Original Message:
NEW BUYERS BEWARE!!! (by Donna W.):
Wow, this was a really old thread!
Anywho... to anyone reading this thread, if you're considering purchasing a unit at Playa Grande, Grand Solmar, or the original Solmar, be aware that the Bulnes kids have screwed over the owners yet again!!
If you ever decide to sell your unit, you're totally hosed. They've just raised the Resort Transfer Fee yet again! Now, when you sell your unit, you will have to pay 10% of the original sales price of the unit (not what you paid for it, but the original sales price!!!) in the form of a Resort Transfer Fee. If you give your unit to a Broker to sell, the Broker must pay a 40% (yes, 40% !!!) Resort Transfer Fee.
Let's do the math for a unit you bought on the resale market (let's say a Playa Grande unit). You bought it off of eBay for $1,500 but its original sales price (brand new) was $20,000. Now, when you go to sell it to someone else, you'll have to pay a $2,000 Resort Transfer Fee ($500 more than you paid for it in the first place!!!).
Let's do the math for a brand new unit you bought at Grand Solmar. The 2-bedroom unit you bought was listed at $50,000 but you talked them down to $30,000. Ten years from now, you need to sell the unit. The Resort Transfer Fee you'll have to pay (assuming they don't raise it even higher between now and then) will be $5,000. That's right, $5,000 for them to just put the paperwork in someone else's name! And if you want a broker to sell it for you, then the Resort Transfer Fee balloons to a whopping $20,000 !!!
So, if you haven't yet purchased a unit from one of the properties owned by the Bulnes family, my advice is, DO NOT DO IT! It's too late for us current owners, but it's not too late for those of you who haven't bought. Save yourselves!