Newbie - buying wk 50 in older FL resort good deal?

[maaldetravels]

Greetings all! I am new very new to timesharing and would love some advice. I have the opportunity to buy a resale in an older FL resort (Oyster Point, Sebastian, FL), week 50 for ~$700. The MF's are reasonable at roughly $450. The current owner is a member with RCI so I would just join that as well.
The selling point to me is the ability to trade and stay all over the country but i am concerned about the "trading value" of this resort. I have no idea what types of resorts i would be able to trade for? We do not have children so off season is usually when we travel.
Does it makes sense to purchase with the mindset that we may never even stay at our "home resort"?
Any advice on what the trading power would be?

Greatly appreciate in advance any seasoned advice!!!

 

[theo]

Greetings all! I am new very new to timesharing and would love some advice. I have the opportunity to buy a resale in an older FL resort (Oyster Point, Sebastian, FL), week 50 for ~$700. The MF's are reasonable at roughly $450. The current owner is a member with RCI so I would just join that as well.
The selling point to me is the ability to trade and stay all over the country but I am concerned about the "trading value" of this resort. I have no idea what types of resorts i would be able to trade for? We do not have children so off season is usually when we travel.
Does it makes sense to purchase with the mindset that we may never even stay at our "home resort"?
Any advice on what the trading power would be?

Greatly appreciate in advance any seasoned advice!!!

Assuming, for the sake of discussion, this is a fixed week and not in "RCI Points", then you might want to ask the seller the "TPU" value of the week.
TPU is a sort of "artificial currency" value, assigned by RCI to each individual unit / week at any given resort. Different sized units and different weeks will have different TPU's, even within the same resort. You can't actually look up TPU values on the RCI site without a RCI membership, but your seller (or perhaps someone on this site, if they know unit size of the week 50 you're considering) can easily do so for you. We no longer belong to RCI.

TPU value determines trading power. You can't reserve / exchange somewhere else unless you have a sufficient number of TPU's, so finding out the maximum TPU value for the specific week / unit under consideration will be an appropriate (necessary, even) starting point for you --- before committing to a purchase.

We stayed at that facility some years ago, back when we still belonged to RCI. I don't remember much about the place, except that at the time they had small boats with outboard motors available for use, which we utilized and enjoyed. The boats may or may not even still be in the picture there now --- I dunno.

 

[missyrcrews]

Greetings all! I am new very new to timesharing and would love some advice. I have the opportunity to buy a resale in an older FL resort (Oyster Point, Sebastian, FL), week 50 for ~$700. The MF's are reasonable at roughly $450. The current owner is a member with RCI so I would just join that as well.
The selling point to me is the ability to trade and stay all over the country but i am concerned about the "trading value" of this resort. I have no idea what types of resorts i would be able to trade for? We do not have children so off season is usually when we travel.
Does it makes sense to purchase with the mindset that we may never even stay at our "home resort"?
Any advice on what the trading power would be?

Greatly appreciate in advance any seasoned advice!!!

Looks like this resort gets around 21 TPU's for the week. That is low/average, I believe, as far as the TPU scale goes, though your maintenance fees are quite low. I would tend to advise you to buy where you want to go. Buying somewhere with the intent to trade rarely goes as planned. Good luck as you work to figure it all out. And there is NO rush. Even if that week goes...there will be another.

 

[vacationhopeful]

For about a few dollars less than $900 annual MFs, you can get 55-60 TPUs yearly (which is good but not unheard of).

As for week 50 ... before Christmas .. who travels then on vacation? A layman's value can be determined by either a cash rental or RCI exchange trading power.

 

[silentg]

We stayed at Oyster Point in 2010. The place was nice, the thing I remember most was the large dining table. Our son and his wife were with us and the table was good for board games and meals. The thing I didn't like about the resort it was a no smoking place, but our unit was above the office and that reeked of smoke, it seeped up and into our place. We asked to be moved but they didn't provide another unit. Sebastian is a nice area. My DH and I played golf and had a nice dinner at the public golf course club house. We were close to Vero Beach and spent time there too. If you are buying just to trade, I would keep looking. If you plan to stay don't expect a fancy place. I don't plan on going back there again. I did a review on the timeshare, you could check it out along with others.
Silentg

 

[csxjohn]

I have owned and still own one resort that I have never been to, own(ed) them strictly for trading. I do not use RCI, I feel the fees are way too high. I trade with Dial An Exchange which I am very happy with.

DAE does not have the number of choices that RCI and II have but as I said, I am happy. One thing I like is they don't assign trading power, you trade where ever you want to when you want to. You do pay an upgrade fee if you take a unit with more bedrooms than you are giving up.

The thing I really like about them is the ability to get two exchanges for one deposit from Prime Time Area units. Orlando is currently on their prime time list so for my 3br lock off in Orlando I get four exchanges. Two 1br units and two 2br units. After figuring in my exchange fees I vacation for right around $400 per week.

Owing to trade has worked out well for me, YMMV.

 

[DeniseM]

Week 50, and earlier weeks in December have very poor travel demand - weeks 51 and 52 have strong travel demand. In other words, week 50 will not be a strong trader or renter.

 

[bnoble]

I would tend to advise you to buy where you want to go. Buying somewhere with the intent to trade rarely goes as planned.

I second this advice. You can make it work but it really requires that you treat timesharing like a serious hobby rather than something you just do. Many TUGgers do consider timesharing a serious hobby, but most timeshare owners do not and would not want to.

 

[MOXJO7282]

I have owned and still own one resort that I have never been to, own(ed) them strictly for trading. I do not use RCI, I feel the fees are way too high. I trade with Dial An Exchange which I am very happy with.

DAE does not have the number of choices that RCI and II have but as I said, I am happy. One thing I like is they don't assign trading power, you trade where ever you want to when you want to. You do pay an upgrade fee if you take a unit with more bedrooms than you are giving up.

The thing I really like about them is the ability to get two exchanges for one deposit from Prime Time Area units. Orlando is currently on their prime time list so for my 3br lock off in Orlando I get four exchanges. Two 1br units and two 2br units. After figuring in my exchange fees I vacation for right around $400 per week.

Owing to trade has worked out well for me, YMMV.

This would be the only reason I would buy a Orlando or similar location, If I knew I could turn it into multiple weeks. That is excellent value. Otherwise unless you absolutely love the resort to use I wouldn't suggest buying because as mentioned a week 50 Orlando is not going to get you any uptrades.