd OV in Maui/Kauai at 8 months?

 

[echino]

Thanks for the heads up, what about 2bd OV in Maui/Kauai at 8 months?

Kauai easy.

Maui difficult during high season.

 

[pchung6]

You might occasionally get 1 br OV Maui if you are lucky and most likely it will be off season. Most of time, you will get 1 br or studio IV when Maui is available. I have no regret owning SVV, as it is one of the best for the money. If you want go to Maui every year, you should buy Maui OF. The money you pay now, you will get all the money back when you sell. You also don’t need to worry about potential rules changed by Marriott. Westin Ka’anapali is the most prestigious timeshare you can buy.

 

[teddyo333]

We own WKV, WKORV-OV & SVV Bella/Key West. I agree with other tuggers that you should purchase where you want to go. We go to Maui twice a year and use SO from SVV-Bella to go off season (Late April or May). We use WKORV-OV Premium 1Bd & SVV-Key West (8 Months out for studio OV or IV for our Adult Children) for summer trip. We've been doing this for some time and have never had an issue getting what we want.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I have been fortunate to get exchanges through II for even whale season, and January has been pretty easy to get. But things could change with the Marriott takeover.

Buy Maui, if that is what you want. We bought south and OF for the views, and those are expensive on the resale market, but it's very rentable, as others have said, so the years we do not use our weeks ourselves, and next year may be our first time not using our owned weeks, I know I can rent what we own.

 

[tstiv1996]

I own SVV, and use almost exclusively in maui. but its just my wife and I, and I only seek 1 br premium. Never have had a problem for that at 8 months regardless of season. 2 br will be more tough, but not impossible. if you want to save the money, give it a go. if you want the sure thing, buy in maui.

I think your purchase depends on your personal priorities. Up front cost, Annual MF, or Worst case Scenario... Sale price was what I wanted to keep low. SVV great for this, low cost entry, nice return. if annual MF is what youre zoned in on, Kierland would best suit you. if Worst Case Scenario concerns you most, Abound and Vistana inventory policy/planning changes and you cant get anything at 8 months, owning at WKORV is way to go. Kierland leverages worst case as well, like others mentioned, much easier to rent out and get MF back in a given year.

Thats how I evaluated my decision, for better or worse, hope that helps!

 

[vacationtime1]

I own SVV, and use almost exclusively in maui. but its just my wife and I, and I only seek 1 br premium. Never have had a problem for that at 8 months regardless of season. 2 br will be more tough, but not impossible. if you want to save the money, give it a go. if you want the sure thing, buy in maui.

I think your purchase depends on your personal priorities. Up front cost, Annual MF, or Worst case Scenario... Sale price was what I wanted to keep low. SVV great for this, low cost entry, nice return. if annual MF is what youre zoned in on, Kierland would best suit you. if Worst Case Scenario concerns you most, Abound and Vistana inventory policy/planning changes and you cant get anything at 8 months, owning at WKORV is way to go. Kierland leverages worst case as well, like others mentioned, much easier to rent out and get MF back in a given year.

Thats how I evaluated my decision, for better or worse, hope that helps!

This is good advice. No one knows the impact of the Abound program on the availability of future StarOption reservations. It's a matter of your risk tolerance.

 

[dave1979]

And one more question, I have seen various comments about not being able to merge accounts.
Since I will need more than one SVV week to reach 148,100 SO, what happens if I purchase separately two 2-bd with 81k SO each?
Can I merge them and book something on VSN for ~160k SO?

 

[byeloe]

And one more question, I have seen various comments about not being able to merge accounts.
Since I will need more than one SVV week to reach 148,100 SO, what happens if I purchase separately two 2-bd with 81k SO each?
Can I merge them and book something on VSN for ~160k SO?

Do you already have a Vistana account?
You need to make sure that all your personal info matches exactly, right down to the punctuation.
If not then, they may put the units in separate accounts and you would have to wait for them to merge, which could take awhile.

 

[dave1979]

Do you already have a Vistana account?
You need to make sure that all your personal info matches exactly, right down to the punctuation.
If not then, they may put the units in separate accounts and you would have to wait for them to merge, which could take awhile.

I don't this would be my first purchase closely followed by a second one.

 

[dioxide45]

I don't this would be my first purchase closely followed by a second one.

Then make sure your second matches exactly to the first. Including the order of the names on the deed, the names including middle initial/name. Also the addresses much match, including the possibility of the county name of where you live being included. There have been reports from one person recently indicating they have been able to merge accounts.

 

[echino]

Vistana is not merging account currently. Here's a written response from Vistana 6 days ago:

We are currently not supporting to add any new ownerships into an existing online account so you can transact with the new StarOptions. We anticipate supporting this process again in the future, I apologize for the inconvenience.

 

[dioxide45]

Vistana is not merging account currently. Here's a written response from Vistana 6 days ago:

We are currently not supporting to add any new ownerships into an existing online account so you can transact with the new StarOptions. We anticipate supporting this process again in the future, I apologize for the inconvenience.

I based my comment off this post by @CaliJoe

Vistana and Marriott are a disaster and this email proves that it's a disaster. Over 7 months for Westin Ka'anapali transfer + other resales

Good morning, Thank you for your email. Please note that as of 07/01/2022 accounts for the ownerships are no longer linked automatically as we are continuing to align Vistana processes with that of Marriott. Please also note that even if the automatic process was still in process, the...

tugbbs.com

 

[CaliJoe]

On the issue of merging accounts, my most recent purchase was transferred end of Dec. I got an email from Vistana confirming title transfer and I asked them to merge accounts. Also called in to be doubly sure. Both confirmed that they had put in a request and after about a week or so the timeshare was visible in Vistana's dashboard. I always make sure that the Vistana External Transfer Form that's used to record the sale with Vistana has my (the Buyers) account #. So it's not been an issue for me yet. Things may be different right now since timeshare sales surge Nov-Feb every year. I have a few more purchases in the works right now and hope this isnt a problem.