Buying timeshares (even resale)

phill12 wrote:

ken1193 wrote:

phill12 In some e-bay and other sites that offer timeshare sales I found statement in rest of the information that some of these people now charge the buyer a fee in case the deal falls through because of ROFR. <<

Actually, if you read the (usually very tiny micro-font) print at the very end of many eBay ads for timeshares, eBay sellers often indicate that they will charge (or attempt to charge) a "cancellation fee" if the sale falls through for ANY reason. Whether or not they can lawfully enforce such a "cancellation fee policy" is certainly open to debate in the first place, but in any case is NOT limited merely to exercising right of first refusal.

Your right but I was only talking about charging a fee up front to cover cost in case the resort pulls right of first refusal. The seller knows this is possible and wants to cover there own rears! I'm not only talking E-Bay but other name sites like Holiday!

After reading other post and reading my own post I decided the heck with all this just to buy in Maui!

We went to our resort for Memorial day and bought the Tower from our resales dept! Same place we bought our first unit and had very good deal.

We love our resort and now have traded one of the units for Maui 2008. Why deal with all this when we can just trade in when we want!

Be sure to send the recission letter by certified mail, date stamped with return receipt. All recissions are made by whatever the post office date stamp is, not when the actual recission letter is received by the company.

timesharejudi If you purchase a resale unit through a Realtor you will find that in most States there is a right of recission period that you can get back 100% of your money if you change your mind for any reason. In Florida that is 10 days. All you have to do is send a letter to the address that should appear directly above your signature on the contract.[/Q

jayjay Be sure to send the recission letter by certified mail, date stamped with return receipt. All recissions are made by whatever the post office date stamp is, not when the actual recission letter is received by the company.

timesharejudi If you purchase a resale unit through a Realtor you will find that in most States there is a right of recission period that you can get back 100% of your money if you change your mind for any reason. In Florida that is 10 days. All you have to do is send a letter to the address that should appear directly above your signature on the contract.[/Q wrote:

I notice on Redweeks.com that I am looking at timeshares for sale and the units are the same but the listed prices are all over the map. Are units valued at different prices if they are all the same floating weeks and all are the same two bedroom sleeps 8 style. I am a little confused. I noticed that a poster asked about the "first right of refusal" or that the hotel can buy it back from underneath you if the sale price is too low? can they do this and how does one prevent or prepare for this type of situation?

If I wanted to make an offer to the eleven units that are listed and here is what I am prepared to spend and then just sit back and see what happens. I have noticed that many of the units have been on the listings for some time.

New to this and am very interested in hearing ideas of what has worked or not worked for people in the situation of preparing to make an offer at a resort that I would like to become a member at.

Thank you for listening and commenting.

J

johnc655 wrote:

I notice on Redweeks.com that I am looking at timeshares for sale and the units are the same but the listed prices are all over the map. Are units valued at different prices if they are all the same floating weeks and all are the same two bedroom sleeps 8 style.

The reason for the price difference is due to what the seller wants out of the sale. Some may have bought from the developer while others may have bought resale and just want their money back (however developer bought prices will not sell on the resale market).

Quote:

I noticed that a poster asked about the "first right of refusal" or that the hotel can buy it back from underneath you if the sale price is too low? can they do this and how does one prevent or prepare for this type of situation?

Marriott and Disney and some other entities have right of first refusal (ROFR). In other words you have to give those entities the right to buy your timeshare back should you decide to sell it.

Quote:

If I wanted to make an offer to the eleven units that are listed and here is what I am prepared to spend and then just sit back and see what happens. I have noticed that many of the units have been on the listings for some time.

This is exactly what you should do. Make an offer contingent on the fact that you are also making offers to other sellers. If the units have been listed for some time, you can probably get a better deal.

Quote:

I noticed that a poster asked about the "first right of refusal" or that the hotel can buy it back from underneath you if the sale price is too low? can they do this and how does one prevent or prepare for this type of situation?

Marriott and Disney and some other entities have right of first refusal (ROFR). In other words you have to give those entities the right to buy your timeshare back should you decide to sell it.

Do they often repurchase these timeshares from people if the price is too low? Is there a way we can track and find out what the ceiling price is for these properties before they are repurchased or is it hit and miss? Thank you in advance

I just spoke with a rep for Marriot and they told me that if I buy the timeshare on the resale market, I lose the opportunity to generate points in the MArriot system. Is the points that useful if I am going to buy a membership in interval international or RCI? He also told me that with Marriot the developer does not negotiate price and that value is built into the product. I have been to many time share presentations but not one for the big brand names. Is he correct because at other timeshare presentations, I was able to negotiate a much lower price than what was originally asked at the presentation but ended up not purchasing.

What I would like to know is 1. During the developer presentations, are prices fixed without negotiation or is their lots of wiggle room 2. Resale market, what do0 you give up by buying on this market, is he correct in that the second owner loses the opportunity to get access to marriot points and trade between Marriot properties.

New and naive but willing to do leg work to find out more

J

johnc655 wrote:

I just spoke with a rep for Marriot and they told me that if I buy the timeshare on the resale market, I lose the opportunity to generate points in the MArriot system. Is the points that useful if I am going to buy a membership in interval international or RCI? He also told me that with Marriot the developer does not negotiate price and that value is built into the product. I have been to many time share presentations but not one for the big brand names. Is he correct because at other timeshare presentations, I was able to negotiate a much lower price than what was originally asked at the presentation but ended up not purchasing.

What I would like to know is 1. During the developer presentations, are prices fixed without negotiation or is their lots of wiggle room 2. Resale market, what do0 you give up by buying on this market, is he correct in that the second owner loses the opportunity to get access to marriot points and trade between Marriot properties.

New and naive but willing to do leg work to find out more

J

John,

If you purchase a Marriott timeshare directly from Marriott, you have the opportunity to deposit your week with Marriott if you will not be using it and get Marriott reward points in exchange. You must let Marriott know by the end of the year for the following year. Also, some Marriott resorts permit you to deposit your week every year and others only every other year. Sometimes this also depends on the season you own.

If you purchase on the resale market, you are not permitted to deposit your week with Marriott for points.

You have to determine whether or not the use of these points are important to you. I can tell give you my observation in a later post, if you want to know.

My experience with Marriott presentations is that the prices are fixed. They do not put pressure on you, but they offer pretty enticing Marriott reward point incentives for purchasing from them. For instance, they may demonstrate that you might earn enough points with the sale to take a trip to Europe or Hawaii.

When I purchased my first Marriott timeshare through Redweek, the realtor I worked with told me about Right of First Refusal. Marriott did not invoke that, so we were able to go ahead with the purchase. Later, my realtor told me that the same seller later offered another villa at the same location and about the same price I paid. In that case, Marriott exercised their option to purchase the villa. The seller had to find another.

Tim

tim755 wrote:

johnc655 wrote:

I just spoke with a rep for Marriot and they told me that if I buy the timeshare on the resale market, I lose the opportunity to generate points in the MArriot system. Is the points that useful if I am going to buy a membership in interval international or RCI? He also told me that with Marriot the developer does not negotiate price and that value is built into the product. I have been to many time share presentations but not one for the big brand names. Is he correct because at other timeshare presentations, I was able to negotiate a much lower price than what was originally asked at the presentation but ended up not purchasing.

What I would like to know is 1. During the developer presentations, are prices fixed without negotiation or is their lots of wiggle room 2. Resale market, what do0 you give up by buying on this market, is he correct in that the second owner loses the opportunity to get access to marriot points and trade between Marriot properties.

New and naive but willing to do leg work to find out more

J

John,

If you purchase a Marriott timeshare directly from Marriott, you have the opportunity to deposit your week with Marriott if you will not be using it and get Marriott reward points in exchange. You must let Marriott know by the end of the year for the following year. Also, some Marriott resorts permit you to deposit your week every year and others only every other year. Sometimes this also depends on the season you own.

If you purchase on the resale market, you are not permitted to deposit your week with Marriott for points.

You have to determine whether or not the use of these points are important to you. I can tell give you my observation in a later post, if you want to know.

My experience with Marriott presentations is that the prices are fixed. They do not put pressure on you, but they offer pretty enticing Marriott reward point incentives for purchasing from them. For instance, they may demonstrate that you might earn enough points with the sale to take a trip to Europe or Hawaii.

When I purchased my first Marriott timeshare through Redweek, the realtor I worked with told me about Right of First Refusal. Marriott did not invoke that, so we were able to go ahead with the purchase. Later, my realtor told me that the same seller later offered another villa at the same location and about the same price I paid. In that case, Marriott exercised their option to purchase the villa. The seller had to find another.

Tim

Would enjoy your thoughts

J

johnc655 wrote:

tim755 wrote:

johnc655 wrote:

I just spoke with a rep for Marriot and they told me that if I buy the timeshare on the resale market, I lose the opportunity to generate points in the MArriot system. Is the points that useful if I am going to buy a membership in interval international or RCI? He also told me that with Marriot the developer does not negotiate price and that value is built into the product. I have been to many time share presentations but not one for the big brand names. Is he correct because at other timeshare presentations, I was able to negotiate a much lower price than what was originally asked at the presentation but ended up not purchasing.

What I would like to know is 1. During the developer presentations, are prices fixed without negotiation or is their lots of wiggle room 2. Resale market, what do0 you give up by buying on this market, is he correct in that the second owner loses the opportunity to get access to marriot points and trade between Marriot properties.

New and naive but willing to do leg work to find out more

J

John,

If you purchase a Marriott timeshare directly from Marriott, you have the opportunity to deposit your week with Marriott if you will not be using it and get Marriott reward points in exchange. You must let Marriott know by the end of the year for the following year. Also, some Marriott resorts permit you to deposit your week every year and others only every other year. Sometimes this also depends on the season you own.

If you purchase on the resale market, you are not permitted to deposit your week with Marriott for points.

You have to determine whether or not the use of these points are important to you. I can tell give you my observation in a later post, if you want to know.

My experience with Marriott presentations is that the prices are fixed. They do not put pressure on you, but they offer pretty enticing Marriott reward point incentives for purchasing from them. For instance, they may demonstrate that you might earn enough points with the sale to take a trip to Europe or Hawaii.

When I purchased my first Marriott timeshare through Redweek, the realtor I worked with told me about Right of First Refusal. Marriott did not invoke that, so we were able to go ahead with the purchase. Later, my realtor told me that the same seller later offered another villa at the same location and about the same price I paid. In that case, Marriott exercised their option to purchase the villa. The seller had to find another.

Tim

Tim, I would be interested in your experience with Marriot points. I am not sure what to make of the list prices on the redweeks site for the property I am interested in but I am moving towards making a blacket offer to the half dozen units listed on the site currently. When you said you bought two Marriot propertys on the resale market, did you make an offer through a real estate agent or direct through the owner? The list prices do not seem that low compared to buying through the developer. Any suggestions. I know that some of th units have been listed for some time which might be in my favour but the owners may have a fixed price and that is it.

Would enjoy your thoughts

J

Marriott has a point program called Marriott Rewards. It is probably similar to the point programs provided by airlines, banks and other companies. When you accumulate enough Marriott points, you can redeem those points for merchandise in a catalog, but also for travel, which is probably the best option.

Marriott provides a chart showing how many points are required to stay at Marriott hotels, for each category, for a period of 1 to 7 days. There is also a chart which shows points for transportation and housing, where Marriott would convert the necessary points required by an air carrier for travel for two to the required destination.

Points can be earned in several ways.

Points are awarded for staying at Marriott hotels. For instance, you may get 10 points/$ spent at a Courtyard and Fairfield and 5 points/$ spent at a Residence Inn. Check with Marriott to confirm point awards.

You can also accumulate points through the Marriott credit card. The premium card awards more points money spent at Marriot facilities, dining, gasoline, etc, than does the basic card.

If you go to a timeshare presentation, Marriott will offer reward points as an incentive for taking part in the presentation or their may be other rewards.

You can accumulate large amounts of points quickly by purchasing a timeshare villa from Marriott. There are point incentives for making the purchase and, if you purchase from Marriott, you would have the option of depositing the villa with Marriott every year or every other year depending on the location of the timeshare and the season you purchase, for reward points. I have seen the number of points range from 90,000 to 110,000. I cannot do this because I purchased my timeshares on the resale market. However, I accumulate points through other means I mentioned above.

In the beginning, I really didn't recognize the value of Marriott reward points until I went to a presentation where the Marriott rep did an excellent job of exlaining the point system. Some time after that, my wife and I were planning to visit our son in San Diego. Marriott has a timeshare at Newport Coast, CA, which we were able to exchange into for the low II exchange fee. The timeshare is beautiful, but we were about 65 miles from San Diego. If we used reward points, we could have stayed in a Marriott hotel closer to where he lived or worked, so we would save on travel time and expense.

So, if you have time and the desire to travel and want to go to places where there may not be timeshares available for exchange or if you want to use points to pay for air travel, then consider the Marriott Rewards program. You do not have to purchase a timehshare from Marriott to be part of the program. You must purchase the timeshare to be able to deposit the week for points.

A few move comments about depositing your week for reward points. If you deposit the week, you must notify Marriott the year previous to the year you would be depositing the week; in other words, in 2007 for 2008 usage. See Marriott for the exact rule.

If you pay your maintenance fees of, say $800, using the premium visa card, I think you would earn $4000 points (5 points/dollar). If you deposit a week with Marriott, you would get 90,000 or more points in addition to the visa points. If you just earned $1/point using your credit card, you would have to spend $90,000 to get that number of points. So, if you want points, for the cost of your maintenance fees and the deposit of a timeshare week, you could gain about $94,000 points. Of course, you would give up your timeshare for that year.

Is it worth purchasing a timeshare from Marriott to have that option? You must look at your individual situation, your travel goals and availability.

You also asked about my experience purchasing on the resale market.

When I first was introduced to timeshare, I spent hours researching timeshares on the internet, including Redweek, Tug2, Interval and other places. My wife and I went to presentations from 3 different companies and visited 2 other Marriotts before deciding to buy. We also rented 2 weeks at Marriott Ocean Pointe from someone on Redweek and this person was kind enough to share her purchase experiences on the resale market, I believe also from Redweek sellers.

My wife and I decided to purchase an ocean front villa to use and an ocean side villa to trade.

I watched selling prices for Ocean Pointe for several weeks until I found one that was in a price range that we felt we could pay. We emailed the person on Redweek. It was a realtor representing the seller. We made an offer. It was accepted. We sent a deposit into an escrow account and the closing company handled all the paperwork. We were pleased with the timing because we were purchasing in 2005 for 2006 usage. We asked the seller to reserve the weeks we wanted in 2006 and put into the purchase agreement that the weeks would be transferred to our name after the close. It worked out real well.

I believe we contacted the realtor when we were looking for the second villa. I think both closed about the date. We visited Ocean Pointe as renters the first year and owners the second. We used the ocean side villa to exchange to Hilton Head and Marriott Newport and received a bonus week from II which our daughter and son-in-law used with their children at Marriott Cypress Harbour in Orlando.

After our visit to Hilton Head, we were so impressed that we decided we should purchase to be sure we could get back again the next year. We used Redweek again, corresponded with sellers. We ended up purching from a seller who had already reserved time when we wanted to go. The seller suggested a law firm on Hilton Head with a person who specialized in timeshare sales. Once again, this went very well.

Tim

geoffn wrote:

21 yrs ago I purchased a 3 br/10 occ/red week T/S in a Western Canada ski area for a measly $3000. Mtce. fees were less than $300 at the time and RCI was reasonable. Times change, however. That same purchase today is $25,000, mtce. fees are over $500 and RCI fees have jumped. I've gotten very good value from my T/S, but in today's market I wouldn't touch it. When my RCI membership runs out at the end of 2007, that's it. I'm through with them. I'll start using Redweek or any number of other sites to post my week for rental if I'm not using it. I have also begun renting through Redweek as well. A 2br unit on the Big Island for $800. Not too bad. And there are bargains to be found all over the web. Times have changed.

adahiscout wrote:

geoffn wrote:

21 yrs ago I purchased a 3 br/10 occ/red week T/S in a Western Canada ski area for a measly $3000. Mtce. fees were less than $300 at the time and RCI was reasonable. Times change, however. That same purchase today is $25,000, mtce. fees are over $500 and RCI fees have jumped. I've gotten very good value from my T/S, but in today's market I wouldn't touch it. When my RCI membership runs out at the end of 2007, that's it. I'm through with them. I'll start using Redweek or any number of other sites to post my week for rental if I'm not using it. I have also begun renting through Redweek as well. A 2br unit on the Big Island for $800. Not too bad. And there are bargains to be found all over the web. Times have changed.

========= We may be in for another change. If RCI POINTS continues to spread, more weeks will go directly into their network automatically and leave fewer in private hands to be legally rented. MD

Let me get my head around this. If I own a floating week at X resort, I may run into problems down the road to get into resorts else where because the points system has taken over many of the slots. If someone is using even one day during the week that unit is not available for the week exchange. This might bring down the value of those who hold week slots instead of points....I think...comments please

johnc655 wrote:

adahiscout wrote:

geoffn wrote:

21 yrs ago I purchased a 3 br/10 occ/red week T/S in a Western Canada ski area for a measly $3000. Mtce. fees were less than $300 at the time and RCI was reasonable. Times change, however. That same purchase today is $25,000, mtce. fees are over $500 and RCI fees have jumped. I've gotten very good value from my T/S, but in today's market I wouldn't touch it. When my RCI membership runs out at the end of 2007, that's it. I'm through with them. I'll start using Redweek or any number of other sites to post my week for rental if I'm not using it. I have also begun renting through Redweek as well. A 2br unit on the Big Island for $800. Not too bad. And there are bargains to be found all over the web. Times have changed.

========= We may be in for another change. If RCI POINTS continues to spread, more weeks will go directly into their network automatically and leave fewer in private hands to be legally rented. MD

----- Let me get my head around this. If I own a floating week at X resort, I may run into problems down the road to get into resorts else where because the points system has taken over many of the slots. If someone is using even one day during the week that unit is not available for the week exchange. This might bring down the value of those who hold week slots instead of points....I think...comments please

If you owned a floating week at X resort that is not affiliated with RCI POINTS you could still offer it for rent, use it as you do now, or exchange through one of the various exchange companies, depending on which ones work with your resort. I am saying that a proliferation of RCI POINTS resorts would mean that many many of those resort's weeks would go directly into RCI for exchange and would not be available for rentals on sites such as RedWeek as they now are.

It is true that RCI POINTS resort owners CAN tap into the weeks deposited by owners at RCI WEEKS resorts. If they then take out partial weeks, that might create problems for those who are limited to exchanging for full weeks. However, there is also something called RCI NIGHTLY STAYS which taps into odd available nights. I know Fairfield/Wyndham uses this program. It has exchange rates the same or sometimes lower than RCI POINTS. I have no idea how widely this is available outside of Fairfield. You would have to check with your own resort or resort group.

In all fairness, the great increase in banked weeks coming into RCI through RCI POINTS may more than compensate for the fragmentation of some weeks. I am hoping that RCI WEEKS members can access these full weeks from POINTS, just as POINTS members can access deposits made into WEEKS but am awaiting a reply regarding this issue from "Contact RCI"! The regulations posted for WEEKS do not address this question, since they were probably written before RCI POINTS existed.

My previous posting was speaking primarily about a possible reduction in the number of available "Weeks for Rent", not the exchange weeks. MD

======== Addition to the above: I have now heard back from RCI Customer Communications. They confirm that RCI POINTS members can, indeed, access deposits from RCI WEEKS members. When they take such a week, an RCI POINTS deposit is moved into the RCI WEEKS program to compensate. Consequently, some of the RCI POINTS inventory does become available to WEEKS members but only on a one for one basis. From the viewpoint of a WEEKS member, this is not as encouraging as I'd like, but I suppose we are no worse off than before.

While I was correct in thinking that RCI POINTS members cannot rent out what is secured by points it seems that their home resort week cannot be rented out either. Members join RCI POINTS on a contract basis that gives RCI full control of what they own. RedWeek is very right in saying they cannot exchange anything related to RCI POINTS. MD

I need some help sorting out the good with the bad....I appreciate in advance the discussion...please find attached what I was told from the Westin developer. If someone with more experience can tell if this is accurate or scare tactics...

An email:

When buying resale please be very careful because there aren’t any repercussions to incorrect information that may be provided and Starwood is not held liable for anything that a resale company may tell you. The differences between purchasing resale as opposed to purchasing from Starwood are numerous. Most importantly, the assurance that if you are ever unhappy for any reason, Starwood stands behind its product and will do everything in their power to rectify the situation. This does not apply for resale owners. With the Maui location you would have us of the StarOptions to use Starwood’s current ownership locations. It is considered an “as-is” purchase. Any new things that Starwood may add to their program, (since it is still in its infancy stages), and as the program morphs over the years, are not included to resale owners. They do not get access to any gold level membership benefits through Starwood, or have access to convert into StarPoints which is a large benefit to many of our owners who know they are not going to be able to vacation in a given year. I do not know who told you that we would be eliminating this program in the future, but this was totally a false statement since this is one of the major reasons why people purchase our program to begin with. Any Starwood Owner benefits are unavailable, since resale owners are not in the system as Starwood Owners, and reflected as total resale only. These benefits would include (but are not limited to) the ability to borrow StarOptions from the following year if needed to complete a stay, Starwood Owner priority into other locations, Elite Owner benefits (if applicable), wait lists for other locations, and if more then one interval is owned they cannot co-mingle their currencies (have to be used separately and are not linked). From my experience in dealing with a lot of the resale owners since I work for the Corporate Office, approximately 75% of them eventually decide that they would like to be included in all of the additional benefits. The other 25% strictly go to that particular location and never foresee themselves wanting to do anything different. I do understand that there is a monetary savings, and I can definitely appreciate this as well. My advice to you is, that if you are getting at least a 40% savings, then by all means take advantage of it. However, if you aren’t saving at least this much, then it isn’t worth it in the long run. The purchase incentive that is offered for this location is usually worth around 10K alone. Then, factoring in the fact that you only get a third of the program benefits easily makes up for the additional difference. With that said, if you can save at least 40%, it would be monetarily worth it and I would definitely understand since I would have to think about that myself! I hope everything works out for you and just please do your homework and make sure that what they are telling you out there in the resale world is accurate information.

With Kind Regards,

Starwood Vacation Ownership Direct

I don't know anything about Starwood, but the above sounds like a spiel from Starwood to get you to buy from them and not on the resale market. From what I've gathered expensive incentivess by buying from the developer are not worth the price you have to pay if money is a object with the buyer.

My previous posting was speaking primarily about a possible reduction in the number of available "Weeks for Rent", not the exchange weeks. MD

======== Addition to the above:

I have now heard back from RCI Customer Communications. They confirm that RCI POINTS members can, indeed, access deposits from RCI WEEKS members. When they take such a week, an RCI POINTS deposit is moved into the RCI WEEKS program to compensate. Consequently, some of the RCI POINTS inventory does become available to WEEKS members but only on a one for one basis. From the viewpoint of a WEEKS member, this is not as encouraging as I'd like, but I suppose we are no worse off than before.

While I was correct in thinking that RCI POINTS members cannot rent out what is secured by points it seems that their home resort week cannot be rented out either. Members join RCI POINTS on a contract basis that gives RCI full control of what they own. RedWeek is very right in saying they cannot exchange anything related to RCI POINTS. MD

Here is a question: what are the advantages and/or dis-advantages to a floating week vs. a fixed week? We've been offerred a floating week for a top of the line 3BR suite in Orlando - unit is only 3 years old. The resort is owned by a Public Company. Our net cost would about $13K after we traded in our Northeast Red week in. All in network privaledges would remain and maintenance fees would be $700/yr. What do you think?

danr84 wrote:

Here is a question: what are the advantages and/or dis-advantages to a floating week vs. a fixed week? We've been offerred a floating week for a top of the line 3BR suite in Orlando - unit is only 3 years old. The resort is owned by a Public Company. Our net cost would about $13K after we traded in our Northeast Red week in. All in network privaledges would remain and maintenance fees would be $700/yr. What do you think?

I can give you my experiences of floating vs fixed weeks. Others may be able to enhance what I say below.

My understanding of fixed weeks is that you can have the same villa for the exact same week every year. So, if you always will travel to your timeshare at the same time, you can be assured of that time slot and villa.

If you sould like to have some travel flexibility, then consider variable weeks where you can go during a week in a predefined range of dates defined by the timeshare company. What you must do in this case is contact your timeshare early to get your desired vacation week, especially if it is during a high demand season. When you arrive at your timeshare to use your week, you will be assigned a villa by the management staff.

So, you trade-off same week, same villa for flexibility to vary your week and different villa.

I own flexible weeks with Marriott timeshares and am pleased to have the flexibility to reserve weeks that fit my vacation requirements. Of course, I may have to reserve my villa dates at the earliest possible reservation date.

Hope this helps.

Tim

tim755 wrote:

danr84 wrote:

Here is a question: what are the advantages and/or dis-advantages to a floating week vs. a fixed week? We've been offerred a floating week for a top of the line 3BR suite in Orlando - unit is only 3 years old. The resort is owned by a Public Company. Our net cost would about $13K after we traded in our Northeast Red week in. All in network privaledges would remain and maintenance fees would be $700/yr. What do you think?

I can give you my experiences of floating vs fixed weeks. Others may be able to enhance what I say below.

My understanding of fixed weeks is that you can have the same villa for the exact same week every year. So, if you always will travel to your timeshare at the same time, you can be assured of that time slot and villa.

If you sould like to have some travel flexibility, then consider variable weeks where you can go during a week in a predefined range of dates defined by the timeshare company. What you must do in this case is contact your timeshare early to get your desired vacation week, especially if it is during a high demand season. When you arrive at your timeshare to use your week, you will be assigned a villa by the management staff.

So, you trade-off same week, same villa for flexibility to vary your week and different villa.

I own flexible weeks with Marriott timeshares and am pleased to have the flexibility to reserve weeks that fit my vacation requirements. Of course, I may have to reserve my villa dates at the earliest possible reservation date.

Hope this helps.

Tim

For a long time, Fixed Weeks were the only game in town with timeshares--and we did not buy because that seemed to be too limiting for the unknown future. Our first timeshare contract was based on a specific unit and date, but was floating within White Season. (Cheaper than Red!) We COULD have dibs on our contractual week, but were not limited to that. We were told that our White Week would probably turn Red as Branson became increasingly popular. (Branson is popular but our week is still White! We'd have been wiser to buy Red and access the entire year, not just our January, February, and early March!) Of course either the true fixed week or a week from a Float contract can be exchanged through RCI, II, or whatever exchange company your resort uses on a space available basis, but this involves exchange fees, guest fees, etc.

Then we encountered the resort points systems at Bluegreen and Fairfield. Oh joy! We can use our points anywhere in their large resort systems without exchange fees! We can choose to reserve 2 nights or whatever in the size unit we need on that occasion in any season. Points are like money. Plan carefully and they can go a long way. [NOTE: This does not refer to RCI POINTS. Their owners still pay exchange fees, though lower ones than RCI WEEKS.]

The questioner says he is considering a 3 bedroom. Will he always want to use something that large? Can he use it as three 1BRs, for example, at different times? Are there related resorts into which he can exchange at no extra charge? What are the "network privileges" mentioned? (MF of $700 may not be out of line for a 3BR or its points equivalent.) However, floating time period vs. fixed is not the only factor for him to consider. Think also of changing space and location needs as years go by. Timeshares are a long-term commitment. MD

danr84 asks, quoted in pertinent part: >> .... what are the advantages and/or dis-advantages to a floating week vs. a fixed week? We've been offerred a floating week....<< ======================================

Others have capably responded already, but I'll offer just a few related opinions / observations of my own:

1. Orlando is one of the most timeshare-overbuilt areas (along with Branson, Las Vegas, Williamsburg). There is a glut of available timeshares in any and all of these areas. You mention owning a Northeast Red week. If legitimately "red", with that week you could likely trade into Orlando virtually anytime you want. With that in mind, you might at least consider carefully whether Orlando is really where you want your "home resort" to be. If yes, and you intend to actually use your week there (i.e., as opposed to echanging or renting --- and Orlando weeks are generally lousy traders), you would be wise to at least shop around for your best deal before "giving up" your Northeast Red week. It's definitely a buyer's market in the overbuilt (and still building anyhow) Orlando area.

As a relevant observation, on the Bidshares site alone there are dozens and dozens of Orlando timeshares in all flavors being auctioned off at low prices at any given time (including right now). With that fact in mind, I'd encourage you to examine why you'd want to give up your Red Northeast week --- and then also be an additional $13k "out of pocket" --- just to own in an area where anyone can find space virtually anytime, for rent and/or for sale, and at relatively low cost. That's your prerogative and a value judgement to which you are certainly entitled; it just doesn't make financial sense to me, based upon the limited facts presented.

2. Know that the devil can definitely be in the details in some "floating" weeks in many Florida resorts. Particularly (but not only) in resorts in coastal FL areas, entire blocks of time are often actually "blacked out" (i.e., completely unavailable to) "float week" owners, who are prohibited from making any reservations during this time period (typically weeks 5 through 15 ----which constitutes most of the winter!). There may not be any such restrictions in Orlando area resorts, but it's certainly still a question worth specifically asking (and getting accurately answered, in writing) before buying. You don't want to discover AFTER closing on your purchase that you can't even reserve a week at your own home resort at what might well be the ONLY season in which you even want to go or be there!

Good luck and, as always...... CAVEAT EMPTOR (Buyer Beware)