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We have been timeshare renters for over 20 years, mostly in CA, Las Vegas, and AZ. When we are in Vegas we usually stay 2-3 weeks at a time. I am looking for a 2 BR in a specific resort over superbowl weekend, we have rented there several times but availability has been scarce for the last couple years. Rather than get too locked into a mindset over it, there is an over abundance of others to rent from, which we have done. I have been a member of TUG for about 10 years, keep an eye on ebay, and used to watch Redweek but recently got back on it. I am going into a purchase as a relatively informed buyer. I don't want to take advantage of a seller, trying to squeeze every last drop out of a sale ( as if there is much left after SMTN is done with them). I do know, however, that sellers have been known to sell for $1, cover closing, and even offer other incentives to encourage a purchase. In my offers with SMTN, the purchase price was agreed on and I also agreed to pre-pay 2022 MF if that was required for the sale to proceed. The roadblock came when I proposed splitting the closing costs with the seller because they were shockingly high. At no time was I ever in direct contact with a seller, it always went through a SMTN agent. My complaint/concern is that I believe that SMTN is not passing along my proposals of splitting the closing costs and that they are declining this on behalf of the owners. The full closing costs are going to get paid even if it is shared between buyer and seller, so I don't know why SMTN would balk at that. The only thing I can think of is if partial pre-payment of closing was included in the original listing contract, so SMTN cannot ask a seller to pay more even if it is at the request of a buyer. I am certain that there are sellers who would agree to cover half of closing ( approx $750) when the purchase price and 2022 MF have already been negotiated. It seems these sellers are not getting the option to agree, or decline, to do this because SMTN is not presenting this request to them. I suspect that the sellers are given some other kind of explanation on why a sale didn't proceed instead of the truth that SMTN will not negotiate closing fees or communicate to sellers a buyers request of shared payment. At the time of signing a listing contract sellers should be made aware that closing costs are fixed and that any offers from buyers to share or negotiate those costs will be declined and that will effectively end some the the few offers that actually occur. I have soured on putting in any more offers with SMTN, even though I originally felt I was dealing fairly with sellers who already had been taken advantage of, and perhaps could give them some relief with a purchase, although I am not going to allow myself to be taken advantage of by the SMTN excessive closing fees in order to do that. I could revert to an "all in" offer but that sits wrong with me too in that it is going to come out of the sellers proceeds by default instead of by their choice in cost sharing.