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tennisWalt · 02-05-2009, 12:48 PM

Peter Chocholak appears to be MNOP Timeshares.

Peter Chocholak - LinkedIn

MNOP wrote this in Redweek.com

Timeshares is good investment or not. [page 3] - Timeshare Exchanges Discussion Forum

jayjay wrote:

... What may have worked for you in the past will no longer work for you in the future as any type of travel, including timeshare travel, is in the tank. People are concentrating on the big 3 for survival (roof over head, food, transportation to work) not travel and/or renting/buying timeshares...

MNOP wrote

Just the opposite is true, although I suppose it is perspective. I own about 350 annual weeks right now and make a living at selling/renting. Granted, 2008 will not be a very good year, but I'm still making money and not losing. Didn't hurt that Jan-Mar 2008 was my best quarter ever before everything went chaotic. But I digress ... While this is a terrible time to sell your timeshare it is even more a fantastic time to buy. OK, a lot of people have better uses for their money. Even I am a bit tight on cash, but that's a little more due to the roughly $150,000 in maintenance I'm going to pay in January, not as easy to pay the big bill in advance as normal. That doesn't detract from the fact that if you buy good timeshares now for a third of what they were selling for a year ago, you will sell the unit (if you desire) in 1-3 years and make money on it even if you don't rent it for the maintenance. I've gone into closing on eight timeshares this month and if my stocks don't sink me I hope to buy 5-15 timeshares/mo until the prices rise.

Timeshares is good investment or not. [page 4] - Timeshare Exchanges Discussion Forum

MNOP wrote

My apologies for my mis-statement. I've booked about 350 weeks in 2008 from my owned units (I've made more than 350 bookings, not all are 7 night stays, not all the units are owned by me), the vast majority are sub 60 day reservations with Resort dicounted point reservations and a significant portion are "free" upgrades due to my Platinum Status with DRI and WVR. This of course means I "own" less than 350 weeks but since so many of my contracts are points based rather than unit based it makes it a bit difficult to define (350 studios off season at undesireable resorts are easy to compare to 350 2BR units in HI, but how many units/weeks is an 80,000 point DRUSC contract worth? - 80 studios off season sub 60 day, or not quite two 2BR Presidential units at DRI KBC?). Technically I own 2.3 Million pts WVR, 350k pts DRI on a few dozen contracts, about 50 DRI contracts in weeks, about 20 units in misc resorts, 7 of which provide about 600,000 RCI Points. Nearly all my ownership not in points are lockoff units, also allowing me to "create" more weeks than I own. My effective booking of 350 weeks does in fact set my weekly unit cost below $500, although it is possible I'm off in my $150k statement - if anything, I've overstated my annual maintenance. I have indeed pre-booked units which go unrented and have fixed week units which at times go unrented but I am very paranoid about this and lost weeks are very rare for me.

carvana wrote:

Your business model is to buy timeshares in the resale market and resell them at a profit in 1 to 3 years. The average $428 MF suggests the timeshares are somewhat less than average in quality and yet you manage to resell at a profit. You indicated you have eight timeshares sales that will close this month. Is that typical? You may consider it proprietary information that you prefer not to disclose but I think it would be very helpful to the many members of Redweek to know what venue (internet? - if so provide links) you use to purchase, rent, and resell these timeshares.

I suspect you buy foreclosed timeshares in bulk at a significant discount from resorts using an in-house closing firm and have a sweekheart deal with the resorts allowing you to utilize their services in renting and marketing the resorts. Right?

MNOP Wrote:

Quality is in the eye of the beholder. Are DRI Greensprings, Powhatan, Kaanapali Beach Club, Sedona Summit, and Scottsdale Villa Mirage lower quality? They are all superior to most timeshares, but not the best. I believe my ownership definition in terms of weeks rather than units makes a big difference in the maintenance calculation.

My business model is to buy timeshares and rent them, selling units is secondary. My point about reselling at a profit in 1-3 years pertains to buying units now during this crisis, treading water renting them out, and selling for a profit when the economy improves. Some people buy stocks, others buy real estate. Some real estate people specialize in residential, others do commercial, you might consider timeshares!

I'm not selling 8 units per month (I wish!), I'm buying. This is a pretty bad time to sell. I troll listings and do what I've despised others for doing - rediculous low ball offers. I also bid on multiple auction sites. I have not moved to forclosed bulk purchases yet as I'm more focused on buying and renting than buying and selling. I just sell when the price is right ... none in the last two months. Since most units I buy are high point value or lockoff, my ave maint per unit is more like $900-$1,100. I just lower my cost per "week" to under $500 thru resort discounts, upgrades and splitting lockoffs.

I haven't been crass enough to suggest an owner pay me to buy their timeshare but a few I've taken for $0 purchase. I bought a DRI Powhatan wk 22 and 50 from an owner for $0 and sold the Wk 22 for $3,000 and Wk50 for $1,000 earlier this year. My last sale was a DRI Powhatan Wk27 for $7,500 two months ago, although I don't expect that to happen again for some time. I have indeed begun to close my own units in some cases. I can do it faster and of course for a lot less money.

MNOP Wrote:

It is certainly time consuming and beginning Apr-08 I'm making money but I'm not getting paid for my time much. There are certainly economies of scale, and a balanced combination of direct and resale purchases, along with strategic partnerships with certain other owners is important. I know a few other large owners and agencies, the owners claim (not currently) to be charging more than I do for units. Some of it might be their superior sales skills, some exagerations, some could be they market in different locations than I do. One guy I know owns/owned 1.3 million DRI Club points as ***ll as DRI weeks units. But last year he said DRI pressured him to sell units and downsize. In retrospect they might have done him a favor!
And yes, this is a full time job and I admit I'm not taking as many vacations as I used to. I even have an admin and I work a lot. I'm looking forward to the return of pricing we had in 2007!

MNOP Wrote:

hey,

i'm sorry we can't reach a concensus. I really wish the anti investment people could at least admit there are many ways to make money with timeshares especially when buying resale, just as I can admit it is very difficult when buying direct, and of course there are less valuable timeshares. It doesn't matter whether we are discussing making money or saving money from renting hotels. I'll leave you with one example.

In 2008 the maintenance for a DRI 19 resort trust contract was $0.0803 per point. There are also Club dues of about $300/yr. If I was paying for 11,500 pts and in Club that amount would secure one 1BR DOV at DRI Kaanapali Beach Club. Main/Dues = $1,225 for 2008. You almost never see a 1BR DOV for rent anywhere near that amount, and I have very few offers in 2008 below that amount for a 1BR DOV. I usually rent the unit for $1,700 even though I advertise in the $1,900-$2,100 range. Sometimes I'll go lower $100 if I can use a 1BR OV to upgrade from. If I can book the 1BR DOV less than 60 days in advance, I get a 50% point reduction anf then I can spread the $300 dues between two units. This lowers my cost to $615/unit if I rent two units sub 60 day. I have never rented a 1BR DOV for less than $1,200 and almost always I've rented them for $1,300. that's about $600 gross to cover my time, overhead, and aquisition costs (cost of capital). True, I rent a lot of lower point units, but the concept is the same and that $300 Club fee is for my entire account rather than a small franction of what I own.

Other timeshares are more valuable with higher margins, and of course others are less valuable with lower margins. I stay away from a lot of timeshares because I don't see how I can make money on them. OK, there are timeshares which are bad investments. But there are also timeshares which are great investments, not for the sole purpose of making money but for the enjoyment, rich features vs a hotel, and saving rent/hotel bills.

Any investment requires common sense and care. Please don't say timeshares are a bad investment just because some timeshares are a bad investment.

dann2005 · 02-05-2009, 02:53 PM

OceanFront Units at KBC

I notice too from his November ad that he describes Deluxe OceanView at kBC as the oceanfront units???? Yet KBC says there are not oceanfront units? Something is definitely not right, and owners of this exclusive category want an explanation.

JoeMid · 02-05-2009, 03:14 PM

Very interesting information, I suppose this guy reserves everything with points and is sure of what he is reserving??

dann2005 · 02-05-2009, 03:31 PM

OceanFront Units at KBC

Even with points, this Peter C nor any other point member is supposed to be able to use owner inventory units. At least that is the way it is supposed to be. There is no justification for an owner like Walt to not get his oceanfront room when he booked a full 12 months in advance.

I hope more owners will look into this - there are sellers of mulitiple units that say they can get deluxe oceanview all over sites like Ebay and Craigslist. Who are these people?

dann2005 · 02-05-2009, 04:57 PM

100% Oceanfront!

I went into the Timeshareguru's FAQ on his website. Interestingly, he states that 100% of his deluxe oceanview rentals have been OCEANFRONT rooms. So what is the connection with Peter C, timeshareguru, and DRI? KBC owners, speak up!

Werner · 02-05-2009, 10:14 PM

Isn't this just some guy brokering owner's weeks for a slice of the rental fee. There is no requirement that owners go through DRI to trade their weeks is there? Any owner, but not a Club member, can reserve a week directly and then trade or rent it. This is just another way for owners to get cash for their weeks. I doubt that DRI has anything to do with it. I would take the "Ocean Front" salesmanship with a grain of salt.

Several years ago there was a big festoosh on the BB's because a unit of RCI was selling Poipu weeks for less than the maintenance fee. They presumably got the weeks from owners, not Sunterra (at the time) and decided to sell them rather than put them in the trading mix. II does the same thing. RCI and II members are not happy about it because the premise is that people join those outfits to access trades, not rentals.

DRI has its own version of an alternate system called DiamondSelect. If you are a Diamond member and you own a extra week or weeks at NON-Diamond resorts, you can turn your current weeks into Diamond for points and Diamond puts them on a separate website where members can either rent for cash or use points. There are some nice deals on there and the resort listing changes every day.

tennisWalt · 02-05-2009, 10:21 PM

Doesn't sound like a broker to me

Originally posted by Werner

Isn't this just some guy brokering owner's weeks for a slice of the rental fee. There is no requirement that owners go through DRI to trade their weeks is there? Any owner, but not a Club member, can reserve a week directly and then trade or rent it. This is just another way for owners to get cash for their weeks. I doubt that DRI has anything to do with it. I would take the "Ocean Front" salesmanship with a grain of salt.

Several years ago there was a big festoosh on the BB's because a unit of RCI was selling Poipu weeks for less than the maintenance fee. They presumably got the weeks from owners, not Sunterra (at the time) and decided to sell them rather than put them in the trading mix. II does the same thing. RCI and II members are not happy about it because the premise is that people join those outfits to access trades, not rentals.

DRI has its own version of an alternate system called DiamondSelect. If you are a Diamond member and you own a extra week or weeks at NON-Diamond resorts, you can turn your current weeks into Diamond for points and Diamond puts them on a separate website where members can either rent for cash or use points. There are some nice deals on there and the resort listing changes every day.

Timeshare Guru Wrote:

"Even I am a bit tight on cash, but that's a little more due to the roughly $150,000 in maintenance I'm going to pay in January, not as easy to pay the big bill in advance as normal."

Walt

JLB · 02-05-2009, 10:36 PM

I guess HE borrowed his name from someone, too.

tennisWalt · 02-05-2009, 11:18 PM

Do You Think........................?

He might be starting a web site called FM's Timeshare Cafe?

Walt

Originally posted by JLB

I guess HE borrowed his name from someone, too.

tennisWalt · 02-06-2009, 09:47 AM

Question on points

Originally posted by Werner

Isn't this just some guy brokering owner's weeks for a slice of the rental fee. There is no requirement that owners go through DRI to trade their weeks is there? Any owner, but not a Club member, can reserve a week directly and then trade or rent it. This is just another way for owners to get cash for their weeks. I doubt that DRI has anything to do with it. I would take the "Ocean Front" salesmanship with a grain of salt.

Platinum Membership
• 50,000 SunOptions
• FREE Space Available Villa Upgrades, no limit
• 50% Discount on Bonus Time
• SunOptions Purchase Discount
• $20 Reservation Protection Plan ($75 as of 5/07)
• Elite Member Priority Services
• Club Select Discount Fee $99/$59
• SunQuest Group Tour Advance Notification

Timeshare Guru wrote

I’m a Platinum Elite owner and can place requests for you such as early checkin and room preferences! There are requests, not guarantees, but are often honored! The least honored request is for corner rooms (more successful when reservation is made 10-13 months in advance), but I have very good success with early checkin and ocean front units for the DOV reservations! You will be my named guest, which means you do not need to attend a timeshare presentation. Please also see my FAQ section just below the pictures!

So it takes 50,000 points to become an Platinum Elite Owner. At the KBC I could have bought 7000 points for $33,000 or a 1 time offer of $19,000. At this price 50000 points would cost over $135,700.

From what Guru wrote about buying resale, I'm sure he did not pays this amount. If you can only buy Points from DRI, (so they say), how did he become a Platinum Elite Member for less?

I saw this on Ebay.

Buy Now For $250.00

This auction is for 5,000 Sun Option Points.

(This U.S Collection membership does transfer at no additional cost to you!)
These are not deeded Sunterra points and do not come with any benefits like the ones you purchase directly from Sunterra. You are able to use these points at any of Diamonds Resorts that participate in Club.

So is there any value here?

Also.

The problem I, and I would hope, most owners (both weeks and points) have with Timeshare Guru is that he is running a rental agency at the KBC at the owners (both Weeks and Points owners) expense.

He is using the Platinum Elite Membership to give perks to non owners.

Non Elite owners are not able to name the unit the can get into. He said renters that paid for DOV units have always gotten Ocean Front. Non Elite Deluxe Ocean View Owners may or may not get the Ocean Front Units they paid for. Non Elite owners would have to pay extra for late check out. Non Elite owners do not get a early check in. He is even saying in most cases the renters do not have to pay for parking unlike owners who trade into the KBC.

Walt

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