Anyone sold a Sunterra Resort?

We own with Sunterra and are trying to sell our unit. We had a buyer and they backed out because they were told by Sunterra that they would have to pay an additional 3000.00 for the club's membership and that my membership will not transfer. Has anyone had a similar experience? This does not seem right.

Sounds familiar as I'm a Sunterra member and have a unit for sale. It sounds as though you get a different story from them depending on who you talk with. My prospective buyer was told that no membership could be had w/o buying a unit from them. I never realized this would be such a hassle within the sales process. In fact it's brought a couple sale offers to a halt!! Anyone know of other TS memberhips that could be joined without buying a unit? Does Interval allow this membership transfer? Need some direction here!!

In response to both Tracy and John, I have inquired about purchasing Sunterra Properties and converting to their SunOptions. Tracy's potential buyers got the same info I did. I was also told this had to be transacted at particular Sunterra resorts. (closest to me is Williamsburg, Virginia)

james3185 wrote:

In response to both Tracy and John, I have inquired about purchasing Sunterra Properties and converting to their SunOptions. Tracy's potential buyers got the same info I did. I was also told this had to be transacted at particular Sunterra resorts. (closest to me is Williamsburg, Virginia)

Thank goodness I was too cheap to buy one at a presentation last year. The price seemed outlandish, too.

So Tracy what are your plans now? John

johnw418 wrote:

So Tracy what are your plans now? John

I feel like I am stuck with it. No one is going to want to pay 3000.00 in addition to the purchase price in order to join club sun. It's kindof funny, though, because Sunterra will let you give your membership to someone with only the 100.00 name change fee. Maybe if they did not know you sold it, you could just request the form...it's a gamble, though.

Are all of the t/s sold just not having this problem by not being Sunterra affiliated? It doesn't seem to be a concern judging by the posts I see. Many of the companies have their own policies re membership transfer but to find out those that would be compatible could offer hope. Unless I'm missing something.

tracya22 wrote:

johnw418 wrote:

So Tracy what are your plans now? John

I feel like I am stuck with it. No one is going to want to pay 3000.00 in addition to the purchase price in order to join club sun. It's kindof funny, though, because Sunterra will let you give your membership to someone with only the 100.00 name change fee. Maybe if they did not know you sold it, you could just request the form...it's a gamble, though.

Why not lower your price to include at least part or all of that fee. You can be upfront with the buyer and look good at the same time.

I am a resale broker and this is what happens when you sell your ownership and what transfers depending on what you own and are selling. ALL deeded ownerships with Sunterra that are in Club Sunterra in points DO NOT TRANSFER IN RESALE. The new owner would have to purchase additional timeshare from Club Sunterra and negotiate the re-conversion of their resale at that time. There are some memberships in Sunterra that were previously Epic points memberships where the points do transfer in the resale but they are only good for the Sunterra Trust locations. If anyone would like the locations I can email the list to them and you can contact me at reseller@timesharewholesalers.com SO- if title is deeded; points don't transfer, if title is membership- they do! But only for the trust resort locations.

My husband and I bought a timeshare at Powhatan Plantation in Williamsburg which is part of Sunterra. We bought through a resale broker (he has since closed because of health problems). We purchased C & D lockoff units for week 24, deeded. We can either use 2 units for one week or 1 unit for two weeks. Besides signing the settlement papers which were handled by this broker and his attorney, the only other thing we did was sign up with RCI for trading purposes. We have never joined Club Sunterra to the best of my knowledge. I know that I only pay maintenance fees and RCI membership fees.

So I am assuming that I am not a member so I could sell my Sunterra Williamsburg to someone else who didn't care if they are a member of not. Since I belong to RCI I don't see any need to belong to Club Sunterra. Am I missing something?

Joan

I just called Club Sunterra to ask them questions. Their phone number is 877-258-2786. Another ph# they gave me for questions is 800-966-1392. I told them I didn't know if I was a member of Club Sunterra even though I am own at Powhatan Plantation. They asked if I ever paid $3000. I said "no". They said then I do not belong to Club Sunterra.

If I understand it correctly, if you join Club Sunterra then you don't have to join RCI or II because you do your exchanges through Club Sunterra.

I don't see any reason why someone would not want to buy your timeshare just because you do not belong to Club Sunterra. Belonging to Club Sunterra is optional. They are buying your week. If they want to exchange, then they need to pay either Club Sunterra, RCI or Interval Int'l to use their services to exchange. That is a whole separate transaction from buying your timeshare.

I have had my timeshare for about 4 years and have traded it every year using RCI. You would just need to be clear in your "for sale" description that you are selling the week only and that any club memberships would have to be purchased separately.

Joan

I hope I'm not posting too much. I called Powhatan again and asked if they or Club Sunterra have a resale department. They gave me the phone number of Resorts Solutions: 800-995-9294. I called Resorts Solutions and they require that you give them $499. up front for them to list your timeshare. The buyer pays closing of $650. He said my timeshare (described before) is worth $16,500. I told him ones on ebay are a lot cheaper and he said that they probably have outstanding maintenance fees.

I asked if you HAVE to join Club Sunterra or they will block the sale of your timeshare. He said that they tried forcing people to join as they want to switch people from weeks to points (I have weeks). He said that they are no longer allowed to do that.

I know one or more of the people who post on redweek recommend NOT dealing with people who ask you to pay any money up front so I am not necessarily recommending Resorts Solutions. But this is who Sunterra is referring people to to resell their timeshare. They handle any Sunterra resorts regardless of what city/state.

I hope this information is helpful. Joan

joanp60 wrote:

I hope I'm not posting too much. I called Powhatan again and asked if they or Club Sunterra have a resale department. They gave me the phone number of Resorts Solutions: 800-995-9294. I called Resorts Solutions and they require that you give them $499. up front for them to list your timeshare. The buyer pays closing of $650. He said my timeshare (described before) is worth $16,500. I told him ones on ebay are a lot cheaper and he said that they probably have outstanding maintenance fees.

I asked if you HAVE to join Club Sunterra or they will block the sale of your timeshare. He said that they tried forcing people to join as they want to switch people from weeks to points (I have weeks). He said that they are no longer allowed to do that.

I know one or more of the people who post on redweek recommend NOT dealing with people who ask you to pay any money up front so I am not necessarily recommending Resorts Solutions. But this is who Sunterra is referring people to to resell their timeshare. They handle any Sunterra resorts regardless of what city/state.

I hope this information is helpful. Joan

Hi Joan< I work for Timeshare Wholesalers, Inc. and we are one of the 80 some odd resale brokers in the US that do not charge any kind of upfront fees to list and market a timeshare. We even provide you with a free market survey so you can decide if the out come will be the best for you and your pocket. I can tell that Resort Solutions is referred by Sunterra because they don't actually market resales, just collect upfront fees and say they will. But this makes it convenient for Sunterra because if you list with them, then your week will never compete with a new sale of Sunterra's because it will just be posted to some website that isn't advertised so an easy way to eliminate the competition, eh? I can tell you the inflated price of $16500 just isn't reality. It is just what you wanted to hear so they could get your CC. Sincerely, Saundra Mock

Saundra,

Thanks for your post. I am aware that the price they gave me is not realistic. Before the broker retired that we bought from we inquired what he thought our units would sell for if we wanted to resell them back to him and I think it was about $4000.-$6000.

I will keep your name on file if we ever do decide to sell since I can no longer use the broker we bought through.

Do you have more advice for the people who have timeshares and ARE members of Club Sunterra. It sounds to me like it is acutally harder to sell if you belong. Joan

RE Sunterra. Has anyone heard of potential changes in the resale policy now that they've been bought by Diamond Resorts? So far I've not heard of any major changes other than a resort or two have been dropped.

johnw418 wrote:

RE Sunterra. Has anyone heard of potential changes in the resale policy now that they've been bought by Diamond Resorts? So far I've not heard of any major changes other than a resort or two have been dropped.

Hi everyone, family and I just returned from our deeded week at Powhattan. We went to the presentation and was given the push of GIVING up our deeded week and converting to points. In the end we would have to pay over $6000 plus give up our week to get 18,000 points? We walked out, does anyone else out there want to keep their deeded week but are being pushed to give them up?

That does fall under MY category. Do you have info on how to sell my Sunterra (DRI) previously Epic (boy, so many names!) Resort.

Urgent need of help!

Thank you

All I can say is this.... we were able to RENT a 2BR Unit at Pawhatan from an Owner in the year 2000 (mid September) and it was ABSOLUTELY Fantastic! The POOL, Activity Center were also beyond our expectation. The 15th TEE was only about 50 meters from our doorway and people from Pittsberg had driven there just for a weekend of golf .. LOTS of History to see and learn around the area.... Marine Museum, model trains, Site ReExcavations, more and more. We would consider another week there in a micro-minute ..

karenm467 wrote:

johnw418 wrote:

RE Sunterra. Has anyone heard of potential changes in the resale policy now that they've been bought by Diamond Resorts? So far I've not heard of any major changes other than a resort or two have been dropped.

Hi everyone, family and I just returned from our deeded week at Powhattan. We went to the presentation and was given the push of GIVING up our deeded week and converting to points. In the end we would have to pay over $6000 plus give up our week to get 18,000 points? We walked out, does anyone else out there want to keep their deeded week but are being pushed to give them up?

Anyone out there got any advice how to sell Diamond resort points that were previously Sunterra and before that Grand Vacation Club (GVC) in the UK. Told i have to convert to weeks but then if purchased, purchaser is encouraged to re-convert to points.