What should I buy?

[famo7]

1) Where do you want your home resort to be? From what I can tell, this should be a place that I would want to and actually can travel to once a year. And it should be somewhere that other people would want to travel to so it is easier to trade. Is this correct? If so, I'm thinking the mountains in Colorado, somewhere near Rocky Mountain National Park like Estes Park. Are there any good places there?

2) Do you want to visit your home resort at least half the time, or do you want to trade more than half the time? Realistically, I would probably want to trade more than half the time. This might change if I had more than one TS, like one in the mountains and one on the beach.

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations? Using the criteria above, somewhere I would want to go and could realistically get there once a year, in no particular order: Colorado mountains (not for skiing but hiking & backpacking), Florida panhandle, Black Hills, anywhere near major national parks, and the Caribbean.

4) How many people do you usually travel with? 7 people including myself. We have 5 small children.

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule? Can travel anytime.

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance? We've never done this before. Most of our travel is very spur of the moment. Its not uncommon for us to have no idea where we are going or even that we are going at all until the day we leave. And its not uncommon that we find ourselves with the whole family driving across the country on the spur of the moment. My hesitation with planning so far in advance is that the spur of the moment thing instills a real sense of exploration and escape, I'd hate to lose the thrill. And, I suppose that I have some irrational fear of planning so far ahead, fear of the unknown I suppose, seeing that we've never really planning anything at all that far in advance. Case and point: my wife and I dated for 7 years; we were engaged for about 20 days before we got married. And this was no shotgun wedding or pregnant girlfriend thing, its just how we roll.

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time? Yes, though, every other weekend is a 3 day weekend which we use pretty regularly for travel.

8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars? Honestly, I'm not well acquainted enough with this to know the difference. When I travel for business I stay in Holiday Inn Express most of the time. As a family we need at least a 1 bedroom suite, preferably 2 bedrooms. For vacations I definitely want something nicer than a typical 2 bedroom suite that one might find at a Holiday Inn or Marriot hotel.

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing? $2,000

10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year? How much do these typically increase each year? $600

11) Are you a detail oriented planner? NO.

12) Do you understand that once you buy a timeshare, it may be very difficult to sell or give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do? Yes.

 

[Passepartout]

I think you need to just cool your jets and read TUG for a while. Maybe a year or more. I'm happy that you rescinded that developer purchase. Now, the $2k buy-in for a TS is do-able, but the annual $600 is unlikely. That's on the low end for a 1 bedroom, and you need bigger. By the time you pay MF, and annual membership to the exchange ($100ish) then about $250 to do the exchange, that will come in over $1,000 a year, increasing about 5% a year.

You may not be tied to the school year now, but with 5 little ones you will be. That means planning at the earliest possible moment- as much as a year in advance. There is a lot of competition for those Summer ans spring break weeks.

Honestly, in your situation, I would watch the last minute rental forum on TUG. Those are under $100/day and inside 45 days from move in. They are frequently less than the cost of the MF on the week.

Another way to timeshare on a budget is to own a fixed week at a resort you can drive to. No exchange fees, no need to join RCI or II, and you can treat it as your second home for that week every year. You get to plan for it, you know who your neighbors are that week, and driving there, you can take more stuff along. Flying a family of 7 to distant and exotic destinations is not a budget enterprise for anyone.

Others may have suggestions, but for now, just wait, and read/learn.

Jim

 

[famo7]

Jim, thanks for the reply. My impression of the "what should I buy" threads were to help newbies get their bearings and figure out how TS could benefit. I have no intentions of jumping into anything anytime soon, not even this year. Especially after a relatively traumatic experience with a developer. My kids are homeschooled which really leaves us pretty open for travel whenever it suits us. My real intention with the "what should I buy" post was to get some bearings about how timesharing could benefit us and whether or not the idea is worth considering.

 

[theo]

There is certainly no "one size fits all" universal answer; everyone and every situation (and personal tastes and preferences) is different.
IMnsHO, a question to be considered first (i.e., before "what should I buy?") is instead "should I buy at all just now?"

OP would surely be well served by reading read through the TUG forums when time permits (for at least six months, maybe more) to assimilate whatever info and knowledge can be gleaned here. OP will likely detect a recurrent theme of "rent first, before considering buying anything". Frankly, I think that is very sound advice.

With a family of 7, OP is almost necessarily looking at 3BR units that sleep 8. Although not exactly rare, neither are 3BR units all that common at most resorts. We have owned intervals at more than a dozen different timeshare properties over the years and not one of them had / has any 3BR units. That's a factor not to be taken lightly, since some timeshares frown upon exceeding occupancy limits (e.g., 2BR, sleeps 6), harboring concerns about local fire codes and / or liability and / or compliance with their insurance policy terms.

On the other hand, timeshares can certainly be an affordable and much more enjoyable alternative to commercial (and often "sterile" --- and often too expensive) hotels, providing (unlike those cramped, sterile hotel rooms) full kitchens, ample living space and the ability to prepare and enjoy meals in the unit whenever so desired --- all factors not to be taken lightly for a family of 7.

OP asked about maintenance fees. I suggest anticipating that annual maintenance fees will generally increase by 5-6% per year.
Surprise "special assessments" are of course always an unwelcome possibility too. For a 3BR unit, I would frankly think it somewhat unlikely that a maintenance fee below $800-$900 could be found much of anywhere, but my own geographic range of first hand personal knowledge and experience is admittedly limited and, accordingly, I could be mistaken in that particular belief.

In any event, the previously provided advice to read and learn --- and then read and learn more is solid, IMnsHO. Specific questions will inevitably evolve once a knowledge base is established. TUG comprises a reasonably well informed bunch generally ready, able and willing to share their input, experience, observations, knowledge and opinions (...but alas, so far anyhow, not any winning lottery numbers).

 

[K2Quick]

I'm not sure timesharing is for you. It's generally best for those who are willing to book at least one year out. Worldmark kind of fits what you're looking for in quality and destinations (go to wmowners.com/forum for more information), but if you're looking for prime weeks, you need to book those right at the 13-month mark. I'll echo what the others have said about cost of entry and maintenance fees. Your $2,000 ceiling on upfront purchase price is probably unrealistic (probably more like $3,000 to $4,000 for something worth owning). And you'll probably be looking at $900 or more in annual maintenance fees.

 

[Saintsfanfl]

If you are wanting to go to those destinations during good weather and you don't want to go to the same place every year then the plan is not realistic. Not planning ahead, low annual fee for desired accommodations, and destination variety makes it virtually impossible. The $600 annual budget for something nicer than a 2BR Marriott hotel is an impossibility all on its own. The only exceptions are shoulder season getaways in places like Orlando.

What you really need to do is explore properties by either last minute rentals from owners or having a friend book a getaway at cost (II allows entering guest payment info in the payment screen). That said the annual budget still probably needs to come up if good weather is desired.

The plan is doable if you can just budge a little on one or more variables but the problem with exchanging is that the most important variable is planning well ahead for most locations and decent seasons.

 

[jl2010]

Here's why I chose what I bought. Might help you to see other's reasoning, though it may not all apply to your goals.

When considering a Timeshare, I really considered the the cost and time it took to get there. That is a big variable in how useful a timeshare is to me. I have no control over flight/car rental costs.

Living in Massachusetts, I do have some popular TS locations in the area. Cape Cod, Newport RI, NYC, The Berkshires in Summer/winter, Smuggs up in VT, and several other ski resorts. The thing these all have in common for me, were that they are all very drivable. So even in lean years, or even with 2 kids now, we could manage to get to our vacation without prohibitive costs or distances. Would I like a TS in the US Virgin Islands? Absolutely!, but it's just not cost/distance efficient, and I would end up being tied to RCI or II with those additional costs.

So I bought on Cape Cod at The Cove at Yarmouth. I bought resale on Ebay for about $700 which was bid up from $1.
I won Week 26 (fourth of July most years)and MFs are still $547 this year- 1 bed/2 bath loft townhouse style. Meanwhile my week rents directly through my home resort for $259 a night + tax if you can get a unit during that week. I can drive there each year. I believe its worth about 47 TPU on the RCI system. I think thats pretty good based on what I pay for MF and that its week 26 on Cape Cod, though I never use RCi so I'm not completely sure. I could join/trade and go elsewhere when we are ready. I have instead rented it when I couldn't use it to local people by hanging a sign at work for far more than the MF I pay, but much less than the $1813+ tax it would cost if someone rented it directly through the resort.

Anyway I wanted a reasonably good trader, at a place that is drivable to myhome, with lower MF and personally I like owner board managed properties that are well run. My TS renovates and upgrades constantly. You don't want to be part of a place that has a lot of special assessments for deferred maintenance. Low fees and a run down TS, that get hit with special assessments are not a great experience. Alternately, there are places who are run by management companies that are in it for profit, and charge their owners more for maint fees than it costs for someone to rent it off a third party website. There are also overbuilt TS areas that you will never be able to sell if you do one day want to get out.

Be smart, and research out here before making any decisions.

Good Luck!

 

[VacationForever]

If you check out Marriott and Vistana forums here on TUG, you will find stickies that show 2017 maintenance fees reported by TUGgers. That will give you an idea on MF.

Since you like last minute plans, you can sometimes finding amazing exchanges for late cancellations or deposits in RCI and II exchanger companies. I used to believe it is critical to plan 12 to 13 months ahead. But seeing all the great availabilty show up on short notice, I am rethinking whether the ability to plan a year out is really a requirement.