Westin Nanea/Ka'anapali Villa - Renting

[red_rosebuds]

My husband and I own a 1 bedroom villa (EOY) at Westin Nanea. We're considering upgrading to a 2 bedroom lockoff (every year) in Westin Kaanapoli so that we could rent the studio portion from time to time. Sales office assures us renting is easy and can be a good way to offset some of the VOA costs. However I'd love to hear from all you veteran villa owners. Is renting really as easy as they make it sound? How quickly do you usually get your villa property rented? Do you suggest hiring a mgmt service to manage the process or doing it yourself? Any other advice?

 

[vacationtime1]

This sounds like a terrible deal. Most developer deals cost a multiple of what the same unit is worth on the secondary market. If you would share the salesperson's detailed proposal, we could comment further.

But a basic question: what would you be buying ? There are no 1 bedroom lockoffs at Westin Ka'anapali (there are 2bd lockoffs and one bedroom units). If it's points -- such as Westin Flex points -- again, stay away. Whether these points have any value on the secondary market is questionable, but even if they do, it would be only a small fraction of what you will pay.

Renting? It usually works although it requires some work in order to work. Do you want extra work? Yes, there are people who will rent it for you. They are not free, further reducing your "profit" (and it's not really a profit given the capital cost). But everything everyone will tell you about renting is out of date given Covid-19 travel restrictions and a tanking economy.

This really sounds like a salesperson trying to sell you something, anything.

Before you buy something, anything, check out WKORV, WKORVN, and Nanea prices on the secondary market; look at the TUG Marketplace https://tug2.com/timeshare-classifieds/default.aspx and www.Redweek.com.

 

[red_rosebuds]

This sounds like a terrible deal. Most developer deals cost a multiple of what the same unit is worth on the secondary market. If you would share the salesperson's detailed proposal, we could comment further.

But a basic question: what would you be buying ? There are no 1 bedroom lockoffs at Westin Ka'anapali (there are 2bd lockoffs and one bedroom units). If it's points -- such as Westin Flex points -- again, stay away. Whether these points have any value on the secondary market is questionable, but even if they do, it would be only a small fraction of what you will pay.

Renting? It usually works although it requires some work in order to work. Do you want extra work? Yes, there are people who will rent it for you. They are not free, further reducing your "profit" (and it's not really a profit given the capital cost). But everything everyone will tell you about renting is out of date given Covid-19 travel restrictions and a tanking economy.

This really sounds like a salesperson trying to sell you something, anything.

Before you buy something, anything, check out WKORV, WKORVN, and Nanea prices on the secondary market; look at the TUG Marketplace https://tug2.com/timeshare-classifieds/default.aspx and www.Redweek.com.

Sorry, great catch. I made a mistake when I wrote this up. I've corrected my original post. We're considering upgrading from 1 bedroom EOY to 2 bedroom lockoff EY.

 

[jabberwocky]

How much would the “upgrade” cost you? I’m sure you could buy the same thing on the resale market for much less and then rent that. I’m generally sceptical of buying any timeshare just to rent - even more so if it was a developer purchase. I’d it is such a lucrative option why don’t they just rent it out themselves?

Is there a reason why you don’t like what you have with Nanea? Is it not working for you?

 

[red_rosebuds]

It would cost about 18K to upgrade from 10 night 1 bedroom EOY at Nanea to 1 week 2 bedroom lockoff EY at Ka'anapali with some developer bonus offered. We are thinking about the upgrade because we feel the booking would be easier if we own EY instead of EOY. Currently we are using options for one year and marriot points for the other year. Booking using points has become a bit more challenging these days because we are trying to book the non-peak rate especially after Marriot adjusted their resort tier (thus depreciated the points).

The idea of renting out the smaller unit of a lockoff to offset the (high) HOA sounds appealing but we have no idea about the difficulty of renting out a studio at Ka'anapali.

Buying resale is new to us. It definitely sounds cheaper. One minor downside is that if we buy a new resale for example 1 week 2 bedroom lockoff EOY at Ka'anapali , we will need to manage both Nanea and the new one while booking Ka'anapali. If we do the upgrade with the developer, the upgrade will result in just one VOI. Lastly, developer mentions some recent changes in giving vistana owner higher priority when booking within vistana network. We are not sure about the effect of that.

 

[jabberwocky]

Just so I am clear - is this an Oceanfront unit that they are offering or is it 148,000 flex points (which will not be oceanfront and would not rent for as much).

If you are wanting to go on an annual basis you could just buy and EOY Oceanfront 2BR at the north phase for around $12000 and keep what you have at Nanea. You could lock-off into two halves and rent the studio, or book back-to-back weeks and get two weeks out of it.

 

[red_rosebuds]

Both our current 10 night 1 bedroom EOY at Nanea and the new 1 week 2 bedroom lockoff EY at Ka'anapali (SOUTH) are island view. We skip the Flex program because it's more expensive and has higher HOA.

For some reason, for the same type of unit, NORTH has higher HOA than SOUTH which is unfortunately because we like NORTH more.

 

[dlpearson]

Island View is much harder to rent than oceanview (and oceanview is harder to rent out than oceanfront). Just my opinion--I wouldn't do it.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

IV on the South can face the parking lot or the road. Not worth it for $18k because you can buy an IV north resale for $5k - 7k annual if you shop around and keep your Nanea (or sell for $4 - 6k). (Net $2 - 4k vs. $18k) IV units on the North property don't face parking lots.

If you prefer the HOA fees in the South, then buy a resale OV 2bdrm unit which will run around $15k for an annual. Rather than an annual, consider an OV EOY for $7 - 9k and save yourself the time and hassle of renting because you can save the MF of $2500 EOY. Lock off one side and you have an annual (with IV during the off year).

 

[Bill4728]

Nanea is a beautiful resort and that is what you own BUT buying any more there is a mistake. Both WKORV and WKORV-N are mandatory resorts and ocean view units can be bought on the resale market for less than the "upgrade" costs. Renting a ocean view unit will be lots easier than renting an Island view unit.
Also If sometime later, you want to sell you'll get most of your money back.

 

[Robert D]

I don't own any timeshares in Hawaii and have never rented any there but I have a friend who has rented there and he said that Hawaii now requires some sort of license to rent your units, and this might not be worth it for one or two units. My experience is if you use a rental agent, it will be difficult to make much from the rental after deducting their fee.

 

[vacationtime1]

Try this: buy a one bedroom premium Kierland unit (platinum+ season). It is a mandatory property and comes with 81000 StarOptions -- enough to reserve a one bedroom unit at WKORVN at the eight month mark. There are few really bad views at WKORVN (unlike WKORV and Nanea); your worst case is an island view unit and you may get lucky from time to time. Cost: about $8,000; annual maintenance fee: $1,010.

Decide whether to keep or sell your Nanea HomeOptions separately.

 

[luv_maui]

It would cost about 18K to upgrade from 10 night 1 bedroom EOY at Nanea to 1 week 2 bedroom lockoff EY at Ka'anapali with some developer bonus offered. We are thinking about the upgrade because we feel the booking would be easier if we own EY instead of EOY. Currently we are using options for one year and marriot points for the other year. Booking using points has become a bit more challenging these days because we are trying to book the non-peak rate especially after Marriot adjusted their resort tier (thus depreciated the points).

The idea of renting out the smaller unit of a lockoff to offset the (high) HOA sounds appealing but we have no idea about the difficulty of renting out a studio at Ka'anapali.

Buying resale is new to us. It definitely sounds cheaper. One minor downside is that if we buy a new resale for example 1 week 2 bedroom lockoff EOY at Ka'anapali , we will need to manage both Nanea and the new one while booking Ka'anapali. If we do the upgrade with the developer, the upgrade will result in just one VOI. Lastly, developer mentions some recent changes in giving vistana owner higher priority when booking within vistana network. We are not sure about the effect of that.

Really, $18,000 to upgrade? You could buy a Westin South (WKORV) 2br EY OV for less than that And without giving up your Nanea unit. We are expecting Vistana to complete the final transfer within 4 weeks and we only paid $15,400 (excludes closing) and I think the price has come down since we signed documents to purchase during this pandemic.