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Hello, My husband and I are interested in purchasing a Marriott or Starwood resale, but are very new to the game. We just went to the Westin Kierland Villas in Scottsdale where we got the timeshare presentation. We were interested in buying, but knew that there was a resale market and wanted to learn more before making a decision on buying. After reading these forums, I've decided that resale is surely the way to go to save money upfront. A few questions for those who understand this system: We're deciding between a Marriott and Westin and would like feedback on advanatages/disadvantages to these. I understand that on the resale market the Starwood options cannont be transfered to points and the Marriott cannont be turned into reward points. Neither of these affect us since we have small children and want to use the vacation clubs. At the timeshare presentation, they told us that the property you buy (this is Westin) doesn't matter because you're basically buying the points and those can be traded for any Starwood Vacation property without a problem. From what I have read, it sounds like the location and time of your timeshare greatly influence how you can trade your timeshare on Interval International. Please share your experiences with this. We would appreciate any advice on how to maximize our buying resale potential (e.g., time of season to buy, location with best trading potential, Interval International tricks, etc...) Thank you!