NewB Help / Info

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

So about 9 months ago we were in Belize and approached by a timeshare saleswoman and went through the toar and sales pitch. I did not end up buying anything but it sounded really interesting. When I returned home the information was tossed and forgotten about until this past weekend when a local timeshare tried to sell us a dump. Since then I've been thinking about buying that timeshare in Belize, not so much because of the dump but because we really liked it and like Belize.

So this past week I've been trying to figure out exactly what this whole thing is with RCI and timeshares and if a timeshare is a good thing or not. It sounds like one of those things that is too good to be true. From what I have been able to determine If I was to buy a timeshare in Belize I would own 2/52 (2 weeks) of a year of THAT property. Where RCI comes in is giving you the ability to say ok I want to go somewhere else this year so they will facilitate the trade. Now the question is what if no one wants to go to my timeshare when I want to go elsewhere? Do the times have to match? Can you go even if RCI doesnt find someone to take yours? What if you want to sell your week, can you only sell the location in Belize or can I sell anyplace within the network and do the trade?

The next confusing thing is pricing the timeshares. The timeshare in belize is supposedely a 1 for 2 trade so for 1 week in Belize I can get 2 weeks in a standard other place. In addition if I get a 2 bedroom I can trade that for 2 1 bedrooms or double the time in 1 bedroom. Is that all correct? Then there are levels Silver gold etc. I was looking at the top level, the price was $30,000 for a two bedroom. Does that sound reasonable or comparable to other places? The reason I ask is because what if I just buy a place in say Kansas for like $5000 and I can trade it each year for the palce in Belize? Then I can get the $30,000 one for $5000 essentially? Unless as above RCI has to find a trade or you cant go elsewhere.

Lastly, when I look for places to stay in RCI's online book a lot of them are not hotels so I cant go to the hotels web site and see pictures of the place. What is the quality of the places? How is the location? I like staying within walking distance to everything when in a city or on the beach when at the beach, what has been your expereince?

And I guess very lastly, should I do this? Is it worth it? Have you been satisfied? Is it better when you have kids? Would the top level bring your vacation expereince to a whole new level?

Thanks for reading through this and any feedback is greatly appreciated.

[aliikai2 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close aliikai2]

1st thing is forget all the sales lies

that you were told on the tour. You don't get 2 1bedrooms for a 2 bedroom, you don't get 2 weeks for your one, $30,000 is way too much unless this is a Westin, Marriott, Hilton, Four Seasons branded unit.
Now, the standard advice is to buy where you want to travel, so if returning to belize for 2 weeks per year is what you want, then maybe you can justify this purchase.
If on the other hand you want to travel to US destinations, other places, then you are involved with a 3rd party trade company such as RCI. They have membership fees, trade costs, and a surprising lack of inventory now due to their rental programs.
The best advise I can give is spend a few month reading here and on www.tug2.net , absorb what you can, then start to plan your purchase. fwiw, Greg

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Belize is a high demand location, but buying there from a developer is not something I would recommend. I second the idea of researching timesharing for a while. Buy where you want to go is a good strategy and exchanging timeshares increases the cost of a vacation by as much as $ 250 per week. Though you may love a place that you have to fly to- it does get expensive and adds to the cost of a vacation. In this case you also have hurricane season to consider and the quality of resort construction and it's ability to withstand a storm. Many timeshare owners are hit with special assessments for repairs after a damaging storm hits.

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

First thing to do to become educated with Timeshares is read Timeshare 101 by Steve Nelson on the advice page of TUG link

Next, Belize is a great location but do you want to travel there for 2 weeks every year? If not I'd buy something with a more local flavor. Personally, I like TS with many mulitple locations. A company like worldmark (or Fairfield, Bluegreen, Sunterra, ect... ) which has over 50 locations in N. America which you can travel without having to trade with RCI. And if you want to use RCI, WM has good trading power making it easier to trade to where you wnat to go.

You should be able to buy a great TS for less than $10K or a name brand TS like Marriott, Westin or Hilton for less than $20K. You can also become more educated and pick one up for <$500 like we did a couple of months ago on Ebay.

Good Luck

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

The 1st advice I got in TS is to buy a place you plan to be there for vacation at least 50% of the time. I think it make perfect sense.

Exchange through a company is 2ndary.

Where RCI comes in is giving you the ability to say ok I want to go somewhere else this year so they will facilitate the trade. Now the question is what if no one wants to go to my timeshare when I want to go elsewhere? Do the times have to match? Can you go even if RCI doesnt find someone to take yours? What if you want to sell your week, can you only sell the location in Belize or can I sell anyplace within the network and do the trade?

I guess that resort is affilated with RCI. Once you decide you want to go other place, you deposit it to RCI, at this moment, RCI will take yours without needing other one actually takes your week for you to try to exchange from RCI. However depends on where you want to go, you may or may not get a week you like. Like if there are few resorts in your destination or if most owner just use the week they purchase, or RCI just rents all the week without try to let it goes to exchanger.

The next confusing thing is pricing the timeshares. The timeshare in belize is supposedely a 1 for 2 trade so for 1 week in Belize I can get 2 weeks in a standard other place. In addition if I get a 2 bedroom I can trade that for 2 1 bedrooms or double the time in 1 bedroom. Is that all correct?

Sounds like they (RCI) will give you a bonus week when you deposit. Usually, the bonus week has little value since their trading power is not that strong. You will pay exchange fee, sometimes, it maybe more expensive than last call provide by RCI or some small exchange company.

If their 2BR is so called lock-out unit, you can lock-out and split it to either 2 1 BD or 1 VR and 1 stdio. So potentially, you can deposit 4 weeks into RCI

Then there are levels Silver gold etc. I was looking at the top level, the price was $30,000 for a two bedroom. Does that sound reasonable or comparable to other places? The reason I ask is because what if I just buy a place in say Kansas for like $5000 and I can trade it each year for the palce in Belize? Then I can get the $30,000 one for $5000 essentially? Unless as above RCI has to find a trade or you cant go elsewhere.

1. You may not be able to exchange to Belize.
2. Depends on MF plus the RCI exchange fee, plus RCI memebership fee, it maybe more costly to buy elsewhere and expect to exchange to someplace you plan to be there most of the time.

In RCI week system, if you don't have certain "trading power", you will never be able to see some "high trading power" resort at normal situation. You may expect to see them when RCI decide it is really hopeless and open to exchange pool and it is at 45 days or shorter in the travel time. And "trading power" is pretty much determine by resort, the week you purchased.

Even if you have super trading power, the resort you plan to visit may not have anyone plan to deposit the week you can travel.

Silver gold benefits can be changed, so don't depends on it too much. It is a samll kick back to reward your overpayment.

I don't think you can find a resell there easily, but most of TS in US if the developer does not keep the value will cost you less than $3000 for 2 BD in a prime time. If you plan to use as exchange, there are a lots cost $1 (of course, the MF is unbearable) with little or no trading power.

Lastly, when I look for places to stay in RCI's online book a lot of them are not hotels so I cant go to the hotels web site and see pictures of the place. What is the quality of the places? How is the location? I like staying within walking distance to everything when in a city or on the beach when at the beach, what has been your expereince?

You can try tripadvisor. Or just go rent some from here, or other renting place.

And I guess very lastly, should I do this? Is it worth it? Have you been satisfied? Is it better when you have kids? Would the top level bring your vacation expereince to a whole new level?

It depends on how you plan to use the TS to travel. It is very restrict, not as flexible as rental, or hotel stay. You may want to rent one and see if you like tit. Like hotel, there are good one and bad one.

With kids, you probably will not go fly out every year, then buying in Belize may not be good.

Personally, I think TS is a commitment to take vacation at least X amount of time per year. So you need to make sure you can take it.

Jya-Ning

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

May I ask which Belize timeshare you were a? Following are the ones we have in the new resorts database here on the site:

http://www.timeshareforums.com/resor...nd%20Caribbean

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

Hi, thanks for all your replies. I started reading some of your links.

The timeshare was the Villas at Banyan Bay

And I will definately check the resale market, I actually started to but got side tracked.

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

Now the question is what if no one wants to go to my timeshare when I want to go elsewhere?

You can still go elsewhere.

Do the times have to match?

No.

Can you go even if RCI doesnt find someone to take yours?

Yes.

What if you want to sell your week, can you only sell the location in Belize or can I sell anyplace within the network and do the trade?

I think you mean rent rather than sell. You may rent out the week you own. You may sell it permanently. You may not rent out a week you obtained via an RCI exchange.

The next confusing thing is pricing the timeshares. The timeshare in belize is supposedely a 1 for 2 trade so for 1 week in Belize I can get 2 weeks in a standard other place. In addition if I get a 2 bedroom I can trade that for 2 1 bedrooms or double the time in 1 bedroom. Is that all correct? ?

Is it a two bedroom lockoff? If so, you could deposit it in RCI as 1 2BR or as 2 1BRs. You may be able to trade a 1 BR for a 2BR sometimes. Sometimes you may end up trading a 2BR for a 1BR.

Then there are levels Silver gold etc. I was looking at the top level, the price was $30,000 for a two bedroom. Does that sound reasonable or comparable to other places? The reason I ask is because what if I just buy a place in say Kansas for like $5000 and I can trade it each year for the palce in Belize? Then I can get the $30,000 one for $5000 essentially? Unless as above RCI has to find a trade or you cant go elsewhere.?

Weeks for locations and times that are high demand, low supply have high trading power with RCI. These are not necessarily high priced weeks. I recommend buying someplace you want to revisit and checking into resale prices before buying from the developer.

Lastly, when I look for places to stay in RCI's online book a lot of them are not hotels so I cant go to the hotels web site and see pictures of the place. What is the quality of the places? How is the location? I like staying within walking distance to everything when in a city or on the beach when at the beach, what has been your expereince?

The TUG reviews and RCI reviews are sources of information about the quality of a resort. IMHO, some timeshares are within walking distance to everything but they are the exception rather than the rule.
[QUOTE=anonfoo]
And I guess very lastly, should I do this? Is it worth it? Have you been satisfied? Is it better when you have kids? Would the top level bring your vacation expereince to a whole new level?
QUOTE]

I would recommend studying timeshares, and renting one for a vacation before you decide whether or not to buy one. We enjoy our timeshare vacations. Some would argue that since RCI is renting excess inventory to the general public at sites such as Snap Travel, the need to own timeshares has diminished somewhat. You aren't likely to be able to get high demand, low supply locations this way without paying high rental fees. Most of what is available for rent will be excess inventory.

Staying in a 2BR condo in a resort with children's activities, a pool, a playground, and other recreational activities for children is much more pleasant for the whole family when compared to a motel room. Please note that summer (when school is out) is a high demand season. While your children are in school, it may be difficult to trade into high demand locations during the summer because their owners will want to use them themselves. This is a reason to own a week someplace you would want to revisit, and the week should be a time of year when your children will not be in school. I also like the idea of buying in a minisystem such as Fairfield, Bluegreen, DVC, HGVC, Marriott, etc.

IMHO, just going from a motel room to a condo brings one's vacation to a whole new level.

[SOS8260456 Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close SOS8260456]

Lots of great advice here. We were fortunate that we started off with a resale, but we didn't research all of our options and learned by purchasing and and the selling quite a few timeshares before we found a timeshare system that we felt worked best for us. Thankfully we were able to get out of each purchase with little to no loss. A few of those early purchases were "deals that I just had to act on now before they got away". There are some deals like that out there, but quite frankly, there is usually always a similiar if not better deal around the corner. So never feel pressured to purchase anything without doing lots of comparisons and lots of research.

Welcome to the world of timesharing!

Lisa