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Our Survey-thanks for your help!

Vacationtlw

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1) Where do you want your home resort to be? High trade value property

2) Do you want to visit your home resort at least half the time, or do you want to trade more than half the time?trade

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations? Bora bora, Arizona, Atlantis, Mexico, Spain

4) How many people do you usually travel with? 1 week with 2 people. 1 week with 4-6 people.

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule? 2 anytime. Larger group typically school schedule.

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance? Yes

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time? Yes

8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars?5

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?$60k

10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year? $5k

11) Are you a detail oriented planner?yes

12) Do you understand that once you buy a timeshare, it may be very difficult to sell or give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do? Yes
 

theo

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
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With all due respect, if you would actually spend $60k on a timeshare purchase and then be willing to pony up $5k annually in maintenance fees, why even bother with considering a timeshare at all? :confused::shrug::confused:

That $60k upfront (and another $5k per year) will pay for a few vacations without the eternal, annual maintenance fees or the time consuming gyrations and uncertainties (and ever-changing rules) associated with playing the "exchange game".

Go where you want, when you want, on your own terms and pay for it. Forget owning and "trading" timeshares. Just my personal $0.02 worth.
 
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DeniseM

Moderator
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Resorts Owned
WKORV, WKV, 2-SDO, 4-Kauai Beach Villas, Island Park Village (Yellowstone), Hyatt High Sierra, Dolphin's Cove (Anaheim)
This is the problem - With a timeshare that costs $60K with a $5K maintenance fee, you will never get your value out of it when trading, because you will not find equivalent timeshares to trade for. It's like depositing a Mercedes in a pool of Chevys. Generally, owners use or rent high dollar properties.

For a trader, you want an inexpensive resale timeshare purchase, with high-ish trading power. This is an advanced level strategy.

I recommend that you start with a re-sale home resort, drive-to distance from your home, that you would enjoy using yourself, while you learn the system.

Also - only the hotel affiliated timeshares are consistently 5 Star. Primarily: Marriott, Westin, Hyatt, Hilton.
 

Joe33426

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
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Jul 9, 2013
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Location
Boynton Beach, FL / Great Neck, NY
Resorts Owned
Cove at Yarmouth, Star Island, La Belle Maison, Grand Desert, and Bali Hai Villas
Go where you want, when you want, on your own terms and pay for it. Forget owning and "trading" timeshares. Just my personal $0.02 worth.

OP - this is really great advice. Trading timeshares isn't likely to get you the 5-star accommodations you are looking for.

But, if you're really looking to buy a timeshare, my recommendation for you would be to consider buying some MVC Destination Points (Marriott). Buying into the point based system isn't cheap, even on the resale market, but the resorts are probably of the quality that you're used to and the locations are good. You'd have the flexibility to go to a lot of locations in the US, Europe, Caribbean, and Asia-Pacific.

The locations are on page two of the points chart:

http://www.marriottvacationclub.com...Tools/resorts/charts/pdfDisplay/2018_full.pdf
 
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