Help...newbie might be purchasing Powhatan...

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

And I'm starting to wonder if it's a good idea.

I see several threads about Club, Trust, etc., Big MFs & Special Assesments, etc.

I know the area (lived in Richmond, VA for years).

The week (3Br summer week) is a time I could go there....but as a time share, I'd occasionally like to be able to trade it for somewhere else (yes, I know buying to trade probably isn't a great idea...however the bulk of the use would be at the facility...just a 1 in 4 year (probably) trade...and that would be for off season elsewhere).

MFs seem a bit high compared to some other places....

Any thoughts...forget it?....not as bad as it could be....?....gonna get scr*w*d by DRI if I don't pay extra for the club or trust....gonna get scr*w*d regardless...or, is it still a good buy (resale, very cheap) in a TS?

Thanks for any thoughts, ideas, etc...!

AFARR


Addendas after reading some more posts....it's a Deeded week. The owner(s) want to get rid of it because of the continuously increasing MFs (they will hold on to a week or two there).

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

If all you want is a week to use (occasional trade is fine) then all you need worry about is the annual fees. The other stuff about Trust, Club etc really doesn't matter to your deeded ownership & use/trade.

However be aware that those fees - which you commit to paying if you buy until YOU sell - are basically controlled by DRI rather than the individual owners at that resort. That is a big red flag to me along with the fact that your seller is dumping the time due to the fees!

The history of operation and maintenance under the management in place at Powhatan has not been stellar. Recently the run up in fees has been dramatic. It may be needed but, so far, the results haven't been close to the costs. Again looking at the history past attempts to get the resort back up to shape have not been done well and they seem to be in a perpetual state of "making things right". It is an extremely large resort that has been deteriorating for many years so the job is a daunting and expensive one. There may be much better, and less expensive, choices for your purchase. Think it over very carefully before accepting this offer. The true cost are the fees and they are most likely only headed up.

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

Thanks for the reply...

I'm tired of sponging off the In-Laws timeshares, and was looking for something in the summer (have kids in school for another 3 and 5 years respectively), relatively easy drive (about 6 to 7 hours) from where we live.

The "seller" (I pay closing and take over 2011 MFs, no cost on the property) has 4 units there...and the MFs are about $1000 on each...when they got them, they were about 1/2 of that. I normally see MFs in the $500 to $600 range for most TSs, so they are definitely high. The seller says that $200 of the $1000 is part of the Special Assessment for repairs/refurb.

Being that its a summer week...it looks like they are hard to find or expensive during that season (isn't it week 23 to 35 are generally Memorial-->Labor Day).

So, the $1k isn't terrible for use during that season...and if I can trade it occasionally (probably 1/4th of the time), even for a 2 BR (instead of the 3 Br it is), I'd be ahead of the game......

However.....if the MFs have a $2 or $3k special "assesment" (as was rumored in one post), then it becomes cost prohibitive....or, if I can't trade the week ever unless I join the Trust or Club (for a good deal of extra $$), it probably wouldn't be worth it.

Thanks again for any thoughts...

AFARR

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

You would do better acquiring a timeshare in a place other than overbuilt Williamsburg, Orlando, Branson, and Las Vegas. Look for good management without a history of special assessments and an location where you could vacation.

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

You would do better acquiring a timeshare in a place other than overbuilt Williamsburg, Orlando, Branson, and Las Vegas. Look for good management without a history of special assessments and an location where you could vacation.

Ok, any thoughts on where to look?:

I live in the Allentown, PA area.

I love the Outer Banks...went there several times when we lived in Richmond (I like the Fishing, 3 Females like the beach...oh, and shopping***).

I want to keep the vacation area within an 8 hour (more or less) drive...or about 500 miles (+/-)...that would be Maine on the North, NC/SC border area on the south, and probably the OH/IN border area in the West.

Summer week (at least for now)...or relatively easy to trade into a summer week for a few years (even if it's trading to a smaller place or lower ranked resort).

I was planning on $1500 (not including MFs) as a Max for the TS purchase...2010 is mostly spoken for by way of vacations...so not an issue how soon I get it (my job's finally starting to pay bonus money each month...that'll likely be one months bonus...). MFs of $600ish would be great (the $1k for Powhatan was a reasonable max, knowing that it would likely go up a bit in the future).

Any thoughts?

Oh, yeah....

*** The Shopping....if I can find an isolated place with NO shops (other than food stores or restaurants) for hundreds of miles....that would be GREAT (I could probably afford much more in a timeshare like that! )

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

If you were looking at Williamsburg for location then Wyndham, a points based system, has a number of locations in Williamsburg. As well as others that could be attractive to you.

Availability of others probably would be more to the S, SE and W (although I'm not really sure what 500 miles to the West and Southwest would take you).

Good luck with the shopping issue.

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

I'll second the recommendation for a points-based system. Bluegreen has a reasonable amount of stuff in your driving range (Myrtle beach is a little farther, but they have a lot there), including Williamsburg.

A summer week on Cape Cod is within your driving range, and will trade great. The Ocean City area is similar (although I would expect Cape Cod to trade better). It's hard to find a high-quality resort in those areas, though; lots of motel conversions (cape code) or unadorned concrete high-rises (Ocean City). Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks are slightly better; you don't start hitting consistently nice resorts until you get into South Carolina. However, sometimes those modest resorts are just what you want for trading, as their MF are also modest, but the demand for the Atlantic beaches is high, particularly in July. There's only so much coastline out there...

I'd forget about Powhatan and look for either a resort chain with internal trading/points system that has properties on the coast, or find a coastal resort that trades in both II and RCI and has reasonable MF.

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

We vacation at Powhattan every summer and love it there. It is a well-worn resort, but we like the quaintness. We've never had a unit that we considered unacceptable. If I had to do over again, I would take Blue Green over DRI. BG has more places on the East Coast than DRI, including Hershey. In fact, you many want to consider a resale at Hershey and use the week to trade elsewhere in the BG resort system. Perhaps other BG owners can jump in and give their thoughts and a rough idea of MFs at Hershey and elsewhere. Good luck!

[jmc Member Find all posts View Profile Close jmc]

Some basic Bluegreen info

I originally PM Affar concerning a point system like Bluegreen so I will post it. I am sure others may explain it better but this is a start.

Look at a point system

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you look at Bluegreen Timeshare, they have a point system you can buy a block of points. Those points will be attached to a deed at a resort in the Bluegreen Club. If you buy a 3 Bedroom Cabin in Gordenville, VA at Shanondoah Resort for a summer deeded month, you can reserve it 1 yr out and go every year-for example. If you want to go the SC shores, you book 11 months out from the pool of open rooms. It takes planning 12-13 months before travel to have the highest possiblitiy of getting what you want/when you want it, anything less than 11 months, you risk not getting the exact resort maybe same location. There is a public Bluegreen owners site here and Boca Bum seems very educated on the system if you want to learn more.
Key things to know: Anniversary date(when you become a owner), Priority week(the exact week and location on the deed), and understanding when and how to make reservations and of course maintenence fees cost is about 3.8 cents per point. 18000 points is probably a 2-3 bedroom prime time deed in the summer.
The reason I suggest BG is they have east coast resorts where you mentioned you like to travel.
Welcome to Bluegreen Online will show you the resort locations.
It is a smaller scale wyndham point system for comparison system. I have found BG resorts to be very nice and a good program for my family. Big Cedar in southern MO is our favorite and all our deeds are there-thus we use our priority week there routinely.
Good luck on your quest.
JMC