Advice for a new guy

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

Hey guys,
I am glad I found this forum. The wife and I just dropped off our cancellation letter to Wyndham to recind our contract for a TS at the Waikiki beach walk.

After the sales pitch, we found ourselves with 154,000 annual points, 154,000 bonus points (2yr expiration) and a (restricted) RCI week to use before the end of 2008. All of this was for $24,700 and $50 a month. It basically got us a 1BR with the ability to book 13 months out.

After walking away with the deal, we just didn't feel right about the impulse purchase and found this site. All of the threads I read implored buyers to RECIND (in caps). They all urged that buying from the developer was not a wise move.

Now we are wondering what would be a reasonable price to get into a TS in Hawaii (similar points), purchased through a resale. Thanks for any advise you may have!

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

You have already taken 2 great steps - rescinding and finding a place of knowledge. Now you need to spend some time learning what and where to buy and what a good price for it will be. The longer you wait and learn , the better your choice will be.

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

My guess would be that a Hawaiian week would sell at about $2000-$5000, since Hawaiian timeshares run high even on resale. The maintenance fees are also higher than usual. A Marriott (or DVC once it is built) will be much much more expensive, even resale, because these companies have a "right of first refusal" in their contracts.

You don't have to buy Wyndham points in Hawaii to reserve in Hawaii. If you plan in advance, you would be able to reserve at one or more of the Wyndhams in Hawaii, even if you owned points at a low-moderate maintenance fee Wyndham resort that you bought resale for a fraction of the developer price. If there is a bulk deposit, you may even be able to reserve through RCI with a much smaller points deposit than it would take to reserve a similar unit via Wyndham.

Instead of points, another option would be to buy a summer beach week or a winter ski week at a resort that is likely to be a strong trader and use it to trade for a week in Hawaii.

You should also study the other points systems besides Wyndham and decide which one fits your vacation desire, budget, etc. best.

Keep reading and asking questions.

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

Take sometime and watch the resale market. One of your best places to watch is timeshare auctions on Ebay. You can even create a custom search on Ebay and have Ebay email you when items are listed.

Check out some of these:

eBay - Wyndham items in Hawaii Timeshares Finder - Find IT on eBay


4,500 SHELL Vacation Club POINTS Gold Crown TIMESHARE - eBay (item 320222275562 end time Mar-05-08 17:45:00 PST)


SHELL Vacations Club POINTS Gold Crown HAWAII Timeshare - eBay (item 110228744897 end time Mar-04-08 18:30:00 PST)


Timeshare Sales at Makai Club at Princeville in Princeville Hawaii

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

Update:

We went back to return the books/materials. Of course, the salesguy (Adam Brown), tried to sell us a lesser package. 168,000 points EOY, + 218,600 to use immediately for $14,700 and 29 per month.

I told him I could buy the same number of Wyndham points for much less through resale.
He argued that one can not buy "points" through resale and that resale will only get one a traditional timeshare without the ability to spend the points through the Wyndam system.

Either way, we did walk away from the sales office and I am ready to do a lot more research.

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

Update:

We went back to return the books/materials. Of course, the salesguy (Adam Brown), tried to sell us a lesser package. 168,000 points EOR, + 218,600 to use immediately for $14,700 and 29 per month.

I told him I could buy the same number of Wyndham points for much less through resale.
He argued that one can not buy "points" through resale and that resale will only get one a traditional timeshare without the ability to spend the points through the Wyndam system.

LIES AND MORE LIES. Your Fairshare Plus points (Wyndham/Fairfield) can be spent throughout the entire systems of Wyndham/Fairfield resorts.

Either way, we did walk away from the sales office and I am ready to do a lot more research.

See my comments in red.

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

mshatty,
Thanks for the reply. I was pretty sure he was full of it when he told me that. I told him about seeing the exact plan I canceled (154,000 annual/154,000 bonus) for $24,700 being sold resale for $11,500 on sellmytimeshare.com.

That's when he tried to tell us that if we bought resale that the points would not be spendable and we would only have a floating week in Waikiki only. He went on to say that we could trade the week via RCI only if we sent RCI $100/year and spent 164 or 199 to trade the week in RCI. He was adamant that the points would be no good for locations within the Wyndam system (ie no fees).

The primary question I still have:

If I were to purchase:
Buy Wyndham at Waikiki Beach Walk Honolulu, Oahu Hawaii, United States Timeshare

What would this not have vs. the package sold by the developer for 24,700?

Thanks!

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

This is a second attempt at a reply. I had a message that my first reply would need to be approved by a moderator. What is that???

Anyway...


Thanks for your reply mshatty,

One big question I still have:

If I were to purchase:
Buy Wyndham at Waikiki Beach Walk Honolulu, Oahu Hawaii, United States Timeshare

for $11,500 instead of the $24,700 the developer wanted...what would be the difference? Would I not have access to Fairshare Plus? Would I have to pay the annual fee of 100/yr to get access to RCI?

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

This is a second attempt at a reply. I had a message that my first reply would need to be approved by a moderator. What is that???
Anyway...


Thanks for your reply mshatty,

One big question I still have:

If I were to purchase:
Buy Wyndham at Waikiki Beach Walk Honolulu, Oahu Hawaii, United States Timeshare

for $11,500 instead of the $24,700 the developer wanted...what would be the difference? Would I not have access to Fairshare Plus? Would I have to pay the annual fee of 100/yr to get access to RCI?

I am looking into why these posts required moderation. The only moderated forums we have are the "ASK" forums.

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

This is a second attempt at a reply. I had a message that my first reply would need to be approved by a moderator. What is that???

Anyway...


Thanks for your reply mshatty,

One big question I still have:

If I were to purchase:
Buy Wyndham at Waikiki Beach Walk Honolulu, Oahu Hawaii, United States Timeshare

for $11,500 instead of the $24,700 the developer wanted...what would be the difference? Would I not have access to Fairshare Plus? Would I have to pay the annual fee of 100/yr to get access to RCI?

The difference would be that the resale FSP points would not be VIP eligible, otherwise the same. In additional to your MF (maintenance fees) you pay a FSP program fee that pays for a RCI weeks account for you. You get that through resale.

Just so you know, the $11,500 is still extremely high for this point package. Resale points are selling for $10/1000 to $30/1000 points. You can probably find the same amounts of points at Wyn Waikiki for $2500 to $5000 on ebay.

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

Step Climb,

You need alot more info before you continue down the road to a purchase.

1. Do you want to purchase a TS so you can spend a week at one the Wyndham/FF TS in Hawaii?
-if yes,
a. You can buy a week which is in FSP points at one of the Wyndhan/FF Hawaiian TS. But, They will cost you more because they have the 13 month home resort reservation priority. Buy resale and don't worry that you won't get VIP. You'll save >$10,000 and VIP isn't worth $10K!

b. You can buy a non FSP point week at one the wyndham/FF hawaiian TS for a very reasonable amount of money ($1000- $3500), But it will be just a week at that resort and will not have FSP points associated with it. This can be converted to a FSP week but the cost may be more than just buying a week already in FSP.

c. You can buy a cheap Wyndham/FF week which is in FSP points at one of the many mainland wyndham TS. But you will not be able to reserve hawaii until the open reservation period (? 9 months ?)

Options B & C will both be a very cheap option for you.

2. Do you want to access all of the many Wyndham /FF and you may wish to visit the Hawaii resorts only every 3-4 year?

a. If you want to do this buy a week at mainland Wyndham /FF resort which is in FSP points (same as option c above)

Hope that helps.

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

In addition to the VIP benefit eligibility, purchases from Wyndham may include

1. Free Leisure Plan for a year
2. Bonus points (you pay the fees but you don't own them) for a year or two
3. Waived enrollment fee for PlusPartners
4. Ability to enroll a non-Fairfield non-RCI Points week at an RCI weeks resort in the PIC system in exchange for FSP points

The value of these benefits is questionable in view of the tremendous difference between Wyndham's price and typical resale prices.

[jrv331 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jrv331]

The 99.00 RCI membership fee is paid by FF, however everyone does pay the exchange fee.
John

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

Happy to find Wyndham/Fairfield Advice (We RESCINDED)

Just joining the TS Forum after we spent 2 days reviewing materials and RESCINDING on the new units at the Wyndham Bali Hai Resort in Kauai, Hawaii. Having internet connection in Hawaii while on vacation was a fantastic eye opener, as we are not impulsive. We called a few resale offices and started seeing large discrepancies in the developer pricing and market value.

After accessing the deal (-- knowing something was not right about the pressure placed upon deciding and not having an option to call the sales person back after "thinking about the offer") we returned to the sales office to RESCIND in person. We were told we needed to Fax the sales office in Nevada (with only a day to spare after our return from Hawaii). We were offered a few other packages to sweeten the deal, but nothing substantial to narrow the value gap between developer price and resale market value.

Having a basis to judge the value/costs of timeshares in the Wyndham Fairshare points program is fantastic. I am appreciative of this forum. These are very budget conscious times for us, and I can not imagine the stress and strain the timeshare purchase would have placed on our family in addition to the guilt of such a large impulsive purchase.

Thanks to everyone on the forum who has contributed. I am sure we'll have questions going forward, and plan to share our experience as we locate the right property for us.

-dubbly

[4ARedOctober Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close 4ARedOctober]

Congrats dubbly....time for some bubbly I would say....you saved yourself thousands of dollars. Both you and the OP need to take your time and do your research to get what is right for you and your families and pennies on the dollar for what you were ready to pay.

Slow down....take your time. Many of us have been through it and love timesharing just not at the developer price.

Just joining the TS Forum after we spent 2 days reviewing materials and RESCINDING on the new units at the Wyndham Bali Hai Resort in Kauai, Hawaii. Having internet connection in Hawaii while on vacation was a fantastic eye opener, as we are not impulsive. We called a few resale offices and started seeing large discrepancies in the developer pricing and market value.

After accessing the deal (-- knowing something was not right about the pressure placed upon deciding and not having an option to call the sales person back after "thinking about the offer") we returned to the sales office to RESCIND in person. We were told we needed to Fax the sales office in Nevada (with only a day to spare after our return from Hawaii). We were offered a few other packages to sweeten the deal, but nothing substantial to narrow the value gap between developer price and resale market value.

Having a basis to judge the value/costs of timeshares in the Wyndham Fairshare points program is fantastic. I am appreciative of this forum. These are very budget conscious times for us, and I can not imagine the stress and strain the timeshare purchase would have placed on our family in addition to the guilt of such a large impulsive purchase.

Thanks to everyone on the forum who has contributed. I am sure we'll have questions going forward, and plan to share our experience as we locate the right property for us.

-dubbly