I need purchasing advice!

[mainemama]

I LOVE TO TRAVEL!!! I'm constantly planning the next trip. With my family of five, we need two hotel rooms or condo sized accomodations. I'm thinking that a timeshare may be right for us. Our primary destination is Orlando (one every two years or so). I also plan to throw in a trip or two a year that are more local (northeast as we are in Maine) so we can avoid airfare on those trips. We are a homeschool family and my husband has 2 wks a month off from work (he is a merchant marine). We are able to travel in off and shoulder seasons with little trouble. I've been looking into RCI a bit and it looks like we could make excellent use of last call vacations. I am not sure whether we should focus on finding a resort with low yearly fees and low RCI points and just focus primarily on the last calls or get a great resort in Orlando for maximum tradablilty in the points. I noticed that a lot of the Wyndham resales have free membership to RCI, should I go that route? I plan to keep watch over ebay (I know-boo, hiss...but the deals are great right now). I'm hoping to get a dollar resort with reduced closing. I would love any advice from all the experts out there.

[billymach4]

Mainemama,

You have found the promised land! Welcome to TS4MS.

You and your family will love TSing. Sounds like you have the best of all worlds. Homeschool, Husband has 2 weeks off per month!

Personally I prefer II over RCI, but that is just me. There is an overabundance of availability in Orlando. Some will tell you not to buy in Orlando, cause you can trade in real easy.

My personal choice is to stick with the leading Brands like Starwood, Marriott, HGVC, and like you said Wyndham. I don't own Wyndham but maybe one day. There are some great independent resorts out there as well.

Of course you will buy resale. I will let the real experts chime in now. Lots of Luck!

[philsfan]

Originally Posted by mainemama

I plan to keep watch over ebay (I know-boo, hiss...but the deals are great right now). I'm hoping to get a dollar resort with reduced closing. I would love any advice from all the experts out there.

There is nothing wrong with that plan for getting to Orlando when when you want to. Look for a lockout unit so you can get two exchanges for one maintenance fee.

Coastal Northeast requires good trade power for prime season exchanges. If you buy a prime season coastal resort, you should be able to trade into a prime season coastal resort or just use the one you buy.

[mainemama]

I don't really care too much about a beach front northeast resort. I live on the Maine coast, about 15 minutes from Popham Beach. IMO, the best beach in Maine. We go to the beach about once a week in the summer anyway. I would be more interested in the offerings in upstate New York (family in the region) or the Poconos. I would love to get into Alexandria VA or Williamsburg...maybe a fall Canada? Can anyone reccomend a good resort?

[bnoble]

One way to keep things thrifty: buy an el-cheapo week in a resort close enough to drive to, at a time and a resort you would use yourself, with modest maintenance fees. Then, sign up for RCI. But, you don't need to ever exchange through RCI---if you can travel to Orlando during offseasons, their rental program will suit you nicely.

It sounds like you'll be a great candidate for timesharing.

[mainemama]

So it sounds like you don't need to deposit into RCI to use the last call vacations. Is that right? Maybe the Whyndham (with the free RCI membership) would be the best plan for us. Then we could just buy a week or two in Orlando through the last call (we like October and November...It looks like tons of last calls in Orlando at that time). Is this how it works or am I way off?

[falmouth3]

You need a TS to join RCI, but you don't need to keep it to continue your membership. You are correct - you do not need to deposit anything to use an Extra Vacation or Last Call. Just pay the fee and it's yours.

You may want to look into TS in New England. Some can be had very inexpensively. If I were you. I'd look at eBay. If you search on "timeshare" and select "Real Estate" from the drop down menu, you'll get a pop up on the left side of your screen where you can select the states, the weeks, the size units you'd like to scan through. It reduces the sheer number of stuff that you need to wade through. For instance you wouldn't want to even look at studios and 1 BRs. However, you will not see any "points" listings by doing your search that way.

I would also suggest reading the reviews here and on TUG (tug2.net) although you need to pay a yearly membership fee of $15 on TUG in order to read the reviews. You can also read reviews on rci.com. See which resorts sound like something you'd be interested in owning. Research before you buy!!

My first TS was in Orlando. Many people say not to own there as it is easy to trade or rent there. However, my experience has been very positive with my Orlando week. I had a floating week and I always booked Easter week for exchanging. It got me Scotland in the summer, and Hawaii twice. I can't say I regretted buying it (selling because I bought too many weeks). It can get addicting.

Other areas that have many timeshares include Williamsburg, VA. The Poconos are not that highly regarded so they won't bring a spectacular trade for you. But if you think you'd want to vacation there, then it works for you and it would be worth it. I'd suggest that you also look at Maine, NH, VT, maybe Cape Cod and other locations in MA. One thing I'd advise is to get a quality week because once you buy it, you will be paying the maintenance fees until you sell it. If you buy a low demand week, you'll have a difficult time even giving it away.

Something that is often advised here is to try timesharing by staying at one or two before you buy. Rentals can be found in a number of places besides RCI and II. It sounds to me that you'd be a great candidate for timesharing, though.

Good luck and welcome!

Sue

[Jya-Ning]

Wyndham is pretty good for you.

Also keep in mind that Marriott's price is going lower since they withdrew the support, if you are thinking about Boston, you may want to looking into that, although I don't believe unit in that one will drop too much, and use II to get to Oralndo.

Jya-Ning

[philsfan]

Originally Posted by mainemama

So it sounds like you don't need to deposit into RCI to use the last call vacations. Is that right? Maybe the Whyndham (with the free RCI membership) would be the best plan for us. Then we could just buy a week or two in Orlando through the last call (we like October and November...It looks like tons of last calls in Orlando at that time). Is this how it works or am I way off?

You have it right. The free RCI membership is a plus for a Wyndham owner who expects to take advantange of Orlando last call.

[wackymother]

You don't need to deposit in RCI to buy Last Call vacations or extra vacations.

Are there any Wyndhams near you? Because I agree that it would be nice to have your home resort be one that you could drive to fairly easily and enjoy most years.

Some of the places that you mention as being places you'd like to go are kind of hard to get, even off-season. Like the Wyndham in Alexandria is tough anytime. The resorts in Lake Placid and Lake George, NY, and Peek N Peak--those are fairly difficult most times, and I don't remember if they appear in Last Call (because I always have to travel in high season, so I don't usually look at Last Call).

I think I would try to buy a resort close to me where I would like to stay, especially if there's one that has day use for owners. And I would try to get something not in the absolute dregs of low low low season, because those are pretty hard to unload come the day you want to get rid of them. Even if it cost a bit more upfront, in the long run it might be worth it to get a holiday week or a ski week or whatever.