When are your MFs due?

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

Mine are only about $3,800 but I have that more than covered by renting out my 3 Aruba weeks for $4,300. My 2 Playa Linda weeks are due in October but I have already paid them so I could get my renters their written confirmations. The rest are due December/January.

That's a great plan but I haven't necessarily been the brightest when it's comes to purchasing timeshares. First, four of ours are in Vegas and two others are in Branson, MO. Not exactly hot spots for renting units out to even cover MF's let alone making enough to cover all of them. The other is we just keep right on using them rather than attempting to rent them out for profit.

I guess one other problem could be owning two Marriott 3 bedroom units. Marriott has to have some of the highest (if not THE highest) MF's in the industry. Those really affect our total due at the end of the year. Those two weeks alone accounted for over $2,500 of our MF's for last year. It's just that we REALLY love our Marriott weeks. Of all the weeks we own those two weeks would be the last to go if we absolutely had to ever let any week go.

There are MUCH better ways of purchasing and owning timeshares than how we've done it but, we bought what we wanted, own where we want to own and we've been able to use the heck out of them since day one. Keeping that in mind I don't feel so bad about the whole deal. Especially since my intentions are to own them until the bitter end. But you know how intentions are so we'll just have to see what life has in store for us down the road.

[Lisa P Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lisa P]

2BR/points is due in September (~$570) - it includes RCI and it goes further than just one week.

2BR fixed is due in January (~$400), no prepayment needed to deposit a week.

2BR floating is due in January (~$450), but it's better to prepay it so it can be deposited earlier.

So the total (~$1420) is manageable and spread out pretty well through the year. As long as we don't have to pay a maint fee the same month as an actual trip, when we need cash for gas, food, sights, etc., we're okay with this.

Over the last decade, our family has been able to afford more fun and bring along more guests with our timeshares, even with exchange costs added. Ours were all well-priced resales. We drive to most destinations and usually eat in. The alternative (suite hotels) would have cost more and cut down on our travel.

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

I own WM and pay quarterly. The Hawaii week I just sold was quarterly as well. Certainly makes it easier to handle. Then all I have to do is buy airfare or activities....or food. It sure is nice to know your accomodations are ready and waiting for you to arrive without additional funds
I really like owning credits (points) I never have to worry about prepaying MF's to request an exchange or reserve a week.

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

Due Jan 1-- so nice right after xmas... for a whopping $739-- 579 Maint fee and 155 taxes....

Since its broken out I am gonna try deducting the taxes this year!

oh and this is a LO unit!! so I usually get two weeks for one!

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

Due Jan 1-- so nice right after xmas... for a whopping $739-- 579 Maint fee and 155 taxes....

Since its broken out I am gonna try deducting the taxes this year!

oh and this is a LO unit!! so I usually get two weeks for one!

For that last several years I've deducted the property taxes on all my units that seperate them out, which I believe is all 7 units now.

Since most of ours are due in January as well I started a plan of putting away a little bit of money into a savings account each payday. My employer makes it easy with the automatic deposit of my paycheck. I can divide my paycheck deposit into as many as three seperate accounts, either checking or savings.

In your case you'd only have to put a about $65/month away and you'd have enough money at the end of the year to take care of the MF bill without breaking a sweat after Christmas. Or you could put a little extra away, like $70/month, and be prepared for that inevitable increase that comes each year as taxes/insurance and the cost of general maintenance/payroll goes up.

One other thing to do is call your CS department and see about paying your bill in July rather than January. Some will allow you to pay the amount equal to last year's bill early and catch up the difference when the BOD/HOA sets it's annual budget at the end of the year. Of course I'm certain there are some resorts that won't allow you to do this as I'm sure it takes a little extra book keeping work and probably costs a little more for the resort to keep track of all the early pays. On the other hand you'd like to think they'd be happy to have the money in their bank account earning interest rather than the yearly mad rush of everyone paying at the same time.