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Re: Buying timeshares (even resale) (by Suzanne S.):

atishr wrote:

jayjay wrote:

Before buying a timeshare week, I would research all rental sites on the internet first. The only reason, in my opinion, to buy a week is if you can only vacation in a red hot season such as summer, holidays or winter ski season. The reason I say this is because there are SO many rentals sites on the internet now (such as Redweek) as opposed to just a few years ago, that it doesn't make sense to buy if you can rent for the maintenance fee or a little more. The costs of timesharing have skyrocketed just in the last 6 years ... maintenance fees have risen (some with special assessments attached on top of maintenance fees), exchange company membership, exchanges, guest certificates and other related timeshare costs have risen.

If you can rent for the same as owning without the hassles of owning ... then in my opinion that's the better option. It's much easier to BUY a timeshare than to SELL a timeshare.

I am appreciative of all the info I have gleaned from this thread. I'd appreciate comments and critical analysis of the purchases I'm about to make in the following week. My husband and I purchased an annual deeded 2bd/2ba unit in the west village at Orange Lake in Orlando. The unit sleeps 8 is not a lock-off. The unit is in the newer 2500 block tower (not the older bungalow style). We paid $12,500, our maint/taxes are aprox. $630.00. We purchased week 17. We now have the option of converting from weeks to points through the Global Access System (sanctioned through Orange Lake) at a cost of $1,999.00. Our week 17 will give us 75,000 rci points. There is also an in house fee of only $40.00 to trade to any other week or unit(ie. studio or 1 Bd to stretch our points out) to any other Orange Lake property. We belong to RCI and go every other year to Orlando but never yet in week 17 so we end up paying the RCI exchange fee which is over $150. Can't see the disadvantage to buying the conversion to points, we can pay cash, so there will be no interest or financing involved.

Also we have an opportunity to by a 2Bd/2Ba @ Cliffs @ Peace Canyon in Las Vegas with 38,500 RCI points. The cost is $1200 (including closing,registration with RCI points) with annual maint/taxes of $446.00. We are able to fly to Vegas for considerably less than Orlando and enjoy getting away in the winter for a break. After reading the comments of the glut of TS in Vegas and Orlando and negative implications we are gratefully anticipating your knowledgeable comments. We are new to TS and only wished we had learned of Redweek sooner. Our offers sounded great to us, are we correct? What pitfalls have we not counted on? Is the Cliffs due for a heavy assessment fee? The maint.fees are so low we thought it seemed like an opportunity. Thanks in advance. Maddy