What is the BEST choice?

[falmouth3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close falmouth3]

I. I love this one. I split it into a 1BR and a 2BR - make summer reservations - give to II and get ACs for each. Fees are only $595 every other year. So, I end up getting 4 weeks everyother year for this one. Total cost a few months ago was about $1,400 after closing costs and resort transfer.

This sounded interesting so I checked it out. There are 2 of these weeks currently on eBay. One exactly as described above. It looks like the selling price is going to be low. But I'm shocked that there is a $500 resort transfer fee. Isn't that extraordinarily high?

In any case, it does sound intriguing.

Sue

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

But the best approach will be to get 3 year RTU RCI points contract that advertise in this forum, so you can play with it, and in the long run, it is the cheapest deal in most of the cases.

Jya-Ning

Come to think of it. If by 0-60, you mean you can go any day, not just the 0 to 60 days from the day you want to go (i have friend told me they can not decided until very short time, so they are quite flexible on 0 to 60 days, the problem is, they can only decide on the major holidays, so in 10 days before memory day, they decide they want to take vacation, they believe that is very flexible exchangewise), than there may have a better approach, here we have a lot of small excahnge companies, some does not ask for membership fee, and they all provide last min. rental. With your 2 TS, you can joint a few of them, and try to pick those up.

Cost is $0, and they usually charge only transaction fee plus very less than MF. After a while, you can decide if you want to jump at these last inventories since they have few pearls on them, or want something you can have better control of it.

Jya-Ning

[gondep Member Find all posts View Profile Close gondep]

Well - let's see:

I thinking about points, and maybe RCI. I like Wyndham - I've read that they are quality, but don't want to pay high MF. I'm already in II with my 2 TS and want another for trading. Renting (more points w/ Wyndham) is also an option. I'm also looking at the Wyndham website and have downloaded the MF spreadsheet. Also looking on TUG. I'm also looking through eBay for some good deals.

IMHO...I have put in some "work to learn" but instead of paging through thousand of posts looking for a few specific items of info, I thought I'd ask a couple of questions;

but I guess it's too much trouble. Maybe you've been spending too much time in front of a computer, if you haven't got the patience to answer (or even IGNORE??) a question that you've seen a few times...How tough is it to click on the next post?

INSTEAD:

I get complete strangers telling me to do more work, that I am an addict, that I need to stay where I buy, I have to read posts from "end to end" (from some knucklehead who's slogan is "Get a Life"? Who's he trying to fool? Read all the posts...who's got no life? I would almost say no sense of humour either, Spence, but I read your Voila - Viola post and thought if quite funny)

Maybe it's time to back away from the PC if you're too cranky to not say anything, instead of making snap judgements.

Wow. I just wanted to say that most of the time on this board, which I've only been a part of for less than a year, the answers you get are better than this. I guess people like me who are newish assume that everyone else knows more, and at some point you gain enough knowledge that you assume posts asking questions like yours are comming from newbies.

I agree with you that although the answers to your question are probably already out there in various threads, I clicked on this thread to read the responses all in one place which I thought would be nice.

Anyways to address your original question ... sort of ... I own at Eagle Point in Colorado. I have not traded it yet, but I have rented them. I have one winter 1BR EOY and a winter 1BR annual. The MFs for each use year is around $550. The purchase price was around $2000 for each use year. And I have rented them out for around $1000 for each use year. I'll also add that I rent them through the resort which is important to me - I do absolutely nothing except reserve a week and place that week in their rental queue.

So I read your question as value and I think my Eagle Point is a great value. After 4 years I've paid off my purchase price and I'll take my $400ish profit per use year and use it however I choose.

[jericap Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close jericap]

If I only wanted to use a TS to exchange:

What would be the cheapest unit to buy, with the lowest MF. (Understand it may not have the greatest trading power - probably used from 0 to 60 days out)

What would be the best VALUE (considering a moderate trading power)

The best number/combination of rooms? (4 bedroom lockoff? 3 Bedroom?)

What about points? (Wyndham?)

Finally: trading companies - II or RCI?

Well - let's see:

I thinking about points, and maybe RCI. I like Wyndham - I've read that they are quality, but don't want to pay high MF. I'm already in II with my 2 TS and want another for trading. Renting (more points w/ Wyndham) is also an option. I'm also looking at the Wyndham website and have downloaded the MF spreadsheet. Also looking on TUG. I'm also looking through eBay for some good deals.

IMHO...I have put in some "work to learn" but instead of paging through thousand of posts looking for a few specific items of info, I thought I'd ask a couple of questions;

but I guess it's too much trouble. Maybe you've been spending too much time in front of a computer, if you haven't got the patience to answer (or even IGNORE??) a question that you've seen a few times...How tough is it to click on the next post?

INSTEAD:

I get complete strangers telling me to do more work, that I am an addict, that I need to stay where I buy, I have to read posts from "end to end" (from some knucklehead who's slogan is "Get a Life"? Who's he trying to fool? Read all the posts...who's got no life? I would almost say no sense of humour either, Spence, but I read your Voila - Viola post and thought if quite funny)

Maybe it's time to back away from the PC if you're too cranky to not say anything, instead of making snap judgements.

Wow. I just wanted to say that most of the time on this board, which I've only been a part of for less than a year, the answers you get are better than this. I guess people like me who are newish assume that everyone else knows more, and at some point you gain enough knowledge that you assume posts asking questions like yours are comming from newbies.

I agree with you that although the answers to your question are probably already out there in various threads, I clicked on this thread to read the responses all in one place which I thought would be nice.

So I read your question as value and I think my Eagle Point is a great value. After 4 years I've paid off my purchase price and I'll take my $400ish profit per use year and use it however I choose.

These are not so easy to answer, it's just that a lot depends on personal preference. There is some subjective opinion that goes into this equation.
Give a specific resort, time frame, cost and you will get lots of answers.

Cheapest Unit: What do you consider cheap? there is a lot on ebay that go "cheap" but you may not be able to trade well with it. It will also depend on what exchange company you go with.

Lowest MF's: I'm not sure what you consider low MF's. Everything has gone up, and my personal opinion is that I would want to make sure there is enough in reserves as to not pay an assessment if something happens. I also want the unit in good shape; not necessarily 5 star, but everything working. We may have different ideas as to what is cheap. 7k for Marriott is usually cheap

Point programs: There are many points prgrams, but you have to learn about them. One way is to go to a presentation and then come back and ask questions of something you're not clear about. See this link

Number of bedrooms: more bedrooms equal more maintenance fees. How do you travel? with family, friends?

Value: what is it worth to you? I have places that I absolutely love and paid retail for it, yet some people wouldn't buy it for $1.

Trading companies: RCI has more resorts than II, but there are also many independents that specialize. See this link

I hope this helps...

Oh, as far as the addiction thing...I started with one and now have 6 and a points program...easy to do...especially of you like to travel. Many of us have bought and bought..etc...

[gophish Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close gophish]

Yah...right....from end to end...

...ahhhhhhhh...got a life, and don't quite have the time.

Was hoping to tap into some others experiences.

Sorry for troubling you. I guess I'll try elsewhere...

Don't take what one person post as how we all feel. Most folks here are very willing to try to answer questions that are asked by new folks as well as by veterans.
I used to hang out a lot on the old FF/Wyndham board and the administrator there, a fellow named Keith, was always admonising new folks to read before they asked their questions, which I always thought really put off the new posters. Turns out Keith was an ex-teacher and treated everyone like he was still teaching. lol Don't get me wrong you should read here whenever you can but don't be afraid to ask a question just because it might have been asked or answered before. Someone will answer or post a link to where you can find an answer.

On your specific question:
You should look at the ebay auctions for TS's and also on the classifieds here and over on TUG. Although you said you don't care as much about trading power, but don't just settle for anything. Look around there are some pretty good sales on properties that may trade fairly well. Also when you are looking,look at the maintenance fees also, as you might find a real deal but if the MF are too high it's not really a bargain. I own Wyndham points and you can find resale contracts for these also. However, these haven't been drawing as well in RCI as they used to (still not bad, but can't see the real good stuff).
Anyway keep asking and some will answer you and hopefully those that don't want to answer will just not answer instead of giving you a bunch of crap.
Stick around, in general this is a great group with a lot of knowledge of the TS business.

[BoardGirl Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BoardGirl]

"Best" is very subjective and there are a lot of factors here. Best price, best location, best system, best maint, best customer service, best quality, best activities, best in terms of huge units ....

Really, not kidding, you will have to determine Best For YOU as best for me is not likely best for you. I own in Bluegreen and it works great for us.

Good start - you've determined your priorities. You've looked into a few things. It looks like maybe you need to rank these things in importance as I just can't weight these factors for you. Is cheaper ongoing maintenance more important than maint + high closing cost? Or is "All In" first year costs the biggest factor? I don't know. Is high quality a bigger concern than costs?

And I'm confused on one point - you say you only want to use it to trade, but ok with not so good trading power. Are you sure you're ok with that? Maybe you mentioned where you'd like to go on trade and I missed it. Depending on where you are looking to go, low - medium trading power will not get you there.

[Kimberly614 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Kimberly614]

If you are already in II with your other timeshares, why not just use their getaways instead of buying another week? Some getways are ridiculously cheap, require no commitment, no worry about maintenance fees or special assessments, no additional membership fee (ie RCI), no exchange fee...