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Tough Market to Sell- Trade Offer- What do you think?

Westin5Star

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I just came accross a [Starwood timeshare that I'd like to own]. I just sent a message to the owner to see if they would have interest in a trade. I was considering trading [another STARWOOD TS] (as I bought from Starwood) for their unit. I would obviously not ever use the SO as I would plan to use this unit every year. Would I be getting a good deal if this owner would trade with me (permanently, not just for a year)?

BTW, I most likely would have to wait 4 months to complete the transaction or ask for a buyout of my listing agreement. I did a 6 month listing agreement (about 2 months ago) to sell my [other] week with a very good TS sales person that is also a TUGGER. With the tough economy, I haven't received any offers yet and it is starting to look like it will be very difficult to sell for even a decent price.

*I hope that this post in no way violates TUG rules. I am just looking for some advice here and I am in no way trying to promote any units that I own!

[I know your intentions are honerable, but listing specifics of a desired purchase or exchange, isn't allowed in the forums.-DeniseM Modertor]
 
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SDKath

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I think it is a fair trade price-wise. Just remember you will be getting their SOs but they will not be getting yours since [your resort] is not M. They may have a problem with that. Also, most people right now are selling to get the $$. So they may not want a trade to another high MF location. But keep us posted because I know those units are hard to come by (with the pool) and I would love to hear if they accept.

Will you still be 5* without the 148,100 SOs? Check with Starwood if there is any doubt because the new SO requirement is 649,000 and if you make changes to your account or dip below that, they may make you have that requirement too! Katherine
 
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jerseygirl

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I know this isn't what you're asking, but have you called the sales office? The ebay price is unrealistic ... you can get very close to the same price directly from Starwood, when they become available (foreclosures, people who trade their pre-SVN fractional units for SVN memberships). I'm skeptical of the original price quoted in the ad ($65000) -- that sounds right for a platinum week, but not for a summer week.
 

tomandrobin

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The $65,000 price is for a Bay Vista unit.

I would guess that your 5* status may be compromised and should be looked into with your Starwood rep.

You can buy a 3 bedroom pool vill for $20-$30k resale, depending on your week and timeframe.
 

Westin5Star

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Update

Thank you all for your thoughts. I did hear back from the seller today and they are indeed selling because they need the money. I also verified [what section the unit is in.] [Specific Info. deleted.]

I have considered the possibility of losing my Elite Status. My paperwork says 559k SO and I have heard or read about this being grandfathered in. I currently have 740,500 SO so getting rid of [one resort] will take me down to 592,400. With the combination of these two facts, I should have solid legal ground for maintaining 5* status.

If Starwood did try to mess with me on this, I would simply hire a bunch of picketers for minimum wage (I would make sure that they all had a hat) and place them outside Starwood's best sales offices. 2 picketers * 3 sales offices * 8 hours a day * $8 per hour = less than $400 per day. That would only cost me $36k over 3 months or $144k per year and it would be fun to see. It would also help the ecomony by putting some people back to work; I might even be able to find some people from San Bernardino or the Bahamas that are looking for work.
 
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LisaRex

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I love your plan. However, good luck finding an SVO sales office to picket. There's not a whole lot left to sell.
 

jerseygirl

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Westin5Star

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This is the ad I was referring to. The seller did reiterate in his email to me that he paid $65k for the unit from Starwood. He seemed like a very honest person. I guess that he could have been mistaken but he seemed as if he knew what he was talking about.
 

jerseygirl

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Maybe it's true ... I don't think they were selling Bay Vista in 2004 and perhaps the 3-BR pool villas were discounted last year just to get them off the books (clearly their focus is on selling Bay Vista). They were getting them in ... and then turning them around in a day or two. I committed on day one, but didn't close until day two because of a scheduling conflict. At the closing, I asked to see the inventory list again just in case I wanted to change my mind on a particular week, and just about every pool villa available the day before was gone.

What seemed obvious to me was that the pricing, from a "Season/SO Value" perspective was more in line with Bay Vista seasons on the few Phase 1 units they had available.

Virgin Grand (Phase 1)

Platinum Plus 1-15, 51-52 196,900 SOs
Platinum 16-20, 43-50 125,000 SOs
Gold Plus 21-42 104,100 SOs

Bay Vista (Phase 2)

Platinum Plus 1-18, 51-52 196,900 SOs
Platinum 19-33 125,000 SOs
Gold Plus 34-50 104,000 SOs

I could have paid the same (or maybe even less -- I don't have the price sheet handy) for a week 20 "Platinum" 3-BR pool villa worth 125K SOs than I paid for my week 21 "Gold Plus" worth only 104,000 SOs. But, week 20 is our Harborside week -- and even though May availability wiith SOs has been good at Harborside recently, I didn't want to be forced to trade one or the other sometime in the future when the economy rebounds and people start traveling again.

Since WSJ is not one of the resorts where prices seem to be based on SO Value (WKV, SVV), I suspect you'll see equalization between resale prices based on the Bay Vista seasons. In other words, summer is summer. Bay Vista has the added flexibility of pure float weeks; Phase One has the Pool Villas and great little pools/BBQ areas within steps of the Hillside values. Pick you poison! I only bought an EOY (all they had available at the time, and feeling relief now thanks to the market-related crash of my net worth!). If I do decide to pick up the 2nd EOY, I think I'm going to forego the pool :)bawl:) and go for the flexibility of a float week for the second one (thanks TomnRobin for helping me see the light on the benefits!). Then, Ill have the best of both worlds ... I hope (the flexibility of a float is needed because my dd intends to become a teacher, and I want to make sure she can come at least EOY).

Boy -- this was a very long winded post just to say that it could be possible that SVO was originally selling a summer week for $65K! It seems too high to me ... but I certainly don't have the facts to dispute the owner's claim. And, I do remember that one mid-late summer week was priced WAY HIGHER than the others ... perhaps it was this one and it corresponds to some big event or something??? A Texas resort we loved used to jack the prices up in a crazy way the week before school started ....that was a hugely popular vacation week in Texas .... maybe something like that???
 

SDKath

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You can try calling one of the friendly sales folks at Starwood, giving them the unit number and week and asking pretty please for the original sales price. Most of the time, they say ok. Mention your platinum status. :)

Katherine
 
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