I am seeing ads on TUG and Ebay of offers of Wyndham timeshares that were converted to points. I am interested in the offers but want to take some due diligence. Does anyone know how/why Wyndham converts those timeshares, and do they bundle them to brokers who sell? I am guessing those converted timeshares are heavily discounted at sale and wonder if there is anyway to know the price sold before I make a bid. Are there any pitfalls to buying these converted points which are described as Wyndham Plus Points? Do they work the same as the Wyndham Plus Points that I own now (and so foolishly bought at retail)? I have read post that suggest $.01 per point to be a reasonable cost although others claim points could be had cheaper. Also, I am aware to look for properties with Maintenance Fee (MF) ratios (Annual MF/1000's of points) below 5. One Ebay offer included paying for closing costs (a seller who has a history of selling timeshares), so I am wondering how they make money on this deal. Any feedback would be appreciated.
To understand converted fixed weeks you need a history lesson
What we know as Club Wyndham grew out of the old Fairfield Resorts, which was a collection of fixed weeks resorts
When Wyndham began creating the all points resorts (UDI or undivided interest) they wanted to bring all those weeks and weeks owners into the points system so they began a high pressure sales effort to "convert" weeks to points. so the owners could then participate in the points system they were creating
Not everyone converted so now we have weeks owners at the former Fairfield resorts, converted weeks owners, and sometimes UDI owners
Wyndham is not selling converted weeks, but these weeks can still be created by spending some money with Wyndham, and these converted weeks still trade on the secondary market
So what you see on ebay or any secondary marketplace is what some owner is selling, and like all secondary market transactions are heavely discounted from what Wyndham sells their stuff for
The Wyndham system is for the most part based on a "home resort" concept where your points are symbolic of a deeded ownership at a specific resort., (either UDI or Converted week) and the maintenance fees are resort specific, which is why you see maintenance fees that vary, ownership to ownership. To your statement that under $5/1000 points is good: That was the advice I got 5 years ago when I first started buying.. But fees have been going up and I would say 6 is the new 5
There is another wrinkle to understand. Wyndham has created a Club within the Club, called Club Wyndham Access. (CWA) A CWA owner does not have a deed, rather he has a certificate of ownweship, He is a member of the Club and the Club holds the deeds. A lot of what CWA owns are converted fixed week that they have picked up through foreclosure. So in a sense Wyndham is still converting fixed weeks, but you cant buy one from them except indirectly, by buying a CWA membership
Bottom line points are points and they all work the same at the 10 month mark when making reservations. There are only two reasons to buy or not buy a particular contract, and they are the Advanced Reservation Priority they get and of course the maintenance fee rate, But these are discussions for another day
regarding a fair price Yes a penny a point is a fair price depending on the fees and whether or not its a popular place for ARP. for example Ill pay more for New Orleans, others go for Glacier Canyon or Daytona Beach. . Last Summer I couldnt get anything for less than a penny and a half, but over the last 9 months Ive averaged about 1/3 cent per point and my last purchase was just $330 for 339000 points and the seller paid the closing costs
How do they make money?... They bought it for less or they are a broker working for a fixed rate fee and the seller just wants out, really bad
The base price on the secondary market has been set by Wyndham in that they will take back almost everything they have ever sold , Their price is zero, so even a few dollars on ebay is better than what wyndham is offering
Very little Wyndham points go through the so called timeshare rescue companies any more because Wyndham will take them back without a fee
