Where to buy Baja Point resale weeks

[CalGalTraveler]

Considering buying a fixed week at Baja Point to ensure reservations. Where to buy?

What are MFs?

 

[ljmiii]

Considering buying a fixed week at Baja Point to ensure reservations. Where to buy?

No such thing. You have to buy Westin Aventuras Points which is a trust covering the Westin Mexican resorts in Los Cabos and Cancun.

 

[dioxide45]

No such thing. You have to buy Westin Aventuras Points which is a trust covering the Westin Mexican resorts in Los Cabos and Cancun.

Baja Point currently isn't part of Aventuras trust (yet). I understand they were sold as weeks by the previous developer. Owners were offered the option to enroll them in VSN after Vistana took over management of the property. So there must be weeks available to purchase.

 

[BA21]

You can start here: https://bajapointvillas.com/, although the "become an owner" link does not appear to be working. Wendy Gillespie is a current owner and set up the website and other social media pages to assist other Baja Point owners trying to sell their weeks they are no longer using.

Email: bajapointowners@gmail.com

I was able to purchase 2 weeks from a current owner. The purchase price was free, however the closing costs attorney fees were $5,500 per week. I started the process June of 2024 and it took approximately 8 months to complete the transfer. Baja Point ownership is a deeded week not an RTU. It required using a law firm in Mexico to complete the deed transfer using a Mexican Bank Trust as non Mexican citizens are not allowed to own property within 50 miles of the coastline.

I was able to enroll the 2 Baja Point weeks into the Marriott/Vistana network with a $15,000+ Adventuras contract (60,000 EOY Options) purchased via email with a Westin Los Cabos sales associate.

2 Bedroom Platinum (week 12) 176,700 Staroptions converts to 6225 Abound Club Points maint fee $3252.12
3 Bedroom Platinum (week 13) 257,700 Staroptions converts to 7450 Abound Club Points maint fee $4301.05

 

[Eric B]

No such thing. You have to buy Westin Aventuras Points which is a trust covering the Westin Mexican resorts in Los Cabos and Cancun.

The Aventuras trust does not currently hold any weeks at Baja Point. About 75% of the trust is the other part of Westin Los Cabos with the remainder being Westin Lagunamar. At the Annual Owners Meeting for Lagunamar, the Marriott GM for Mexican resorts said that they finally figured out how to add weeks at Baja Point to the Aventuras trust and would be adding them in the next year or so. He also indicated there would be continued availability to Westin Cancun through the Aventuras trust, though I can't recall if they were going to be putting them in the trust or just continuing with an agreement through the sale contract.

Considering buying a fixed week at Baja Point to ensure reservations. Where to buy?

What are MFs?

I've seen them occasionally on eBay and just missed winning an auction for a 2 BR LO there a few years ago. There was also one 1 BR Premium on SMTN a couple years ago, but they wanted real money for it and wouldn't negotiate. @BA21 probably has the best advice on getting one. Might be worth seeing how good availability is in VSN and Abound; I've been following it for a bit and it looks good enough to me at the 13 month point in Abound/8 month point in VSN, but I also own at Flora Farms and Cabo Azul. Through my Flora ownership, I can rent weeks from owners at a few other boutique TS in Cabo that are on par with Baja Point.

 

[ljmiii]

Baja Point currently isn't part of Aventuras trust (yet)…

This is fascinating. Last year I told a MVC salesrep at the Westin Los Cabos l might be interested in buying a week at Baja they said there aren’t any…that I had to buy Aventuras points.

And when I checked into buying Aventuras Points resale I was assured that the trust consisted of the WLC and the two Westin Cancun properties.

Was these only a pair of slight lies and there aren’t any weeks at the original side of WLC and Aventuras points can get you into the original side but not Baja? Or something else?

 

[Ckhawaii]

You can start here: https://bajapointvillas.com/, although the "become an owner" link does not appear to be working. Wendy Gillespie is a current owner and set up the website and other social media pages to assist other Baja Point owners trying to sell their weeks they are no longer using.

Email: bajapointowners@gmail.com

I was able to purchase 2 weeks from a current owner. The purchase price was free, however the closing costs attorney fees were $5,500 per week. I started the process June of 2024 and it took approximately 8 months to complete the transfer. Baja Point ownership is a deeded week not an RTU. It required using a law firm in Mexico to complete the deed transfer using a Mexican Bank Trust as non Mexican citizens are not allowed to own property within 50 miles of the coastline.

I was able to enroll the 2 Baja Point weeks into the Marriott/Vistana network with a $15,000+ Adventuras contract (60,000 EOY Options) purchased via email with a Westin Los Cabos sales associate.

2 Bedroom Platinum (week 12) 176,700 Staroptions converts to 6225 Abound Club Points maint fee $3252.12
3 Bedroom Platinum (week 13) 257,700 Staroptions converts to 7450 Abound Club Points maint fee $4301.05

Do you have lockoff capabilities ? Like use the master one bedroom and chuck the room with the queen beds into staroptions ?
The one bedroom is fantastic.

 

[Eric B]

This is fascinating. Last year I told a MVC salesrep at the Westin Los Cabos l might be interested in buying a week at Baja they said there aren’t any…that I had to buy Aventuras points.

And when I checked into buying Aventuras Points resale I was assured that the trust consisted of the WLC and the two Westin Cancun properties.

Was these only a pair of slight lies and there aren’t any weeks at the original side of WLC and Aventuras points can get you into the original side but not Baja? Or something else?

I've heard of others that have been told by sales that they could get Baja Point using Aventuras. I guess that it would be technically true for a retail ownership in Aventuras - you can once it gets to the StarOption reservation window but not with HomeOptions. We bought Aventuras to requal a few Lagunamar weeks (which get great MF/StarOption ratios) and have read all the disclosures - there are no Baja Point weeks currently in the trust. That might change, as I posted earlier. The weeks that are included started out with 7,592 WLC weeks that were studio, 2 BR, and 2 BR Premium weeks and WLR weeks that were studio, 1 BR, and 2 BR LO weeks. Since then, they've added at least one WLC Governor's Suite (Unit 1824) to the trust.

As far as the Cancun side goes, it was false - there were never any Westin Cancun weeks added to the trust. It's probably an issue of uninformed sales staff with the folks on the Los Cabos side not knowing what the state of affairs on the Cancun side is, but still a negative on them.

 

[BA21]

Do you have lockoff capabilities ? Like use the master one bedroom and chuck the room with the queen beds into staroptions ?
The one bedroom is fantastic.

Yes, I have the option to lockoff and select the one bedroom if desired. The remaining Home Options can also be reserved at 12 months or can be used as Staroptions in the network at 8 months. I also have the option to deposit in II as in any combination of hotel room,1, 2, or 3 bedroom Unit. The entire VIO has to be elected if converting to Abound Club Points.

 

[ljmiii]

I've heard of others that have been told by sales that they could get Baja Point using Aventuras...

Thank you very much for the Aventuras info and table.

 

[ljmiii]

You can start here: https://bajapointvillas.com/, although the "become an owner" link does not appear to be working. Wendy Gillespie is a current owner and set up the website and other social media pages to assist other Baja Point owners trying to sell their weeks they are no longer using.

Email: bajapointowners@gmail.com

Thank you very much for the info. BTW, for me the link brought up Outlook with the email addresses wendy.gillespie.sd@gmail.com and sonya.parker.ft@gmail.com in the "To:" field.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Thank you @BA21 and @Eric B for the helpful info.

I am glad it can be locked off. Can one side be deposited into II if you only want to use the 1 bdrm and you do not enroll in star options?

I am surprised they allowed these to be deeded. Any EOY deeds?

 

[dioxide45]

I am surprised they allowed these to be deeded. Any EOY deeds?

It seems they may be deeded in a similar way as how Lagunamar is deeded. You don't really own a deed though. Baja Point and Lagunamar were built long before Westin Aventuras came along.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

@dioxide45 I am not familiar with Lagunamar deeds. Do you own a portion of a land trust and the shares are like a stock, similar to the RTUs at Craigendarroch Scotland? Those are more like a membership in a golf club than a true deed.

 

[Ckhawaii]

@dioxide45 I am not familiar with Lagunamar deeds. Do you own a portion of a land trust and the shares are like a stock, similar to the RTUs at Craigendarroch Scotland? Those are more like a membership in a golf club than a true deed.

The way it was described above sounds like actual Mexican real estate. It’s in a Mexican bank Trust (fidecomiso). Those attorney fees are similar fees to buying an actual home within the coast line of Mexico if you are not a Mexican national.
If that’s the case it’s in pepertuity, the ownership is held in a trust in a Mexican bank, and you are a trustee. People buy 20 million dollar mansions this way in Mexico.

 

[Eric B]

Baja Point was built as the Grand Regina, I believe; Vistana became involved later in the picture. From the description provided by @BA21, ownership there is directly through a fidecomiso. Ownership at Lagunamar is through a trust that may be set up to function as a fidecomiso but operates differently than a typical one because of the large number of owners. For our ownership at Flora Farms, which is also within 50 miles of the coastline, we are in the process of setting up a fidecomiso to own each fractional with the ownership vested in another trust to simplify the process of selling it later if we desire to do so; we can just sell the trust that owns the fidecomiso and not have to go through a Mexican attorney. That set up also gets us out of the need for apolistic letters, which are a bit of a pain. I would not be surprised if Aventuras and the methods of ownership for Lagunamar, where we actually do own a few weeks, and Los Cabos are similar; the weeks are not actually deeded but ownership is via a trust set up to facilitate things.

@CalGalTraveler, if you do wind up buying at Baja Point, you might look into setting up a separate trust specifically to own the fidecomiso. It's not that tough to do.

 

[daviator]

This is fascinating. Last year I told a MVC salesrep at the Westin Los Cabos l might be interested in buying a week at Baja they said there aren’t any…that I had to buy Aventuras points.

And when I checked into buying Aventuras Points resale I was assured that the trust consisted of the WLC and the two Westin Cancun properties.

Was these only a pair of slight lies and there aren’t any weeks at the original side of WLC and Aventuras points can get you into the original side but not Baja? Or something else?

They might not have been lying to you. It might be that MVC doesn't have any Baja Point weeks to sell (after all, Baja Point was fully subscribed, I think, when Vistana entered the picture and took it over. So I don't think they started with much, or any, inventory there.)

So there are resale weeks available from existing owners, most of whom bought when it was Grand Regina, but maybe no weeks available from MVC. Although I'd think that they'd have some weeks they'd acquired through take backs and defaults and the like. Maybe they are saving them to add to the Aventuras trust and they don't want to sell them directly, although my experience with Vistana is that they'll sell just about anything they have if somebody will buy it.