First, it’s currently a sellers market. If you’re not in a hurry, you’re better off buying in November or December. I bought a Branson contract for $1 on eBay in the beginning of November. That same contract sold for $510 in May the following year.
With that said, the main reason I would buy a contract deeded to a resort is if I wanted to be able to book it 13 months out during the ARP period. Everyone else has to book at the 11 or 10 month mark (Gold and Platinum VIP can book RARP 11 months out). If you are going to go during a week that is going to book up fast, you’ll want that advantage. If not, you might be better off going with a lower Mf resort. The down side to that is, you will not find those for $1. Any resort with Mf less then $5 per 1,000 points is going to go for hundreds or the thousands of dollars. As one wise old man once told me....(I think his name was Ronparise?
) you either pay for it now, or you pay for it later. So you either pay a bunch of money now for the lower fees or pay for it over time in the form of high Mf. If you plan on keeping it for less then five years, I wouldn’t sweat the MF because you wont save anything.
One thing you may not be considering is your exit plan. When we purchased our house, I was looking at more then just number bedrooms, bathrooms, Sqft,etc. I was looking at resale. How easy would it be for us to sell the house if we had to up and leave for a job relocation and had to get out fast. It sounds odd to think of an exit strategy before you even put down a contract, but you have to. Timeshares are the same in that you have to think, can I dump this quickly if I have to? If you have to get out fast, the quickest route is Ovations. Ovations does not take every contract back. I don’t know if they take Old Town Alexandria. I know they take CWA, National Harbor, Bonnet Creek, and other popular choices. I’m not trying to discourage you from buying that contract, but do some research and look to see if that auction had been up multiple times before it had a buyer. If you look at completed listings and see a ton of Old town Alexandria listings with no buyers, that’s not a good sign. If you do need that specific resort, get it. Just be prepared that if you have to get rid of it, you might have to pay the maintenance fees for upwards of a year while you are searching for a buyer and waiting for the transfer.