Our 5-year-old grandson frequently comes over to play with Papa Alan & Grandma Carol. When nature calls, he typically announces that he has to go & rushes off to the bathroom. Usually, I say, “You can have a potty break a-n-y time you want.” Recently I also said, (as I habitually did for a while), “Let me know if you want any help with the paperwork.”
Sensing that he was being teased even if he wasn’t exactly sure how, the little guy replied, “Papa, will you please just call it the wiping?”
With a deeded timeshare, what I really own is the obligation to keep on paying those annual fees indefinitely on into the future as long as I’m the owner — which is OK as long as those fees, plus an appropriate share of the original acquisition cost, add up to no more than a reasonable cost for my vacation accommodations. My timeshare standard is spacious, luxury accommodations for roughly Motel 6 & Super 8 rates. Sometimes that works out, sometimes it doesn’t. So it goes.
Now with an RTU (i.e., leased) timeshare, I’m still obligated to keep on paying throughout the term of the lease. For those el longo RTUs, it works out to a lifetime commitment for old guys like me — unless I can sell off my RTU timeshare to somebody else who wants it for nice vacations when I’m done with it.
Fortunately, there are also el shorto RTU timeshare leases out there, renewable — click here for the only example I’m semi-familiar with — that obligate the person leasing’m for 3 years (in this example). That arrangement provides an opportunity to try it & drop it if I don’t like it — or to re-up for another term if I do like it.
For our 2006 October “surprise” vacation we went to Orlando FL, staying in a newly bought 2BR Gold Crown luxury timeshare with old friends we’ve known since before any of us had kids. What made it a “surprise” was that we got no takers from our ads for renting out the week, so we went there ourselves instead of letting it go to waste. (Had a nice time.)
The fix we’re in for October 2007 is 39,500 perfectly good RCI Points set to expire the end of October if not used by then. They’re what’s left after carrying over points from a previous year, so now we either use’m or pay a little something more to carry’m over again or watch’m disappear entirely.
Rather than lose out on paid-for timeshare resort time, I’m inclined to go away on our 2nd Annual October “Surprise” Vacation — if I can get The Chief Of Staff to go along. (No fun without her.)
Any creative suggestions ?
Shucks, any plain-vanilla non-creative suggestions ?
When our Orlando timeshares wear out & need replacement — & realistically, that’s likely to be some years after I assume room temperature — the HOA-BOD can call in the demolition company & the wrecking balls can have at it. Then new, up to date timeshare condo buildings can be erected on the outstanding site, which will be even more valuable then (location, location, location) than it was when the timeshare was 1st built. With good financial management, the reserve fund will be able to cover the construction down payment & the owners’ maintenance fees will be able to handle the mortgage payments in addition to ongoing operating costs & reserve fund payments for future renovations on the new condo buildings.
Imagine — new timeshare condos built by an independent, owner-controlled HOA-BOD rather than by a timeshare development company. Won’t that be something ?
As a practical matter, it might not be necessary to take the old buildings down to ground level even then. Radical, strip-to-the-studs renovation might be enough. With the walls off, new wiring & new piping & new fiber-optics & new ductwork & new HVAC & new everything can be installed satisfactorily & economically — so long as the structural framing is sound.
With the walls off, the engineers & architects can do detailed inspections to determine where possible reinforcement would be advantageous. Likewise, strip-to-frame rebuilding would allow (within limits) some remodeling that would not be possible otherwise — e.g., adding elevators to condo buildings that started out as walk-ups, reconfiguring interior partitions for better space utilization, etc.
Radical rebuilding would mean working out some system for owners to use their time during the extended period between when the wrecking balls start swinging & the grand opening of the new or radically rebuilt timeshare condo buildings. I don’t know how that problem can be managed.
Hey, that’s why the HOA-BOD gets paid those big bux, eh ?
We snagged 4 units via PriceLine last February for a quasi-reunion of old friends in March.
The year before (same event), we snagged 3 units — but we goofed up in 1 respect. That is, the PriceLine multiple-room bid has to be for all the same dates but I was expecting to be able to specify the additional room dates after my bid was accepted (if it was accepted).
One guy that prior year was arriving in town a day later than the rest of us, so I should have put in his PriceLine bid separately for his later arrival date. (Live & learn, eh?) My bid was accepted, & we got a block of rooms all at the same price for the same dates. The late-arriving guy paid his share without complaint — he still paid less than just making straight-ahead reservations over the phone. Next time, however, we did it right & put in separate bids for folks with different dates.
I backed out when an eBay double horn I won (Key Of F & Key Of B-Flat) turned out to be single horn (Key Of F only — sheesh). Fortunately I caught on & quashed the sale before the item was shipped.
I also backed out when an eBay EEY timeshare I won turned out to be every year (or maybe it was vice versa — the memory grows foggier over time).
Both times the sellers apologized & agreed we could just forget the whole thing — although the timeshare seller offered to complete the transaction if I wanted at my bid price, my option. (I said No Thanks.)
Once we won a set of eBay electric hair clippers for pets that turned out to be not as advertised — item received had a vibratory motor whereas item advertised was said to have rotary motor. We complained & sent the item back & got a refund of all we paid, including shipping. The seller insisted on receiving “positive” feedback — honest mistake, etc. We said OK, but not till the refund was in hand.
Before eBay started making it harder to identify non-winning bidders, I got lots & lots of 2nd chance offers — all bogus. I never received a 2nd chance offer that was on the level. Shucks, when I’m outbid at $150 for a horn that goes for $2,500 — & all but 1 of the 16 other bids are higher than mine — it doesn’t take rocket surgery to detect the bogusness.
Lately, now that eBay conceals bidders’ identities, lots less bogus eBay stuff lands in my E-Mail in box.
Last October, the hawker in the discount ticket booth in front of Steak & Shake on Rt. 535 right near Cypress Pointe was signing prospects up for the WestGate V.I.P. tour. We told him we’d been there before & weren’t that keen on going again — not to mention the fact we take the tours only for the freebies & not with the idea in mind of paying “new” prices for “used” timeshares. (I maintain that all timeshares are used-used-used by the time anybody shows up & checks in, so it makes zero sense to pay new prices for a product that isn’t. But that’s another story.)
The guy said, “Heck, I don’t care. I just want you to go out there & take the tour & enjoy the V.I.P. breakfast they offer, free, cooked to order by just about the best chef in Orlando. It’s worth going out there & taking the tour just for the food, never mind your tour gifts & discounts.”
We said we wanted 4 tickets to the Pirates dinner show. He said OK & signed us up for another WestGate timeshare tour. “Don’t go in by the regular reception building front door,” he said. “Go round to the side & use the entrance under the blue canopy awning. That’s the special entrance reserved for people taking the V.I.P. tour.”
I don’t know whether the WestGate chef was the absolute best in town, but the food was outstanding, just as the tour hawker said. Across the room we could see the non-V.I.P. prospects lined up for the so-so breakfast — we knew that’s what it was because that’s where they sent us a year or so earlier when we took the plain-vanilla WestGate tour (for freebies).
The timeshare tour was about what you’d expect, & the Pirates dinner show was solidly mediocre, so the gourmet breakfast turned out to be the best part of the whole deal. Who’d a-thunk ?
As I understand it — not that my understanding is all that accurate or acute — once RCI has people’s SA weeks in inventory, it can do whatever it wants with’m, not necessarily reserving them for people who want’m via exchange. The way I hear it, SA timeshares are highly popular with European vacationers, so RCI might just rent out its members’ deposited SA weeks for big bux (or big euros as the case may be, mox nix), which is good for the RCI bottom line & not necessarily bad for USA members of RCI, who as you point out aren’t all that likely to be exchanging into SA timeshares anyhow. Or, RCI might fix its European members up with regular or points exchanges into SA timeshares, meaning it would thereby have in inventory the timeshare weeks that the European members deposited, which aren’t necessarily in Europe. (Shucks, just as 1 example, the Brits own plenty of Florida timeshares. Not only that, the Brits are just about the only folks actually in the water in January at those great Orlando timeshare pools. So it goes.)
When RCI started charging $26 every time for PFD, I took that as a sign they aren’t apt to be ending PFD any time soon now that it’s bringing them in a little money on top of whatever RCI gets in exchange fees when members actually use their PFD points.
I have heard (& I can believe) that the timeshare companies keep maintenance fees artificially low — or as low as the law allows — at new timeshares as a way of making the timeshares they’re selling appear more attractive to prospective buyers. Then later, when the timeshares are sold out & the timeshare company may no longer be in control, the owner-controlled HOA-BODs find that the reserves are too low for big-ticket items like new roofs, swimming pool replacement, etc. Their unattractive choices are between hitting up the owners with special assessments, or trying to ratchet the reserves up gradually while praying no drastic expenses come up & hoping nobody notices the declining overall quality of the resort.
Responsible HOA-BODs will keep resort quality improving & keep the reserve funds at healthy levels by budgeting realistically. Bills to owners will cover each owner’s share of the year’s operating expenses, plus a responsible amount to be added to the reserve fund, & (of course) taxes.
What’s essential & indispensable is making sure all the ownership records (i.e., billing records) are complete & accurate & up to date. Slop in the system is a guarantee of impending disaster. Good records make it possible to bill all the owners for their share. Equally essential is collections — making sure everybody pays what’s owed & taking prompt, aggressive action against the deadbeats. Nothing else is practical or fair.
Owners, BTW, are welcome at HOA-BOD meetings, including budget formulation meetings. So if you want to see that stew being brewed, find out when your HOA-BOD meets to do the budget & make sure you’re right there in the room with’m, sitting on the front row.
mox nix blog 