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Re: Maintenance Fees (by David R.):

After reading all of the discussions regarding maintenance fees, thought I would add mine. Our fee was $455 per year in 2000 and in 2007 is $525 for a 2 bedroom condo. While there has been some maintenance problems, there has been improvements. All the furniture has been recovered, the counter tops have been replaced with granit surfaces, the counter top microwave has been replaced with an much nicer under the counter one, most of the applicances have been replaced, the living area TV has been upgraded to a 37 inch flat wall mounted TV, many of the units have been repainted and the grounds are keep up extremely well. The condo is in the Bahamas and they repaired all the hurricane damage very quickly and you would not even know there was any. Are there maintenace problems, yes. Replacement of light bulbs seems to be the biggest problem. I am also amazed at what people do when they are at the resorts. Whoever occupied our condo before, actually pulled the towel rack in the master bedroom bath, completely out of the wall. We had just moved in and maintenance came, fixed the wall and came back while were gone and painted the wall. No the towel rack was not replaced, but at least we did not have holes in the wall. Do we like the increase in fees, no, but maybe the users are part of the problem with the damage the do while staying there. I do know other owners in other resorts on the island that are very upset because their annual fess have incresed a lot or they are getting run down due to lack of maintenance, so guess we are lucky in that area. Also, maybe right now there are a lot of great deals out there, but when we bought, I calculated it would take 13-15 years to break even based on the average cost of a rental. I also beleive that those great deals won't last forever.