Newbie Help for a Prospective Buyer

Hello all,

I am seriously looking into purchasing a Starwood TS on the resale market. I did a tour at the Maui properties but I was not going to buy from the developer. I spent days looking over the message boards here and they have been a wonderful resource but I still have some questions I am hoping some of you experts can help me with.

1) I see some resales have different StarOptions for the same unit type (some 2 bedrooms are only offering 57k annual StarOptions and other 2 bedrooms are offering 81k annual StarOptions in the same resort). I am guessing it all depends on when the person purchased it so my question is do we always have to worry about Starwood increasing the StarOption cost for a unit? If I buy a resale getting me 81k points annually do I need to be worried about Starwood now making a 1 bedroom in Maui 83k StarOptions instead of the current 81k? Has this happened in the past and is expected to happen again in the near future?

2) Can we use StarOptions to get a week at resort other than our home resort and then exchange that or rent out that week at the non-home resort?

3) My wife and I don't really have a particular resort that we would want to go back to every year. We'd rather just try out a different each year. Under that principle is it the best strategy to go for a cheaper , mandatory resort (to get the StarOptions)? We were thinking of maybe going for a Kierland resale with the lower MFs and no ROFR.

Any and all help is much appreciated.

1) It is theoretically possible, but unlikely in the short run. There would be a hell of an uproar. I am a 'buy where you want to go' person.
2) Yes, No (it is against SVO/SVN rules, but people do it)
3) SOs can be a great way of going for SVN exchanges - many would argue (not me...) to use II and get SW preference for a lot less (true)

I agree that I would buy where I'm going to use. If you're planning to go to many different resorts, then that's not possible. I think whether you buy a mandatory resort where the SO's transfer or a cheap voluntary resort where the SO's don't transfer, demands on the season you want to travel, where you want to go, and how much flexibility you have. If you have a lot of flexibility in your travel plans and don't have to go during the peak weeks, then I would definitely buy a cheap voluntary resort that you would use periodically and trade in the other years. You would have the Starwood preference in Interval and could get some really good trades, including during the peak season at many resorts. From the number of SO's you're quoting, it sounds like you only need a 1BR and if that's the case you can likely get a 1BR at a voluntary resort for free or close to it. You also will save the SVN membership fee each year less the Interval membership fee (which I've always been able to get 2 yrs. for the price of one). Another advantage is that you can often get a 2BR for your 1BR in Interval and but will always have to use more SO's for a 2BR. There are some resorts that rarely come up in Interval (like Westin St. John) and you'd be locked out of those but you can get the Hawaii resorts and most all of the other ones unless you need the peak season.