Would it work to buy resale at a dollar directly from the resort you want?

[Fredflintstone]

I am curious. I know many of you have shared your timeshare(s) through free or bargain trades and have bought on EBay.

Let’s say there is a specific resort you want to own. To save time, I know resorts have non performing inventory. I wonder if they would sell for a dollar just to get a paying MF?

I have phoned a couple of resorts today and enquired. Both of them told me they have inventory to sell BUT they want 50 percent of retail price. One resort said they would rather wait on getting 50 percent retail and just rent out the unit or bill other owners for the loss.

It seems resorts are not desperate to get paying MF owners? You would think they would rather sell for a buck as the future MF is a much better investment. Not to mention, they free the other owners from future MF costs through bad debt expense.

Question. Have any of you been successful buying directly from the resort you want and did you get a great deal? If so, how do you do it? Have any of you bought a week from your chosen resort for a buck directly from the resort?




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[Fredflintstone]

I should add the two resorts I called were older resorts that were passed on to the HOA. I didn’t call any resorts still under developer control. I knew if they were still actively selling by the developer they would not budge.


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[T-Dot-Traveller]

It depends on the resort -I have sometimes looked on “legacy resort “ websites and seen off-season weeks for $ 400-700. High season were up to $ 3-4K

A TUG member who was an owner at a small Gulf Shores Alabama area resort did a listing in the bargain / free sub-forum : of HOA weeks the resort would transfer to a qualified “buyer” for free about 2 years ago . The weeks were Jan- Feb and the MF per week was in the $600 or less range . I am not sure if any were taken - I thought it was a good strategy , and a good deal for someone from Minnesota or Manitoba etc. who wanted a month away from winter every year for about $ 2000 .

 

[missyrcrews]

My resort gives away shoulder weeks at their weekly social. Folks who are interested put their name in a hat, and they draw a name. This past summer when we were there, they gave away two sleeps 8 units...one was Columbus Day weekend, and one the week prior. (Had to sit on my hands to keep from putting my name in!) The recipient pays about $100 closing costs, and then they own. My late October week was picked up this way. It's smaller...just sleeps 6 and has one bath...but it gets 20 TPUs in RCI. I can pull an early summer week with that most years. Not bad! When we retire, then we'll use it and not trade, since we actually prefer quieter times for travel.

 

[bogey21]

For a number of years I owned at six different HOA Controlled Independents. Every time I used my Week I would make sure to talk to the Resort Managers to see if anything new was going on. I think it is fair to say that as a general rule these Resorts would give away (or sell for next to nothing) undesirable Weeks but would want reasonable money for desirable Weeks...

George

 

[easyrider]

Vacation Internationale offered to extend our RTU for ten years if we paid $5000. The sales woman, Gabby in Mazatlan, is a very likable and easy person to talk to. No pressure. She also threw in two weeks at the Mazatlan Torre in building A. The thing that stopped me was I had a few issues with my heath back then and I think I can buy a VI contract resale for very little which would be like the one that I have.
If they would have said $1 I may bought.

Bill

 

[Big Matt]

Here's the problem as I see it. The resort can probably just take it back from the delinquent owner without foreclosing. Many people would give it back just to get rid of it. At that point the developer or property manager can simply rent it out to cover their costs. I think your better option is to find the people who want to give it away and just buy from them. Just make sure there aren't delinquent maintenance fees. And also remember that they were wanting to give it away for a reason. If it has nothing to do with the resort and more to do with their unwillingness to keep it forever, go get it.

 

[tschwa2]

I agree if it is a week that is good enough to rent for at least as much as MF's then there is no incentive to sell for $1. If it is a week that they can not fairly reliably rent out to at least cover MF's then they should sell for $50 or less.

 

[Dori]

We purchased a second week at our home resort for $1. Our first week cost us $2000 for a Christmas week. We owned those weeks for almost 20 years and traded into some great resorts, many of them Gold crown. Once in a while, the resort would offer "one-shot" deals for less than $100, where owners could pick up a week for a single use. This helped them to address the problem of delinquent owners. I used many of these very cheap weeks to cobble together 3 or 4 weeks in Florida in the winter.


As our resort aged (along with the owners of weeks), we voted to sell the resort and each owner received a share of the proceeds. We loved our ownership over the years, and were so happy with the outcome of the sale.

BTW, the resort (Harbour Inn, in Brechin, Ontario), is now a Knights Inn.

Dori

 

[Fredflintstone]

It’s great to see some legacy resorts giving away (or almost) to get them performing and thus saving other owners added expenses.

I can see them keeping the “better” weeks as long as they can consistently rent them out. However, renting is never guaranteed given the competition. A renter has so many options ranging from hotels, motels, other resort, etc.


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[dioxide45]

Perhaps for some of these smaller resorts, the members of the BOD (also owners) don't want to be faced with the reality that their weeks are only worth $1, so they don't want to sell the HOA controlled inventory for $1. They would rather live with the false reality that it is still worth 50% of retail...