Well, This is a Fine Kettle of Fish - Festiva takes over Escape! Resorts

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Fine Kettle has local owners for golf privilege, which is why we own there.

Down here there is limited beach access and a resort has local owners for that. Same in the Sarasota area.

I guess I don't see that in that site. I don't see how it helps owners who want to sell.

I entered the resort name and it returned no results.

I have mentioned a couple times that the first 15 units of (Coopershares) timeshare have "golf rights." The only ways anyone could get "membership" in the very-nice golf course/country club were to own property (house, condo, or lot) or a week in one of the first 15 units of Coopershares.

The past few years there has been stagnation in the market for those "Golf Weeks". Prior to the general decline of interest in timeshares, they regularly traded hands for around $8000, mostly for lake-trash (as we are affectionately known by those inside the gates) who wanted to be a member of the course/club.

Recognizing that fact, the POA (not the timeshare people, mind you) have instituted a program of "non-resident golf amenities" pass, specifically to give people who are reluctant to commit to the obligations of a timeshare week, a chance to enjoy the privileges of membership for a year.

Then, after that, they have to buy someone's timeshare week.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I have mentioned a couple times that the first 15 units of (Coopershares) timeshare have "golf rights." The only ways anyone could get "membership" in the very-nice golf course/country club were to own property (house, condo, or lot) or a week in one of the first 15 units of Coopershares.

The past few years there has been stagnation in the market for those "Golf Weeks". Prior to the general decline of interest in timeshares, they regularly traded hands for around $8000, mostly for lake-trash (as we are affectionately known by those inside the gates) who wanted to be a member of the course/club.

Recognizing that fact, the POA (not the timeshare people, mind you) have instituted a program of "non-resident golf amenities" pass, specifically to give people who are reluctant to commit to the obligations of a timeshare week, a chance to enjoy the privileges of membership for a year.

Then, after that, they have to buy someone's timeshare week.

I have learned that two couples I know, whom I have golfed with at another course in the area the past few years, and who knew I had "Golf Villas" weeks I have been trying to give away, both purchased the golf amenities pass, at a much higher price than if they owned a Golf Villas week, because the Golf Villas week has the baggage of an ongoing obligation.

Rather than being able to "save" money owning a timeshare, they opted to "save" money by being able to walk away when they want to.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

As we have wound down our active timeshare years, we have found a value in continuing to own a week at "local" resorts for year-round amenities, golf/country club in one location and beach, pool, hot tub, chickee hut in the other. Each has a value to local residents, and should have some market value.

The resale market and how they are handled in each place is an interesting study.

At Fine Kettle, as I have chronicled, absolutely nothing is done to assist owners wishing to sell. In the words of the Leader of the HOA, "You can do anything you want with your week. We don't care." Needless to say, even though it is a very nice, upscale gated community with a championship golf course in a tourist destination, with a decent rental market, there is no value whatsoever in the resale market.

On the other hand, at the beach location, there are two "sister" resorts, actively managed by a local real estate company. New marketing is long gone, but that company handles virtually all resales and rentals. Despite the fact that these are very Plain Jane resorts, they have a strong rental and resale market. Most weeks rent out, returning more than a maintenance fee to owners.

I have found that to be true of many of the "Captran-era" resorts of SW FL, that many have a local company that handles resales and rentals.

So, maybe it is not the resort itself that keeps the resale market strong and provides exit options, but a local real estate company that can do that.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I have found that to be true of many of the "Captran-era" resorts of SW FL, that many have a local company that handles resales and rentals.

http://bonitaresort.us/Sales.html

http://www.lahainaresort.com/rentals/default.htm#Sales

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Here's an interesting twist on Fine Kettle.

The resort is located in a gated community, so there is an HOA for the timeshare, and a POA also. The gated community has a very nice championship golf course, 15 years ago the nicest course in the area. It's still as nice as it was then, it's just that there three or four other, new, nice courses, now.

The first 15 units of timeshare include amenities rights, so people who live on the nearby lake, or somewhere outside the gates could have golf rights if they owned a week in one of those 15 units. Another way to get golf rights when you don't live inside the gates would be to own an undeveloped lot. Either way, owning a TS week or owning a bare lot, you pay a POA fee, and a golf membership figures out about the same.

The TS weeks used to be hard to come by, and if someone outside the community wanted a golf membership, they put their name on a waiting list, and then bought a TS week from someone when they were giving theirs up. They were selling for $7000-8000. I sold one "on the way down" for $4900.

For a number of reasons, that all ended around 2010, no one wanted a "golf lot" or a TS week, in order to "get golf" any more.

So, here's what the community's POA (as opposed to the timeshare's HOA) has come up with. Owners of either undeveloped lots or those qualifying TS weeks who no longer want to golf (or have access to any of the other amenities), can now "sell" their amenities rights. So, people who don't want to get stuck with a TS in order to play golf don't have to, and those who own a TS but don't want to play golf any more, can get the money to pay their TS fees from someone else.

(Not an idea the people who call the shots for Fine Kettle resort would come up with.)

Well, that's probably about my daily limit, so I'll be going now.