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Newb - Thanks, still learning, and looking for advice

ironbyron

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Greetings,

My wife and I have attended two different Silverleaf presentations. The first for a free cruise (through spirit incentives :rolleyes:) and a $40 Visa, and the second for a 2 night stay at a New Braunfels, TX hotel + $40 Visa.

On the first the cruise offer seemed nice, but we were completely strapped and had zero intention of ever purchasing from them. Getting the cruise actually booked (4 night) took a little going out on a limb - i.e. sending a $100 reservation check to somewhere unknown, providing three travel date options, realizing it would only be an interior room, etc. However, we did end up going on a 4 night cruise through Carnival and it cost us $280 total (which the $100 went towards) for the additional port taxes / fees / etc. (Didn't upgrade room). I've looked on Carnival a few times and found 4 night cruises as low as $250/person after taxes and fees, so I don't feel like our first presentation was for naught.

After explaining to the first set of sales people that $15,500 + $900/yr maintenance was too much and not going to happen for us at the time since we didn't have that kind of additional income after being just married, they came back with "owner inventory" of bought back deeds. Starting with a $9000 offer that had free bonus time during the weekdays and $50 Fri/Sat. After telling the second pitch no for the same reason (while being slightly interested) we were offered a third which was $6k with free bonus time all days of the week (endless escapes)

None of the offers in the first pitch included a "week" conversation or much information about RCI. Most offers were likely white season, but nonetheless they called us back a couple months ago and asked us to go again to their Hill Country Resort on Canyon Lake. Since my wife's family travels to New Braunfels every year and the timing worked out, we went ahead with it. We pretty much know every thing there is to do in New Braunfels, how to get to it, when to go, etc even though it's about four hours away :) The trip ended up being a great way for us to stay there on the cheap and still go with her family to schlitterbahn and float the river, but of course we had to attend the sales presentation again. This time around the sales guy really pushed RCI and how much money he makes (as an owner) renting out his "bonus time" to friends and random people from craigslist. He supposedly pays his maintenance fees and paid off his deed by requesting bonus times 5-6 weekends a year and renting it. RCI is something I knew very little about, but I tried several ways to ask what you get with RCI in terms of trading in your "white" week from the hill country for an international resort. Of course terms like "TPU" were never explained or offered . . .

In any case, I wouldn't agree to our offer (which my wife and I thought was a good deal) without knowing it contained some option to cancel. Apparently to tugbbs this is common knowledge that developers have to include a cancellation policy of some sort, but without ever seeing the closing documents on a timeshare before (ever in life) it takes a lot of signatures before you get to the page that explains your offers to cancel. Surely knowing that I was still skeptical had to be some kind of red flag? Why would they pursue our signature so much? Surely they knew we would eventually find our way to the resale market and cancel? My wife and I were the short-term owners of a week 7 Silverleaf Hill Country Resort deed with free bonus time through the week and $50 Fri/Sat all for $9k and $900/yr MF.

Thanks to you folks, we rescinded. Hopefully we are on our way to a more successful *first* purchase now. Onto that note . . .
 

ironbyron

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There are a number of things we are still trying to learn right now

For instance, we are willing to combine CC rewards to our overall greater rewards options if that is helpful/recommended/beneficial. Currently we use Freedom and Southwest rewards cards (though the southwest was a botched attempt to use a slickdeals offer that works you quickly towards a companion pass in a calendar year). We will likely be ridding ourselves of the southwest card soon in favor of a different rewards option, and with Freedom will would likely just lower the balance and keep it active. We funnel all possible expenses through them to maximize rewards, typically 20k points a year minimum

Other than that, I’m trying to make heads and tales of RTUs for RCI. I do like points since they seem to be an easier numbers game, but we should have no problem knowing if we wanted to use our week early on based on our year-to-year vacation intentions. I’ve started to see people already giving an idea of TPU for different places, and some ebay ads even mention it. However, I’ve never found an easy way to look into our desired locations on RCI and determine what kind of TPUs we would need to actually get those during peak seasons.

If the determining factor is somewhere we want to go every year, then what we really want is a place on a river in the Texas Hill Country. We would probably go most years, but in most years we can make last minute, one month or less out, not exact on the week, vacation reservations in July to any number of places there and still be happy. We do like the Marriott on the Guadalupe

Another place that we have been that we would really like to go back to is the Excellence Clubs. We went to Excellence Playa Mujeres on our honeymoon and then returned to Cancun a couple years later to the Moon Palace. We would really prefer somewhere we considered equivalent to the Excellence club again, but we have a lot to look through and find one we are willing to try

Other places we eventually want to get to would include the Hilton Bonnet Creek resort in downtown disney (or any other downtown disney resort with a lazy river — that just happens to be the only one I know) as well as SoCal in or around either San Diego or LA

Knowing those three general locations how much trading power do we need to be looking for to realistically be able to plan one of those three types of vacation 6 months or more out for 6 people?

For my wife and I, it would be fine if we needed to put an extra year deposit in between the 6 month out 6 people vacations to Disney, SoCal, and Cancun. We end up taking fairly last minute vacations anyway and would probably make a lot of use from last-call type reservations as well
 

ironbyron

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Also, thanks all for all the great info here. I've been using forums for a long while, and I am glad to have found this one

I'm just looking for a few pointers, but I don't need everything spelled completely out I hope

Links are very welcomed, reading is not a skill I lack. I'm just looking for a guesstimate place to start and wanted to know some good, current info to look into
 

csxjohn

TUG Review Crew: Expert
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...This time around the sales guy really pushed RCI and how much money he makes (as an owner) renting out his "bonus time" to friends and random people from craigslist. He supposedly pays his maintenance fees and paid off his deed by requesting bonus times 5-6 weekends a year and renting it. ...

Know this, renting out any exchanges or bonus time you receive from RCI or any other exchange company is specifically prohibited and can result in losing your week, having your account canceled and the problems from the people you rent to associated with those actions.

Do not rent out any exchanges you get from any exchange company.

In any case, I wouldn't agree to our offer (which my wife and I thought was a good deal) ...

you will learn that is was not a good deal and I'm glad you found us in time.

Why would they pursue our signature so much? Surely they knew we would eventually find our way to the resale market and cancel? My wife and I were the short-term owners of a week 7 Silverleaf Hill Country Resort deed with free bonus time through the week and $50 Fri/Sat all for $9k and $900/yr MF.

Thanks to you folks, we rescinded. Hopefully we are on our way to a more successful *first* purchase now. Onto that note . . .

It is not a given that you would have found the cancellation clause before it was too late.

After you find a resale that works for you make sure you understand the system they have and/or the exchange system you use to trade your time.
 

Passepartout

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Byron, you need to manage your expectations some. You say you'd really like a TS in the Texas hill country. Fine. Buy resale. Look on eBay, the TUG Marketplace, Redweek, Craig's List. But know that you need book further out than 6 months (usually) to get a desired week, especially if it is during school holidays. Timeshares and last minute bookings generally don't work well together, unless you can swing off season or are happy with leftovers.

Then you mentioned wanting to exchange into big, high value, places (6 people to Bonnet Creek) S. Cal, high end Cancun. I don't want to rain on your parade, but you will need a lot more trading power (or luck) to pull that with an inland Texas resort week.

I'd suggest looking at Craigslist for where you want to go. There are always rentals there for cheap. Try that. When you get to a stage of life that allows you to pay cash for a TS, not sweat a $1000 or more MF bill that comes in with the Christmas bills, and when you are able to make plans a year ahead of time, THEN revisit buying a TS.

I just don't want to see you or anybody else, for that matter, be one of those we see here saying that they have this TS they can't afford to keep, can't use, and can't even give away.

All the best,

Jim
 

ironbyron

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Byron, you need to manage your expectations some. You say you'd really like a TS in the Texas hill country. Fine. Buy resale. Look on eBay, the TUG Marketplace, Redweek, Craig's List. But know that you need book further out than 6 months (usually) to get a desired week, especially if it is during school holidays. Timeshares and last minute bookings generally don't work well together, unless you can swing off season or are happy with leftovers.
Thanks for the all the advice, please let me rephrase a little bit of my thinking

I only really mentioned Texas hill country to follow the sage advice of picking a place we want to go. I do find it a little unfortunate it's not any higher demand (which is kind of the takeaway I get from what you mention below) since we consider it in the top 3 areas of where we have been along the gulf coast . . . Destin, Orlando, Atlanta, New Orleans, Galveston, Corpus Christi, South Padre Island as well as Asheville, Knoxville, Memphis, and most parts of the NC smoky mountains / blue ridge parkway.

In any case, facts are facts, and if the hill country does not have the trading power we are looking for we could easily try to pick some last minute vacations but not sure how much they offer in the peak season. 1-2 weeks out is fine in some cases. If that doesn't pan out then we wouldn't have a problem considering a low MF dedicated or float week in the area that we actually use rather than trade in as well as a points friendly share somewhere else

Then you mentioned wanting to exchange into big, high value, places (6 people to Bonnet Creek) S. Cal, high end Cancun. I don't want to rain on your parade, but you will need a lot more trading power (or luck) to pull that with an inland Texas resort week

No need, at this point we have no parade nor expectations. Just trying to build them really

Bonnet Creek is just a thought, but we would really want to be able to take 6 or more to a lazy river included resort in downtown disney. If that had to be a year or more out that would be fine. I just assumed it would be easier to find an offer to "trade-up" less than a year in advance, is that incorrect? We would be more than happy to expect that in the off-season, but not sure precisely when that is? Mid September through Mid December?

High end cancun would be preferable in peak season for 6, but we would likely try out some last calls for just the two of us. I was really poking to see if anyone new of any independent exchange company that excellence belongs to? I couldn't find them listed in II or RCI. If getting peak season for 6, does that essentially mean we need to expect like value trades? We would probably be able to manage depositing multiple years in a row to buildup trading power then book 1+ yr in advance

I'd suggest looking at Craigslist for where you want to go. There are always rentals there for cheap. Try that. When you get to a stage of life that allows you to pay cash for a TS, not sweat a $1000 or more MF bill that comes in with the Christmas bills, and when you are able to make plans a year ahead of time, THEN revisit buying a TS.

I just don't want to see you or anybody else, for that matter, be one of those we see here saying that they have this TS they can't afford to keep, can't use, and can't even give away

Thanks again for the advice. $1k or more MF annually isn't something we are sweating at this stage in our life, or paying cash for a 7-9k TS

We're just trying to find the best way to maximize all of that at this point. $900/yr MF at Silverleaf was a problem in my mind due to the low trading power I perceived our unit to have compared to what we should be looking for

It sounds like we are looking for a high value to MF ratio TS in addition to a separate low MF fixed or float peak week hill country TS

That other question I was pondering was if there was any way to accelerate a Marriott or Hilton type of program with CC rewards?
 
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