Thinking of buying . . .

[jmeninga]

We are looking to purchase a Marriott timeshare, and are wondering if there are any recommended realtors that handle these?

Also--in reference to bronze weeks--how well do they really trade within the Marriott system? We are retired and would not be wanting to use them in summer or Christmas. Thanks for any input. John Meninga

 

[pwrshift]

John...I think we'd need a little more info on what you want to do with your timeshare. Personally, stay away from anything but a platinum week in most cases as they offer you the best weeks for your own use and for trading power - such as bonus weeks. Lockoff suites are in the minority, but for retired couples are the greatest as you can take one 2 bdrm suite, split it into two parts for $75 and the two weeks in it or two traders. Nice.

Brian

 

[Dave M]

The "recommended” resale site is where you get the best deal. Keep in mind that most sellers significantly overprice their week.

To really get the lowest price on a specific timeshare, you should scour the Internet and make offers one at a time for the timeshare that most interests you. Expect to get laughed at, yelled at and ignored before a motivated buyer finally accepts an offer or makes a counter offer that allows you to negotiate a reasonable price.

For a list of some of the sites that TUGgers most frequently utilize, see the applicable sticky thread at the top of the list of topics for the Buying, Selling, Renting forum.

 

[Quilter]

I'd also recommend platinum, lock-of weeks. Just for example of how flexible they can be--in January we had 2 weeks in southeast Florida (Ocean Pointe), one in the efficiency, one in the master (1 bedroom) portion.

This month I'm in an efficiency (Ocean Pointe again), next week when my husband joins me we move to a 1 bedroom and for week 3 when our daughter joins us, we'll have a full 2 bedroom.

We traded the 1 bedroom portion for a full 2 bedroom in May on Hilton Head Island at Grande Ocean. We traded the efficiency for a full 2 bedroom the end of March in Myrtle Beach at Ocean Watch.

I can understand not wanting to leave Michigan in the summer when it's beautiful there, but today when it was in the 20's it was nice to land in Florida with 77 .

There's a very thorough list of places to look for a resale here:

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17673

Personally, we've used 3 brokers and would recommend them all. If you want a list of them you can contact me if you'd like.