Blue Vista Capital LLC

Hi, I just received a letter about buying my timeshare in Fort Myers Beach. It sounds legit. I will of course take a 50% loss. It seems they have bought other units there. What if anything do you know about this company? It maybe an answer to a prayer even with the great loss,but it seems to beat a blank! Thanks for your time and advise. R. Chamberlain

royinec wrote:

Hi, I just received a letter about buying my timeshare in Fort Myers Beach. It sounds legit. I will of course take a 50% loss. It seems they have bought other units there. What if anything do you know about this company? It maybe an answer to a prayer even with the great loss,but it seems to beat a blank! Thanks for your time and advise. R. Chamberlain

Never heard of this scam but new ones pop up everyday .... they will ask for a huge upfront fee then you're history .... all they want is your upfront fee.

Also, how did they get your name and address (personal info)?

royinec wrote:

Hi, I just received a letter about buying my timeshare in Fort Myers Beach. It sounds legit. I will of course take a 50% loss. It seems they have bought other units there. What if anything do you know about this company? It maybe an answer to a prayer even with the great loss,but it seems to beat a blank! Thanks for your time and advise. R. Chamberlain

If I recall correctly, you previously bought into the untimely attempted (and only partly successful) conversion of the former Neptune Motel in FMB into timeshare ownership.

The original investors went belly-up and a new bunch from the midwest moved in to try to pick up the pieces. It COULD be that this new (third) entity is trying to move in as a third generation of "investors" to gain a controlling interest in this financially distressed timeshare enterprise.

If you can bail out for only a 50% loss on your original purchase on that failed Neptune debacle, I personally wouldn't hesitate. That said, however, I would make it crystal clear to these alleged "buyers" that you will pay NOTHING MORE out of your pocket --- NOTHING --- not for closing costs, estoppel, title search, or any other contrived or cockamamie "fee".

I'd also strongly recommend looking on the Lee County, FL web site for any closings which may reflect this (unknown to me) entity as the grantee on deeds at your facility within the past year or so. Lee County deeds, which are of course public records, are easily retrievable and eminently viewable in PDF format on the Lee County site. If you find this entity indicated there as a grantee in other recent purchases at your facility, then they MIGHT just be legitimate. If you CAN'T find the entity name anywhere as grantee in any recorded transactions at your facility, however, then I would just run like h#%l in the opposite direction --- fast and far.

Good luck.

Thanks for the info. No fee's of any kind. They have offered to reimburse for the condo fee'e of 2011, pay upcoming taxes and close by 11/30/11. They have gotten my name from the Neptune as they have bought other home owners deeds. If this does happen as they say ,I'll consider myself lucky. All my fee's are current so we'll see what happens. I will check out that web site and see what is happening there.

royinec wrote:

Thanks for the info. No fee's of any kind. They have offered to reimburse for the condo fee'e of 2011, pay upcoming taxes and close by 11/30/11. They have gotten my name from the Neptune as they have bought other home owners deeds. If this does happen as they say, I'll consider myself lucky.

In just a quick, cursory look at the official records on the Lee County site (http://www.leecounty.org) I see about a dozen other recorded Neptune acquisitions by this particular entity, so my initial theory about "new players" appears to be correct, at least at first glance.

You might want to consider having an attorney represent your interests in this matter --- and be sure to get everything in writing, under authorized signature, from someone who is a principal in this company. Mere form letters from who-knows-who are insufficient. That whole project was such a debacle right from the start that there could still be some underlying legal issues or liens which might not be readily apparent. It might be worth the few hundred dollars involved to get an attorney to "have your back" here.

*IF* this "buyout" offer is legitimate and you can get 50% of your purchase price back, if I was in your shoes I'd almost certainly take that money and RUN. That whole project is just an ongoing debacle and, in this economy, there is no financial "turnaround" likely anytime in the foreseeable future. The list of investor failures (...apparently now approaching the third bunch thereof) associated with that project could potentiallty go on and on for a very long time. In addition, there will likely be a big "squeeze" on those owners who choose to remain "in"; experiencing higher and higher maintenance fees and probably some unwelcome, hefty special assessments too. Even with all that, the entire fiasco could STILL go under. IF you can get out now, recovering 50% of what you paid, I'd recommend obtaining legal counsel and move quickly and decisively to GET OUT!

Just my personal opinion...

royinec wrote:

Thanks for the info. No fee's of any kind. They have offered to reimburse for the condo fee'e of 2011, pay upcoming taxes and close by 11/30/11. They have gotten my name from the Neptune as they have bought other home owners deeds. If this does happen as they say ,I'll consider myself lucky. All my fee's are current so we'll see what happens. I will check out that web site and see what is happening there.

I can guarantee you that sometime in the future they will ask for a large upfront fee for closing (or whatever) and by 11/30/11 it will be too late to file a complaint of fraud with your credit card company.

DO NOT PAY THEM A DIME UPFRONT.

I'm worried about how they found you. Typically, my advise is to stay far away from anyone who contacts you out of the blue.

Although you state that they haven't asked for or released information about any upfront fees, I suspect that those are forthcoming.

While I understand and empathize with the fact that you aren't sure where to turn to for safe, legit timeshare sales, the fact that you are asking questions and paying attention to RedWeek.com is a HUGE step in the right direction.

Have you taken advantage of RedWeek.com's free pricing tool? I'd suggest you go this route, as appealing as Blue Visita Capital LLC might sound.

I will do some checking and if I find anything, I'll let you know.

tsauthor wrote:

I'm worried about how they found you. I will do some checking and if I find anything, I'll let you know.

It's quite obvious (...to me, anyhow) how this entity found royinec. As previously observed within this very thread, this entity seems to be a third generation of investors at this semi-failed conversion of Neptune Motel in Fort Myers Beach, FL into timeshare ownerships. Blue Vista Capital LLC clearly seems to be stepping in to "buy out" the second generation of investors and would thereby obviously have access to ALL exisiting owner info. If not acquired directly from the second generation investors, then the info could be easily obtained directly from Lee County records, since the entire Neptune motel-to-timeshare conversion fiasco is just a VERY few years old now.

Also, as already reported previously, Lee County, FL official records very clearly indicate at least a DOZEN other ALREADY RECORDED closings / purchases by this particular "Blue Vista Capital" entity from other Neptune Motel / Timeshare conversion fiasco "owners".

In my opinion, what royinec needs now is some competent legal representation to look out for his / her interests in this matter. Surely NOTHING proffered within these RedWeek "discussion" forums (including vague input from you) will serve him / her nearly as well.

Ken:

You are correct. My apologies for not reading through the entire thread. I do not mean for my answers to be vague in any way, however, I am also careful not to fall into a situation where I say something bad about a company only to find myself in legal troubles. I would advise all others to be careful as well.

My apologies for not reading the entire thread again...I was dealing with a death in my family and am just getting back to semi-normal.

tsauthor wrote:

I do not mean for my answers to be vague in any way, however, I am also careful not to fall into a situation where I say something bad about a company only to find myself in legal troubles.

The accurate and precise reporting of documented (and easily verifiable) facts can never cause "legal troubles".

"Saying something bad" about a company is a potential legal problem if (...and ONLY if...) what has been said is BOTH false AND a source or cause of provable, demonstrable harm to the subject.

Verifiable facts, on the other hand, when accurately reported, can NEVER actually constitute slander or libel.

No personal offense intended, but to use a baseball analogy, if you are so obviously afraid to ever "swing the bat", why even bother to "step up to the plate" at all?

tsauthor wrote:

Have you taken advantage of RedWeek.com's free pricing tool? I'd suggest you go this route, as appealing as Blue Visita Capital LLC might sound.

Where is Redweek's free pricing tool located?

tsauthor wrote:

Have you taken advantage of RedWeek.com's free pricing tool?

The RedWeek "free pricing tool" is essentially worthless.

All this "tool" really does is to summarize and "average out" current asking prices (for sales and/ or rentals) from exisitng RedWeek ads, with NO regard for (and NO actual knowledge of) ANY previous closing prices, OR variations in seasonal values at any given resort, OR prices being asked (or received) elsewhere, OR whether the asking price from the RedWeek ad is even remotely realistic in the first place. Also, if there are no RedWeek ads posted for a resort, then there is actually NO pricing info available AT ALL from this alleged "tool". In short, this "tool" lacks any meaningful value beyond merely reflecting numbers advertisers are dreaming about in their RedWeek ads; information which means absolutely NOTHING in regard to the actual market value or any prior closing figures.

To cite a specific example, let's look at another resort in Fort Myers Beach (in the same town and on the same street where royinec owns) --- Tropical Sands. RedWeek has ONE Tropical Sands "for sale" ad; a flex week, listed for $300. Accordingly, the "pricing tool" would then have you believe that a week at this facility is worth about $300. Not so at all; let's look more closely at the actual facts here...

Winter weeks at this facility command resale prices from $7k to $10k. Some of my own family members sold TWO such weeks within the past 60 days or so in that very price range (on their own, not via RedWeek ads) so I know this to be an accurate and irrefutable fact. That's quite a significant "spread" between $300 and $10,000, no?

Example #2, with the opposite (but still grossly inaccurate) result from the "pricing tool": RedWeek currently shows 5 different (all floating) weeks "for sale" at Marriott's Crystal Shores in Marco Island, Florida. Asking prices range from $30k to $43k. Will ANY of these weeks actually sell for anywhere even remotely NEAR those absurdly high numbers? (...or rent for $400+ to $700+, per night?) No, of course not. Yet the RedWeek "pricing tool" would (quite incorrectly) lead you to perhaps believe otherwise. Those hallucinatory, exorbitant figures aren't even too much less than developer-direct numbers!

A more realistic means to determine actual CLOSING prices on timeshare resales would be to peruse the "completed listings" on eBay, if you can find closed auctions for comparable weeks at your particular resort (admittedly, you can't always find a closely comparable week). If you DO find one, you then learn EXACTLY what someone was actually willing to pay for that particular week. Such info is much more useful and realistic than using oddball asking prices from a few stray Redweek ads as being ANY kind of meaningful indicator of real, actual, current market value.

In summary, take the RedWeek "pricing tool" with a grain of salt --- AT BEST!

The 'pricing tool' is of no benefit since it doesn't list the week/timeframe owned/location of unit to what a recent similar timeshare week actually sold for .... a timeshare is only worth what someone is willing to pay and depends on supply and demand of the resort, time owned and location of the unit .... what someone is asking and what someone actually gets by selling (IF it sells) are two completely different things .... apples to oranges.

You can't guage what a timeshare is worth by the 'pricing tool' feature. The only true guage would be what a similar week/timeframe/location actually sold for recently. Other features of actual worth are where the unit is located at the resort (ie: riverfront, lake front, pool front, waterpark front etc.)

For instance, I owned a riverfront timeshare week in a popular mountain resort town in the south .... while other units at that resort can't even be given away, I sold my very coveted riverfront unit for a nice profit .... many things have to be taken into consideration when pricing any timeshare week.

All valid points. RedWeek.com's feature is ONE of the tools owners should use.

I've been advocating for years now that the timeshare industry come up with their version of "Kelley Blue Book" or "Edmond's" valuation tool.

It can't be that hard, as evidenced by the auto industry's involvment and embrace and would do wonders for everyone concerned.

There is no valid reason why the developers and the resellers and the owners can't all work together to fix this broken system.

Ideas?

tsauthor wrote:

All valid points. RedWeek.com's feature is ONE of the tools owners should use.

I've been advocating for years now that the timeshare industry come up with their version of "Kelley Blue Book" or "Edmond's" valuation tool.

It can't be that hard, as evidenced by the auto industry's involvment and embrace and would do wonders for everyone concerned.

There is no valid reason why the developers and the resellers and the owners can't all work together to fix this broken system. Ideas?

Not really since Redweek lists only what the owners are asking in the ads, not what they sold for. Again, what someone is asking and what someone might get are two completely different things. Even if the ad has SOLD on it, there's no way to verify what the timeshare actually sold for.

tsauthor wrote:

All valid points. RedWeek.com's feature is ONE of the tools owners should use.

I've been advocating for years now that the timeshare industry come up with their version of "Kelley Blue Book" or "Edmond's" valuation tool.

It can't be that hard, as evidenced by the auto industry's involvment and embrace and would do wonders for everyone concerned.

There is no valid reason why the developers and the resellers and the owners can't all work together to fix this broken system. Ideas?

The worth of a timeshare cannot be evaluated like a car .... there are too many variables involved in a timeshare as was stated in my previous post.