need advice on purchase of marriott (location)

[jvincent16 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jvincent16]

need some advice. looking into a marriott. i am going to purchase resale but need some advice on location. maui vs. newport

purchasing resale. live in az.

will only use during the summer months (wife is a teacher).

considering maui because we want to be able to go whenever we want without the hassle of trading. will not use every year. maybe only every 3yrs. (also owner of DVC). how hard would it be to rent the years we dont use and would we at least break even.

newport is alot closer for us and would probably use every year or every-other. would probably purchase into a yearly deed vs. biennial deed (maui). again, concerned about trading for maui.

any advice?? i really dont know what to do. i think the smart thing would be to purchase newport, since it is closer, but then have to worry and hassle with trading for maui. also, with marriott, i'm assuming i have to use the entire week correct? what i mean is, if i was an owner of newport i wouldnt be able to go on a few weekend trips would I?
thanks again! all the advice on these boards is invaluable.

[m61376 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close m61376]

If you only plan on going to Maui once every few years, I would rec. purchasing NCV. Reserve a great week and try to trade when you want Maui. If you put in your request way in advance you should luck out; if you put in a request first through II, if you don't get what you want one year you can take your NCV unit back. Maui is too expensive to purchase upfront and has too high a MF to be primarily traded, IMHO. Yes, you will be able to rent Maui for more than your MF's certainly and make some money, but there is the lost opportunity cost of the initial outlay plus the hassle of renting, so I wouldn't buy planning on renting most years.

Some Marriotts allow you to split the week into a Fri.-Mon. and then a Mon.-Fri.. I don't know if NCV allows that. At any extent, you can't use for multiple weekends.

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

Or consider buying and EOY (every other year) to save on purchase price and the yearly maintenance fees.

[odaddy Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close odaddy]

What size of unit will you use?, if it has to be 2br then pretty tough to get in Maui. Also no lockoff at NCV?

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

NCV does allow split weeks.

Does the OP like the SoCal beach areas? Need or prefer a 2BR unit? All plusses for NCV.

I personally would only buy in Hawaii if I could afford to travel there EY/EOY (and wanted to). Cost (per sq ft) is higher, as are MF's. Taxes are becoming an issue in some places there, or so I've read. Not taking anything away from HI (love it and got married there) but I really couldn't afford to own there with Marriott, unless I got a spanking good deal on a resale unit. Seeing that the OP is a DVC owner, perhaps that point is moot.

No problems renting HI units. I've seen 5x MF's for peak weeks, down to the mid 3's otherwise. I usually get 2.5-3x for our NCV units (gold at lower end of range).

Since there are plenty of rentals available, along with getaways, I'd suggest considering a scouting trip to HI focused on the viability of ownership there.

Good luck!

Pat

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

My opinion I would buy Marriott NP because in light of the economy when oil prices get to high, people will travel via car rather than fly. I rent at both place, and believe it or not I have twice as many request to go to Marriott Newport than I do Marriott Maui. My Maui property that I own is a 1 bedroom and some people want a 2 bedroom but that has not hurt me much. Again it all depend on what your family needs are. You could buy a 2 bedroom Marriott Newport for about $16,500-$17,500 platinum season and Marriott Maui 1 bedroom oceanview would sell for about $18,500-$19,500. These price should be able to get passed ROFR.

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

I wanted to welcome Marty (mlc) and hope you remain and share more of your wisdom about Marriott ownership. I've followed your postings (and rental ads at NCV) for a number of years now and am quite impressed how you made a business out of timeshare ownership.

I'm curious; did you buy pre-construction at NCV? We didn't buy until 2004, but I think average resale prices now have eclipsed pre-construction prices. Do you concur?

Pat

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

Pat,

Thanks for the kind words. I agree with you about the pre-construction pricing at Marriott Newport, the resale prices are at about $17,000-$17,500 if you want the unit to get passed Marriott. Most of my purchases were 6-7 years ago. Thanks again and take care.

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

The OP needs to buy because they want to travel in the summer. But for those of you who don't need to travel in the summer, I've found that I'm able to trade into NCV most all of the fall and winter months.

So although we love NCV, we'll continue to trade in when we want our fix of the SoCal beach life.

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

Bill,

You are correct in regards to trading into Marriott Newport. I use some Marriott off season weeks and some non Marriott weeks and I never have a problem getting into Feb, May, June, Sept, and Dec. Most of the time I get the holidays in these months(except June). July and August you have to use a good Marriott trader to get into these months. I am sure some non Marriott weeks(Hyatt,Four Seasons, and Royals that are high demanded weeks) are able to get this time, but as a whole you need a very good Marriott trader to get this time.