Opinions Please - When to give up ownership & and just rent

[BWD6 Member Find all posts View Profile Close BWD6]

Hi,
I have been a very satisfied BG owner for about 6 years. My family has enjoyed our many vacations to Bluegreen destinations and has forever changed my definition of "vacation" for the better. It has most definitely been one of our better decisions to get involved with BG and timeshares.

Having said that, in light of the nearly double digit maintenance fee increases over the last couple years, the costs are getting high enough now that I am questioning getting out entirely and just renting from other people when I want to vacation. I am currently a Platinum owner and I have been fortunate to have acquired most of my points on the secondary market but yet enjoy all of the Premier benefits. I will certainly miss some of those benefits but at what point does the cost of maintenance fees outweigh the benefits of membership?
When I got into BG, it was not with the intent of making money although I have had success renting out units over the years to cover fees. However, when maintenance fees are creeping up to 5 cents/point and rentals going for 7 to 10 cents/point, a person is almost better off just renting the units from someone else and avoiding all the hassles of ownership.

I would welcome any and all viewpoints/opinions and your thoughts on this subject and where that break point is for all of you.

Thank you for your consideration.
David

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

I would welcome any and all viewpoints/opinions and your thoughts on this subject and where that break point is for all of you.

I would hang onto the points for a while yet. Why sell in a buyer's market?

Right now we have a small points ownership and rent more points than we own. Which probably means we're paying a more per point than we would simply renting, but I like being able to check availability myself and track what's likely to be available when we want to go in a few years and whatnot. We'd have to be pretty seriously pinched before we'd give up our BG ownership entirely.

Are you using the points pretty regularly? In your place I might sell some and hang onto some.

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

Only you can decide when it is better to own vs rent. It depends on many factors. In our case we are going to sell our timeshare later this year after we use our July 4th week. We have been timeshare owners for 23 years but it no longer suits our preferences. We will stay in either luxury hotels or rent a timeshare week whichever makes the most sense.

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

We reached the point of sell & rent what we need with Wyndham last year but still hang on to our favorite couple weeks based resorts as well as our RCI Points. Wyndham (like BG) keeps piling on fees and changing the program so it became too much to justify owning. We already have rented twice what we need and both times saved us at least 40% vs using our points! If that keeps up (and if anything the cost of those rentals vs owning just gets better) then selling it off looks like a genius move.

Actually we found a buyer for what we were asking so we sold. If we didn't find one we would have held on & not been too upset. But based on those first two rentals I'm really glad we made the move to rental vs own in that case.

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

I am a new BGVC owner and went that direction because of the versatility of the program. Even with the latest RCI/BGVC "enhancement" it is still a good deal for me. I can stay at La Cabana Aruba, Solara Surfside Miami Beach Oceanfront unit, Marathon Key, New Orleans, Lodge Alley and oceanfront units in Myrtle Beach. I can use Select Connections to stay in 18 Shell Vacation Club resorts. I can get RCI week and Points exchanges, I can deposit in II. I can even get hotel rooms in London Paris Barcelona....if I don't want to use for TS stays.

I have to agree that WYN has basically screwed their owners and it just keeps getting worse with the almost triple amount of points it takes to now exchange thru RCI and II - used to be 28K studio - now over 70K! - I was able to swap some of my WYN points a few years ago for a fixed week ownership at a resort I now go to every year.

If your costs ar $5 per K and rentals are $7-10....seems you should continue with your ownership as it offers great flexibility.
JMHO

[SIDA! Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SIDA!]

Ditto what Gray said. If your cost is $5 per 1000 and you can rent for more than that, I would ride it out.

The cons would be a belief in a continued decline or even flatlining of your timeshare's resale value, the inevitable rise in MFs which will eat into your profit margin and the belief that the spread you now have does not adequately compensate you for your limited choices/lack of flexibility.

I'm still investigating BG to see if its right for me. I "bought" a rental from BocaBum for The Fountains for a week. The cost is 13000 points and I paid $650. Those 13000 points cost the member at least $1,034 (assuming trust fund E and they don't own more than 13k points)

But even still...if they owned 30000 points, the one week stay at the fountains costs them around $780. So, why buy?

My calculus seems to be coming down to the following: will bonus time stays at my home resort compensate me for any net negative rent vs buy calculations. I'm still trying to get an idea of what other resorts rent for, especially my home resort.

If your home resort is of no real value to you any longer, it would seem like buying into BG at this time would be a tough proposition at this time.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Ditto what Gray said. If your cost is $5 per 1000 and you can rent for more than that, I would ride it out.

The cons would be a belief in a continued decline or even flatlining of your timeshare's resale value, the inevitable rise in MFs which will eat into your profit margin and the belief that the spread you now have does not adequately compensate you for your limited choices/lack of flexibility.

I'm still investigating BG to see if its right for me. I "bought" a rental from BocaBum for The Fountains for a week. The cost is 13000 points and I paid $650. Those 13000 points cost the member at least $1,034 (assuming trust fund E and they don't own more than 13k points)

But even still...if they owned 30000 points, the one week stay at the fountains costs them around $780. So, why buy?

My calculus seems to be coming down to the following: will bonus time stays at my home resort compensate me for any net negative rent vs buy calculations. I'm still trying to get an idea of what other resorts rent for, especially my home resort.

If your home resort is of no real value to you any longer, it would seem like buying into BG at this time would be a tough proposition at this time.

You rented a saved point reservation in off season. You would not have gotten the rate for a high season reservation.