What should we buy?

[ScoopKona]

I'm starting to think that this might be a better approach for us. Renting seem to cover Florida well. However, we would like to start vacationing elsewhere, and that's where we felt the resale timeshare would add value.

It adds very little value right now -- because you don't know enough about the various timeshare systems to know what works (and doesn't work) for you. Only about 1-in-5 families in the developed world will ever be happy with a timeshare. And only if they pick one which works for them.

Keep renting until you start to notice the differences. Don't take any sales presentations. But ask owners how they like their purchase.

The problem with asking here is that most people are going to answer with whatever timeshare they happen to own. Human nature. Doesn't mean it will work for you. Meanwhile, you can rent for years if you want. And it's often less expensive than owning. It's not like these resale weeks are going anywhere. The majority of timeshare owners are starting to age-out of timesharing. There's going to be a glut of weeks flooding the market.

 

[vidx3m]

It adds very little value right now -- because you don't know enough about the various timeshare systems to know what works (and doesn't work) for you. Only about 1-in-5 families in the developed world will ever be happy with a timeshare. And only if they pick one which works for them.

Keep renting until you start to notice the differences. Don't take any sales presentations. But ask owners how they like their purchase.

The problem with asking here is that most people are going to answer with whatever timeshare they happen to own. Human nature. Doesn't mean it will work for you. Meanwhile, you can rent for years if you want. And it's often less expensive than owning. It's not like these resale weeks are going anywhere. The majority of timeshare owners are starting to age-out of timesharing. There's going to be a glut of weeks flooding the market.

Thank you for this. Approach with caution is a good strategy. Do more research, learn more, rent and try, and then perhaps something will really stand out as a great fit over time. Thanks again for this suggestion.

 

[austdav]

Magic Tree is not Capitol resorts. Capitol leases some units from Magic Tree & handles some of the management process at this time. But Magic Tree in itself is its own timeshare along as you don't by from Capitol. Make sure you buy from Magic Tree.

 

[sponger76]

In the past when I've looked at Capital resorts, they seem to be lower quality stays. Not the same as HGVC properties. I appreciate this suggestion, I'll take a look again.

Definitely not the same level as HGVC. In general, the ones that are tend to license major hotel brand names, such as Marriott, Hyatt, Westin and Sheraton. There are some exceptions here and there of course, just as some of the "branded" resorts don't really live up to the names.

 

[geist1223]

When you are Renting make sure you are not Renting someone's RCI or II Booking.

 

[vidx3m]

When you are Renting make sure you are not Renting someone's RCI or II Booking.

Can you expand further on this

 

[ScoopKona]

Can you expand further on this

The exchange companies prohibit making an exchange and then renting it out. (It's bad for the timeshare developers if anyone could do this).

So if they catch it happening, they void it. It's a common scam as well -- companies claiming to have all the best weeks available and then the "renter" arrives with a bogus confirmation to no actual room. Same thing happens when renting dodgy "off-the-books" airBnBs and similar.

 

[vidx3m]

The exchange companies prohibit making an exchange and then renting it out. (It's bad for the timeshare developers if anyone could do this).

So if they catch it happening, they void it. It's a common scam as well -- companies claiming to have all the best weeks available and then the "renter" arrives with a bogus confirmation to no actual room. Same thing happens when renting dodgy "off-the-books" airBnBs and similar.

Oh, that's awful. This is good to know.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

The hassle and risk of renting is why we bought. Much easier to simply plan your trip.

We've saved thousands over hotel rooms and renting timeshares using our timeshares.

With that said, it would be good to rent for a while to learn about the different systems before committing.

OP asked why HGVC are higher cost resale. That's because those deeds have exit demand and good trading value/options. A free timeshare may be a problem to exit. So you may have costs to get out in addition to those to get in. So free is not really free. Whereas if there is some residual resale value you can give it away easily or earn a few capital dollars back upon resale.

 

[jbman]

Fellow Canadian here, fairly new to timesharing, but I would highly recommend purchasing a 2-Bedroom week at Marriott's Grand Chateau, you will be able to lock it off into a studio and a 1-BR so you would get two week long vacations each year (can upgrade both into 2-BR's). You can also start with an EOY week so your annual commitment is less and would give you one week a year (this is what we did).

You can buy one on EBay for $2,500 or less, maintenance fees for 2025 are $1,576.23, there is an $89 fee to lock off, if you stick to exchanges within Marriott/Vistana, it costs $164 to exchange each week, then it is $99 for each step up in room size, so to exchange the studio for a 2 BR is $198, and to exchange the 1-BR for a 2-BR is $99, plus a membership to Interval International is $99 a year (less if you prepay for multiple years, more if you upgrade to Platinum), add it all up and it will cost you about $2,400, or $1,200 per week. Add $89 per week for E-Plus if you want the ability to re-trade up to three times without paying another exchange fee. If you exchange into a resort other than Marriott/Vistana, it is $229 a week to exchange instead of the $164, and some resorts will have additional fees as well, eg Disney is an extra $190.

The Canadian HGVC/Embarc resorts, at least Blue Mountain and Tremblant, seem to have good availability in II, also check out Panorama, not sure how hard Whistler is to get.

You could rent a week in Orlando, but you could exchange into DVC. And sure you could rent in Cancun, but you could exchange into Aruba, or Atlantis. So many great places, our kids are 9 and 10 and we don't know how we are going to get to all the places we want to go with them before they're done high school.

https://www.marriottvacationclubs.com/s/experiences/destinations

Granted, we like to travel in the Spring and the Fall and have no qualms about taking our kids out of school for travel. So if you were interested in purchasing a Marriott trader, first thing I would do is pay for a membership here to get access to the Sightings board, search for resorts that you are interested in and see what availability has been reported for times you like to travel.

 

[vidx3m]

Fellow Canadian here, fairly new to timesharing, but I would highly recommend purchasing a 2-Bedroom week at Marriott's Grand Chateau, you will be able to lock it off into a studio and a 1-BR so you would get two week long vacations each year (can upgrade both into 2-BR's). You can also start with an EOY week so your annual commitment is less and would give you one week a year (this is what we did).

You can buy one on EBay for $2,500 or less, maintenance fees for 2025 are $1,576.23, there is an $89 fee to lock off, if you stick to exchanges within Marriott/Vistana, it costs $164 to exchange each week, then it is $99 for each step up in room size, so to exchange the studio for a 2 BR is $198, and to exchange the 1-BR for a 2-BR is $99, plus a membership to Interval International is $99 a year (less if you prepay for multiple years, more if you upgrade to Platinum), add it all up and it will cost you about $2,400, or $1,200 per week. Add $89 per week for E-Plus if you want the ability to re-trade up to three times without paying another exchange fee. If you exchange into a resort other than Marriott/Vistana, it is $229 a week to exchange instead of the $164, and some resorts will have additional fees as well, eg Disney is an extra $190.

The Canadian HGVC/Embarc resorts, at least Blue Mountain and Tremblant, seem to have good availability in II, also check out Panorama, not sure how hard Whistler is to get.

You could rent a week in Orlando, but you could exchange into DVC. And sure you could rent in Cancun, but you could exchange into Aruba, or Atlantis. So many great places, our kids are 9 and 10 and we don't know how we are going to get to all the places we want to go with them before they're done high school.

https://www.marriottvacationclubs.com/s/experiences/destinations

Granted, we like to travel in the Spring and the Fall and have no qualms about taking our kids out of school for travel. So if you were interested in purchasing a Marriott trader, first thing I would do is pay for a membership here to get access to the Sightings board, search for resorts that you are interested in and see what availability has been reported for times you like to travel.

This is very helpful, Marriott is definitely on the short list at the moment, you've offer some great insights here. I really appreciate it.

 

[geist1223]

Granted, we like to travel in the Spring and the Fall and have no qualms about taking our kids out of school for travel. So if you were interested in purchasing a Marriott trader, first thing I would do is pay for a membership here to get access to the Sightings board, search for resorts that you are interested in and see what availability has been reported for times you like to travel.

Good thing Canada does not Fine Parents for taking their kids out of School like England and Wales.

 

[vidx3m]

Good thing Canada does not Fine Parents for taking their kids out of School like England and Wales.

It's not ideal, but allowed and many parents do it simply because it is so expensive to travel during March break or Christmas holidays, while offseason vacations can sometimes be as much as 50% cheaper.

 

[geist1223]

We use to take our Kids out of school for trips once or twice a year. Too bad if the Administration did not like it.

 

[jbman]

My wife told me about the fines in England, lol, I can't believe it.

There's too much for us to do at Christmas to leave home and it is the start of ski season anyway. We wait all year for the nice weather so we're not going to leave during the summer. We could probably make March Break work, but yes it sure can be expensive and even if the kids lessons are over, ski season is still going.

You would never be able to convince me that an extra couple of weeks of school a year is going to be more beneficial than those travel opportunities.

 

[austdav]

It's not ideal, but allowed and many parents do it simply because it is so expensive to travel during March break or Christmas holidays, while offseason vacations can sometimes be as much as 50% cheaper.

Not always! Staying at magic tree Christmas & new years for $600 per week. My grandkids live near Orlando so we stay when they are out of school which are the very weeks you mention. I debated saying anything else because I felt your mind was mostly made up. But here I am sitting around the pool in key west with not much going on at the moment. By the way it's costing me a $600mf and a $250 exchange fee. $850 for a 2bd here. To give the kids some different places to stay I have exchanged to Sheraton a couple times and a week in Daytona over Christmas all for less than what they charge in mf's. We have stayed at all 4 of the Hilton resorts here also. I have previously owned Marriot, Hyatt, and am in the process of giving away my HGVC SeaWorld platinum unit which is taking Hilton months to process. So it's not that I don't know what these resorts offer & the quality that is associated with them. And while the fake waterfalls over the pool & the tall buildings are beautiful I don't find the rooms any better quality.
At Magic Tree they have a movie theater, fitness room, pool, jacuzzi, splash pad for kids, putt-putt, playground, gas grills, fire pits, shuffle board, lg checkers, board games dvd's, books, foosball, in gameroom with gaming units such as playstation with different games to sign out, coffee in the lobby. All FREE. to owners. There is a resort fee for those trading in.
My mf's on my 1bd HGVC were under $700 when I bought around 2005 they now are $1380 something. Magic Trees mf's were around $625 back 15-20 yrs ago, then they lowered them to $600 during COVID & are going back to $625 in 2025. Where do you think these will be in another 10yrs. I have always traded in II, my RCI account comes through Hilton & I can't trade magic tree through that account & it really doesn't pay to trade Hilton through them because the mf's and trading expenses make it not worth it. I will probably join RCI when my Hilton gets sold.
The point is you can stay at a gold crown 2bd resort for less than an avg hotel room. The gold crown rating is given by the trading company not them. With all that said I don't know if there is any 2bd's available. It took me 6mo to find my last one. That includes calling Magic and being put on a list, checking TUG,& red week, & calling the broker that I bought my other timeshares from. You can find HGVC and Marriot most any day of the week. I have been coming to the orland area since my honeymoon back in 1980 when rte. 192 was desolate for the most part. The only chain restraunt I remember was Sambo's., I think that was the name. I owned at Marriot cypress harbor, and also stayed at grande Vista along with the hiltons above and many other resorts in the area. But none give you the value of Magic Tree. Not saying it's for everybody though. I would happily show you a room if you happened to be in Orlando over the holidays. Good luck either way and I hope you find exactly what's best for you.

 

[vidx3m]

Not always! Staying at magic tree Christmas & new years for $600 per week. My grandkids live near Orlando so we stay when they are out of school which are the very weeks you mention. I debated saying anything else because I felt your mind was mostly made up. But here I am sitting around the pool in key west with not much going on at the moment. By the way it's costing me a $600mf and a $250 exchange fee. $850 for a 2bd here. To give the kids some different places to stay I have exchanged to Sheraton a couple times and a week in Daytona over Christmas all for less than what they charge in mf's. We have stayed at all 4 of the Hilton resorts here also. I have previously owned Marriot, Hyatt, and am in the process of giving away my HGVC SeaWorld platinum unit which is taking Hilton months to process. So it's not that I don't know what these resorts offer & the quality that is associated with them. And while the fake waterfalls over the pool & the tall buildings are beautiful I don't find the rooms any better quality.
At Magic Tree they have a movie theater, fitness room, pool, jacuzzi, splash pad for kids, putt-putt, playground, gas grills, fire pits, shuffle board, lg checkers, board games dvd's, books, foosball, in gameroom with gaming units such as playstation with different games to sign out, coffee in the lobby. All FREE. to owners. There is a resort fee for those trading in.
My mf's on my 1bd HGVC were under $700 when I bought around 2005 they now are $1380 something. Magic Trees mf's were around $625 back 15-20 yrs ago, then they lowered them to $600 during COVID & are going back to $625 in 2025. Where do you think these will be in another 10yrs. I have always traded in II, my RCI account comes through Hilton & I can't trade magic tree through that account & it really doesn't pay to trade Hilton through them because the mf's and trading expenses make it not worth it. I will probably join RCI when my Hilton gets sold.
The point is you can stay at a gold crown 2bd resort for less than an avg hotel room. The gold crown rating is given by the trading company not them. With all that said I don't know if there is any 2bd's available. It took me 6mo to find my last one. That includes calling Magic and being put on a list, checking TUG,& red week, & calling the broker that I bought my other timeshares from. You can find HGVC and Marriot most any day of the week. I have been coming to the orland area since my honeymoon back in 1980 when rte. 192 was desolate for the most part. The only chain restraunt I remember was Sambo's., I think that was the name. I owned at Marriot cypress harbor, and also stayed at grande Vista along with the hiltons above and many other resorts in the area. But none give you the value of Magic Tree. Not saying it's for everybody though. I would happily show you a room if you happened to be in Orlando over the holidays. Good luck either way and I hope you find exactly what's best for you.

I'm grateful for all you've shared. I'm still researching the different platforms and understanding which would give us the best experience for our vacation dollars. That said, the HGVC, Marriott and Sheridan/Westin type resorts that names that we're familiar with and have stayed at some of there resorts over the years. I want to be sure that which ever platform we purchase we would be able to use it for a very long time, even after our kids are grown and choose not to travel as much with us. While it seems like you've had a great experience with Magic Tree, I'm not convinced that this is right platform for us, we would really like something with many different locations to choose from, and have good exchangeable value on RCI or II when we need to. Thanks again.

 

[ScoopKona]

which would give us the best experience for our vacation dollars.

I don't entirely agree with this metric. The ideal system for you has to be easy to use (for you at least -- nobody has to agree), it has to have loads of attractive (to you) vacation options. And then if you can check off those two boxes, think about value.

There are some absolutely dirt-cheap timeshares out there which I don't want. Cheap maintenance fees. Cheap to acquire. In areas I don't have any interest in visiting. Sure, buy one and trade it. But the worst case scenario becomes, "I couldn't get any exchanges I wanted. So now I'm stuck either putting my week out for rental, or going someplace I don't particularly care for."

 

[vidx3m]

I don't entirely agree with this metric. The ideal system for you has to be easy to use (for you at least -- nobody has to agree), it has to have loads of attractive (to you) vacation options. And then if you can check off those two boxes, think about value.

There are some absolutely dirt-cheap timeshares out there which I don't want. Cheap maintenance fees. Cheap to acquire. In areas I don't have any interest in visiting. Sure, buy one and trade it. But the worst case scenario becomes, "I couldn't get any exchanges I wanted. So now I'm stuck either putting my week out for rental, or going someplace I don't particularly care for

You are right, it must be easy to use and offer a variety of options, buying points to trade seems like an uphill battle.

 

[ScoopKona]

You are right, it must be easy to use and offer a variety of options, buying points to trade seems like an uphill battle.

Not necessarily.

I have never used the week I own. I bought a week in my home town. If I ever go there again (that'll be the day), I have far more pleasant housing options. But it is a power-trader. So we've been around the world in our silly little timeshare week. Up until last year, we could trade that week for 3-to-5 weeks elsewhere. Now it's 2-to-4 weeks. That isn't going to work for a family with kids. You need more bedrooms than we do. But when the kids are on their own, you could do the same thing.

The big picture problem with asking "what should I buy" is that people respond with what they bought -- whether or not it makes sense for you. There are only half-a-dozen big-name programs. You could learn enough about them in an afternoon to have a good idea how they work. Usually there's a sticky post at the top which explains the program.

Then go to that program's forum and ask specific questions.

All the programs work differently. Some are VERY different from the others. Some are geared towards large families. Some are geared towards couples. And almost all of them are geared towards people who are flexible. Everyone says they're flexible. Everyone also says they're above-average drivers.

 

[vidx3m]

Not necessarily.

I have never used the week I own. I bought a week in my home town. If I ever go there again (that'll be the day), I have far more pleasant housing options. But it is a power-trader. So we've been around the world in our silly little timeshare week. Up until last year, we could trade that week for 3-to-5 weeks elsewhere. Now it's 2-to-4 weeks. That isn't going to work for a family with kids. You need more bedrooms than we do. But when the kids are on their own, you could do the same thing.

The big picture problem with asking "what should I buy" is that people respond with what they bought -- whether or not it makes sense for you. There are only half-a-dozen big-name programs. You could learn enough about them in an afternoon to have a good idea how they work. Usually there's a sticky post at the top which explains the program.

Then go to that program's forum and ask specific questions.

All the programs work differently. Some are VERY different from the others. Some are geared towards large families. Some are geared towards couples. And almost all of them are geared towards people who are flexible. Everyone says they're flexible. Everyone also says they're above-average drivers.

I see huge value for us in the Wyndham and Worldmark programs, they both seem to offer things that would be attractive to us. I've been looking at listings and trying to find a good entry. I'm also interest in HGVC, however its seems like a much higher cost to acquire and higher ongoing fees. With WorldMark, I see the potential for us to travel within the program, however, there seems to be some good options to trade via II into higher end resorts the other programs, the WorldMark program also seem to offer reasonable maintenance fees, and the points system is straightforward and they offer some discounted travel options that I don't see with others.