- Joined
- Mar 10, 2007
- Messages
- 6,792
- Reaction score
- 317
- Points
- 518
- Location
- 'burbs of Cincinnati, OH
- Resorts Owned
- Used to own: WKORV-N; SVV - Bella
Today I received my check ($2750) for the sale of my SVV Bella platinum 2 bdrm lockoff. So after a decade of ownership, I am officially timeshare-less! When we bought WKORV-N in 2006, our daughters were 14 and 12. Fast forward a decade, and my oldest daughter and her husband are finishing up grad school in another state, and my youngest just finished up her last year of college and is looking for her “career” job. Needless to say, our travel habits have changed since we first bought. Family vacations have given way to couples trips with dear friends who share common passions: tennis, fishing, snorkeling, and Euchre.
For the most part, I was “very satisfied” with my VSE ownership. Even though MFs are way more expensive than they should be, VSE resorts are exceptionally nice. I’ve always been very proud to own VSE, and to bring friends and family along. Everyone who’s ever traveled with us has become a timesharing believer. I’m also very pleased and relieved that after double digit increases for the first 5 years of my ownership, MFs have stabilized. If you do your research and buy the right unit for your specific needs, it can still make a lot of sense to own a timeshare, both financially and practically speaking (because it forces you to take a vacation!).
I’ve also never regretted buying WKORV-N (on the resale market, thanks to TUG), even though the market tanked shortly after we bought it. WKORV is still, hands down, my favorite VSE resort though I’d be hard pressed to decide which phase I like the best. Nor have I regretted selling it and buying a mandatory SVV 6 years later. 148,100 SOs annually was way exceeding our needs, and I didn’t want the hassle of renting. A vacation should never feel like a chore! No, SVV (worth 95,700 SOs) with its $1500 MFs turned out to be the perfect “size” for us once the kids left for college. The SO exchanges I’ve gotten with both units have been fantastic, though I did notice a significant tightening of the availability this past time, which I hope for everyone’s sake eases after VSE figures things out.
There are two main reason we sold now. First is that the VSE network is just too limited for us. We finally visited HRA in September (one week before the hurricane) and now we’ve officially visited every resort that appealed to us, most multiple times. And now we'd like to explore other places. The future San Diego and Poipu, Kauai resorts intrigue us, but not enough to induce us to stay. It’s time to expand our horizons. We’re traveling to Grand Cayman in April in a rental condo with friends, I’m hoping to secure a Marriott Aruba villa in the fall via II Getaways before my platinum membership expires in January, and in Feb 2018, we’re planning to rent another VRBO 5-star home with the same 3 couples we shared a house with in St. Maarten 3 years ago. We’re eyeing Abaco, Bahamas or St. Lucia.
The other main reason we're selling now is that our lake house is now built. In 2014, quite unexpectedly, we stumbled across a beautiful lot on a nearby lake, and the price was right. The raccoon-infested house was turning off potential buyers, but we could overlook it and focus on the lot itself. We knocked down the existing house to its foundation and built this little beauty:
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We're spending every free moment there, and enjoying the heck out of it.
In 5-10 years, we can envision returning to timeshare ownership if we’re blessed with grandchildren, but at this point, it’s become more limiting that liberating, and it's time to moooove on.
Life is an adventure, folks. Enjoy it while you can!
For the most part, I was “very satisfied” with my VSE ownership. Even though MFs are way more expensive than they should be, VSE resorts are exceptionally nice. I’ve always been very proud to own VSE, and to bring friends and family along. Everyone who’s ever traveled with us has become a timesharing believer. I’m also very pleased and relieved that after double digit increases for the first 5 years of my ownership, MFs have stabilized. If you do your research and buy the right unit for your specific needs, it can still make a lot of sense to own a timeshare, both financially and practically speaking (because it forces you to take a vacation!).
I’ve also never regretted buying WKORV-N (on the resale market, thanks to TUG), even though the market tanked shortly after we bought it. WKORV is still, hands down, my favorite VSE resort though I’d be hard pressed to decide which phase I like the best. Nor have I regretted selling it and buying a mandatory SVV 6 years later. 148,100 SOs annually was way exceeding our needs, and I didn’t want the hassle of renting. A vacation should never feel like a chore! No, SVV (worth 95,700 SOs) with its $1500 MFs turned out to be the perfect “size” for us once the kids left for college. The SO exchanges I’ve gotten with both units have been fantastic, though I did notice a significant tightening of the availability this past time, which I hope for everyone’s sake eases after VSE figures things out.
There are two main reason we sold now. First is that the VSE network is just too limited for us. We finally visited HRA in September (one week before the hurricane) and now we’ve officially visited every resort that appealed to us, most multiple times. And now we'd like to explore other places. The future San Diego and Poipu, Kauai resorts intrigue us, but not enough to induce us to stay. It’s time to expand our horizons. We’re traveling to Grand Cayman in April in a rental condo with friends, I’m hoping to secure a Marriott Aruba villa in the fall via II Getaways before my platinum membership expires in January, and in Feb 2018, we’re planning to rent another VRBO 5-star home with the same 3 couples we shared a house with in St. Maarten 3 years ago. We’re eyeing Abaco, Bahamas or St. Lucia.
The other main reason we're selling now is that our lake house is now built. In 2014, quite unexpectedly, we stumbled across a beautiful lot on a nearby lake, and the price was right. The raccoon-infested house was turning off potential buyers, but we could overlook it and focus on the lot itself. We knocked down the existing house to its foundation and built this little beauty:
[/URL]
We're spending every free moment there, and enjoying the heck out of it.
In 5-10 years, we can envision returning to timeshare ownership if we’re blessed with grandchildren, but at this point, it’s become more limiting that liberating, and it's time to moooove on.
Life is an adventure, folks. Enjoy it while you can!
, but our timeshares still work for us right now, sort of! Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos!