Separation Anxiety- Lifestyle change causes need for less timeshares.

[Panina]

For the last few years since early retirement I have been traveling timeshares between 16-20 weeks a year and loved every minute of it. This week we will be closing on a new home in an active community where there are lots of things to do.

So now I have a dilemma due to my new lifestyle, what to do with my timeshares. I want to enjoy all my new community will offer as well as travel for enjoyment but I just don’t see venturing on vacation for four or five months as a want anymore thus now I have to decide which timeshares are musts and which I will sadly find new homes for.

This past year prior to deciding to move I had too many timeshares and already found new homes for three. One I gave to a fellow tugger, it wasn’t listed just through emailing, another I gave back to the HOA for a closing fee of $375 and the last I was able to sell through the HOA realtor netting almost double of what I paid for it from ebay. I just also listed another with another HOA realtor that feels it will sell quickly and I priced it low. It was another week I got and enjoyed from ebay.

My four Banyan Key West weeks I will definitely keep. Now I have to decide between my North Carolina mountain weeks, Myrtle Beach weeks and Marco Island weeks, which ones to say bye bye to. I love going to them all and they all trade well too.

I am having separation anxiety. I worked so hard putting my portfolio together it is so hard to choose which ones to let go of. Meanwhile I have rented five of my weeks coming up while I decide.

I am thrilled to be moving and I consider myself fortunate that I am. I already made new friends in my new community. So much to do, not enough time. Eventually I will figure it out.

 

[WinniWoman]

This is a very exciting time for you- a new stage for your future! I think you have done a great job of divesting of a few of your timeshares already!

You have decided to keep the Key West ones- so that is done. I, of course, know nothing about your other timeshares. I guess you have to decide how many more weeks per year of vacation you would realistically take and then try to choose which timeshares to keep based on that.

With Key West- you already have the beach. Maybe keep the North Carolina mountains one? If you want to keep a little more- maybe choose the one that is closer to your new home so as you get older it will be easier to travel to?

They all trade well, so that is not a concern as you mentioned.

Maybe it will come down to which ever ones you can get rid of first?

Whichever you choose, I am sure it will be ok. What is best is just not to be overburdened with managing so many of them and freeing yourself to enjoy your new community.

Hey- there is always a dart board- eany, meany, miney, moe. LOL!

This all said- I totally get the emotional attachment to the timeshares. I am going to be going through the same thing with one of mine in another year- one we have owned for 20 years.

Best of luck with the closing!

 

[VacationForever]

Nothing to offer but we have always been in the position of having too many timeshares, more than what we can use. We did sell a week when we retired but later increased our Marriott timeshare portfolio. We then sold our Worldmark contract and a couple of Vistana weeks. I don't like to handle rentals but did one this year for 2020 and the same renter has already asked for the same weeks for 2021. Our problem worsened this year when we rejoined the country club and all we want to do is play golf here all year. It makes us not want to travel as much as golfing is one of the activities that we do when we travel to timeshare locations. We have alot of points in Marriott's system as well as II deposits. At the end of the day, we always figure out a way to use them. Worst case is that we will rent out our points in future.

 

[DaveNV]

I divested a few years ago - got rid of all the committed Weeks ownerships, and then turned right around and bought WorldMark. Life for us is a changing travel landscape, and once the Weeks became a burden, it was nice being able to own just WM credits. It's a great fit, and works for our evolving timeshare ownership model. The hardship was committing to traveling for full weeks at a time - WM's short stay options are really good for us.

My suggestion is probably one you've already considered, but I'd say take a paper calendar, and map out a year. Figure which months and weeks you "must" be in your new home, or not, and then calculate which timeframes you'll want to be in Key West. For the rest of the year, weigh the idea of traveling to your other timeshares, or staying in your new home. You may be able to use the HOA Activity Calendar to guide your scheduling, so you'll know when they're planning something you know you'll want to do. After all that, you may decide that the only timeshares you will want to keep ARE just the Key West weeks. So the decision will be made for you.

Good luck going forward. You're in a wonderful position to fully enjoy the next phase of your life.

Dave

 

[WinniWoman]

I divested a few years ago - got rid of all the committed Weeks ownerships, and then turned right around and bought WorldMark. Life for us is a changing travel landscape, and once the Weeks became a burden, it was nice being able to own just WM credits. It's a great fit, and works for our evolving timeshare ownership model. The hardship was committing to traveling for full weeks at a time - WM's short stay options are really good for us.

My suggestion is probably one you've already considered, but I'd say take a paper calendar, and map out a year. Figure which months and weeks you "must" be in your new home, or not, and then calculate which timeframes you'll want to be in Key West. For the rest of the year, weigh the idea of traveling to your other timeshares, or staying in your new home. You may be able to use the HOA Activity Calendar to guide your scheduling, so you'll know when they're planning something you know you'll want to do. After all that, you may decide that the only timeshares you will want to keep ARE just the Key West weeks. So the decision will be made for you.

Good luck going forward. You're in a wonderful position to fully enjoy the next phase of your life.

Dave

Great idea about the calendar and community activities, Dave

 

[bluehende]

With all the new friends you may want to keep them and take company with you. If some are too small this may be a small factor on which ones to keep. Of course you might become more popular than you want.

 

[pianodinosaur]

@Panina:

Marvelous news. Congratulations!!

 

[easyrider]

I would think the old saying that goes " A bird in your hand is worth two in the bush" might apply here. You know you have something you definitely like and you might have something you will definitely like. It wouldn't hurt to give it a bit of time to see how much you like the might, imo.

Another reason to keep the timeshares unless you like cold weather is it does get cold in Canada but not so much in Florida.

Bill

 

[SmithOp]

We did the same thing about 5 years ago, owned 4 weeks at the time, now down to just one Hawaii deed, and thats promised to @buzglyd when its time to let go.

We moved back to SoCal where we had previously booked weeks with trades and cash. It was a promise I made to my wife when we moved to Sacramento for career promotion 30 years ago.

Think about the places you know you can get by renting when you feel like going, no need to own those.

I kept my RCI and Interval accounts going for cash getaways, but I’m ready to let RCI drop in Feb.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Sugarcubesea]

For the last few years since early retirement I have been traveling timeshares between 16-20 weeks a year and loved every minute of it. This week we will be closing on a new home in an active community where there are lots of things to do.

So now I have a dilemma due to my new lifestyle, what to do with my timeshares. I want to enjoy all my new community will offer as well as travel for enjoyment but I just don’t see venturing on vacation for four or five months as a want anymore thus now I have to decide which timeshares are musts and which I will sadly find new homes for.

This past year prior to deciding to move I had too many timeshares and already found new homes for three. One I gave to a fellow tugger, it wasn’t listed just through emailing, another I gave back to the HOA for a closing fee of $375 and the last I was able to sell through the HOA realtor netting almost double of what I paid for it from ebay. I just also listed another with another HOA realtor that feels it will sell quickly and I priced it low. It was another week I got and enjoyed from ebay.

My four Banyan Key West weeks I will definitely keep. Now I have to decide between my North Carolina mountain weeks, Myrtle Beach weeks and Marco Island weeks, which ones to say bye bye to. I love going to them all and they all trade well too.

I am having separation anxiety. I worked so hard putting my portfolio together it is so hard to choose which ones to let go of. Meanwhile I have rented five of my weeks coming up while I decide.

I am thrilled to be moving and I consider myself fortunate that I am. I already made new friends in my new community. So much to do, not enough time. Eventually I will figure it out.

I'm so very happy for you and congrats on closing on your new home. I can not wait till I can retire at 65 and move to an active community....You did a fabulous job in putting together your portfolio and you have some stellar timeshares and I'm so happy you are able to sell them and make a profit... I'm having to downsize a few of mine as well as I have been travelling a ton for work this past year and when I do get home I just want to stay there....

Best of luck on the move and enjoy all that life has to offer in your new community...

 

[rapmarks]

I look forward to hearing about your new community. Sixteen years ago we were searching and tug friends were giving us advice.

 

[bogey21]

As we age there comes a time that travel starts becoming more difficult if not impossible. As I saw this day approaching I started the process to divest my six Weeks. All in all it took me about 3 years which worked out fine...

George

 

[rapmarks]

I was nearing the end of my timeshare days
We have the week in Door County, which we use
I had 21 tpus left, expiring this month and my search was not getting anything
I bought 67 tpus off someone that were expiring this month, combined with mine for two years, so I will be trading for two more years

 

[klpca]

Congratulations on your move! As far as the timeshares go, I agree with Bill that you might give it some more time while things shake out. If you still want to sell, I would go from highest maintenance fees to lowest maintenance fees and be done with it.

Sometimes I have a tough time making a decision so I will make an arbitrary decision first, and say "I'm selling ABC timeshare". I suddenly realize how much I like that one and decide that a different one is easier to let go. You may have to go through that exercise.

When looking at my mom and at my in-laws, all of whom love to travel, 80 seemed to be the magic age where it became less fun to travel than it used to be. My in-laws stopped traveling completely. My mom has just slowed down and is doing less overseas travel. So we figure that by 80 we will ditch the timeshares; god willing that we make it to 80!

 

[DancingWaters]

Sounds like a great problem, refresh my memory of where you decided to purchase a retirement home?
I’m jealous, sounds like your new home will be like vacation every day of the year. I’m think you can rent a few out until you decide what you really want to keep. Love your exciting future.

 

[bbodb1]

@Panina - I only have a moment here but this thought did occur to me. You are focusing on what you are giving up (in terms of those weeks you may be divesting) - perhaps if you shifted your focus to the joy and pleasure those weeks produced it may reorient an anxiety toward more positive memories.

I say that because you are clearly employing common sense here - you just can't keep all these weeks anymore and make good sensible use of them. Embrace the memories they brought you and your family and perhaps focus on the fact they may bring the same joy to others. Our needs change throughout life and you certainly are in one of those periods of life where need changes are more dynamic.

I suppose this is akin to remodeling a home - sometimes not everything you replace truly needs replacing but you still see the joy in the final product.

Hope that makes sense....

 

[pittle]

We have downsized our timeshares down to 4 weeks now. We do go to Puerto Vallarta for 3 every November, so that leaves one for some other time or for the "kids" to use if we do not have plans for it * it is the only one we use for exchanges. That one may go by the wayside in a year or so. A friend wants to rent my 2020 week, so that one is not a problem right now.

But, we have started using VRBO some for additional weeks because if we are driving to a location, we like to take our cocker spaniel with us. We have rented a condo on the ocean in Rosarito several times for 4 weeks and it was nice to escape the Phoenix heat and have Kyle with us. I have booked a week in PV for next November in the Romantica Zone just because we always thought that would be fun to try.

Fewer timeshare weeks give you more options.