Received my letter from HICV today with my refund for my purchase at the beginning of June.

Received my letter from HICV today with my refund for my purchase at the beginning of June. However they kept $50 of it for the welcome kit and "promotional materials". Oh well a small price to pay to get out of the Orange Lake Florida deal. Thank you for creating the forum Scott. You saved me from making a big, costly mistake.

Making a small change in pricing of HICV units for sale -units with maintenance of $5.

Making a small change in pricing of HICV units for sale -units with maintenance of $5.50/1K are the same price, but $6/1K are going from $10/1K to $12.50/1K and $5/1K are going from $20/1K to $17.50/1K. I'm a buyer at half of these prices. This shifts the break-even timeframe for maintenance from 10 years to 5 years - if you plan to own for less than 5 years, then lower priced units with higher maintenance units will save you money.

Here's a spreadsheet with old and new prices - if I quoted you a price before now, I'll still honor it for the next couple of weeks.

-Scott

When booking a home resort week with points, can you upgrade your room or season for additional points and still...

When booking a home resort week with points, can you upgrade your room or season for additional points and still book 13 months out, or do you need to stick to your original unit type and season?

Ebay Sellers to Watch Out For: yourvacationservices2 / acobbfan

Ebay Sellers to Watch Out For: yourvacationservices2 / acobbfan

Both of these Ebay IDs seem to be related to Legacy Adventures. The first one was purchased in November and the second one in February and neither has been transferred yet and emails are not being answered.

-Scott

Looking for a reservation at this price or best offer.

Looking for a reservation at this price or best offer.

Dates: 9/8-9/12
Property: Galveston
Unit Size: 1BR Deluxe
Points: 61.6K (upgrade from 1 BR)
Point Shield: Y (free)

Your Cost: 61.6 x 5 + 59 = $367

Terms: 20% overhead for you, payment up front, total $440 via Paypal F&F (standard terms are 10% overhead, this is a one-time offer)

Refund Policy: All but the $59 + 20% ($71) if canceled within 72 hours of arrival

I'll make the reservation in my name initially, but then I'll change to a guest about a week before.

Let me know.

-Scott

I track HICV Ebay listings, and thought I'd share some stats from the last 21 months:

I track HICV Ebay listings, and thought I'd share some stats from the last 21 months:

Based on email subjects (e.g. 3 NEW: holiday inn timeshare), here were the quantities and number of days: 1x71, 2x59, 3x74, 4x74, 5x45, 6x37, 7x28, 8x27, 9x15, 10x4, 11x5, 12x1, 13x2, 14x1, 33x1

Total: 1881

Of those, roughly 151 were at points resorts (if there were 2 south beach in one day my algorithm would only count one)

South Beach: 76 (25 in 2016)
Smoky Mountain: 48 (16 in 2016)
Lake Geneva: 27 (0 in 2016)

That works out to 7 HICV points timeshares/month and roughly 8% of the HICV listings.

Some of the other properties commonly appear multiple per day and are hard to count (you can probably double the ones close to 100 and triple the ones close to 200)

Ascutney: 45
Bay Point: 48
Cape Canaveral: 48
Desert Club: 194
Galveston: 15
West Village: 126
East Village: 63
North Village: 40
River Island: 16
Panama City: 39
Sunset Cove: 0
Williamsburg: 203
Silverleaf: 55

This gets us to 1058, so there were around 830 cases of multiple listings for the same resort in one day.

-Scott

Passed the 100-member mark today!

Passed the 100-member mark today! Thanks to all for making the group a success. The group was founded exactly 23 months ago on 7/28/14.

-Scott

Antonio asked me a question today about a special deal an owner worked out to pay reduced maintenance and not use...

Antonio asked me a question today about a special deal an owner worked out to pay reduced maintenance and not use the unit - anybody ever heard of such a thing?

-Scott

How do I figure my maintenance fees per 1000 points?

How do I figure my maintenance fees per 1000 points? 80,000/$616? Does that equal $7.7 per $1000? Trying to figure if I should recind our contract that we just signed. I like the program, but like everyone else, trying to find the best value available. Thanks!

Rent vs.

Rent vs. Own comparison for a few timeshares I follow - post your own comparisons for the same week or close if available (HICV or other)!

HICV Galveston 1BR-D 8/7-8/14
http://www.hotels.com/hotel/details.html?q-check-out=2016-08-14&hotel-id=230160&q-check-in=2016-08-07
Rental $2100
Owner $848 (121K @ $6/1K, $59 booking, 50% of $126 club dues)
60% savings from ownership

HICV Las Vegas 1BR-D 8/7-8/14
http://www.hotels.com/hotel/details.html?q-check-out=2016-08-14&hotel-id=206210&q-check-in=2016-08-07
Rental $1400
Owner $800 (113K @ $6/1K, $59 booking, 50% of $126 club dues)
43% savings from ownership

Escapes Orange Beach 1BR-D 8/7-8/14
http://www.hotels.com/hotel/details.html?q-check-out=2016-08-14&q-check-in=2016-08-07&hotel-id=244848
Rental $2700
Owner $492 (96K @ $3/1K, $119 booking/cleaning, $50% of $169 club dues)
82% savings from ownership
http://www.hotels.com/hotel/details.html?q-check-out=2016-08-14&tab=description&hotel-id=230160&q-room-0-adults=2&YGF=14&q-check-in=2016-08-07&MGT=7&WOE=7&WOD=7&ZSX=0&SYE=3&q-room-0-children=0

As a timeshare seller, I was asked a really good question by a buyer today, and I feel like my response was pretty...

As a timeshare seller, I was asked a really good question by a buyer today, and I feel like my response was pretty transparent and could be useful to other sellers (this was for an Escapes timeshare).

Question: If we decide at some point we want out of the timeshare how does that work?

Answer: You owe maintenance/membership fees until you sell it - $400/year on average for this 163K Odd unit.

The good news is that most people who are "stuck" in a timeshare are trying to recover thousands paid to developers - since you are paying -$745 ($745 less than the rental you are getting), you are in a much better position than almost all timeshare sellers. Closing costs are around $500, so even if you had to pay for all of closing costs when you sell it, you could still pay someone $245 to take the timeshare off of your hands and break even.

At a rental rate of $1500, you only have to use the timeshare once every 3-4 years to break even - in between timeshare trips, you could rent the unit out, even to family members at a deep discount and still come out ahead.

-Scott

Looking for a reservation at this price or best offer - I have the points to make it myself, but I'd have to cancel...

Looking for a reservation at this price or best offer - I have the points to make it myself, but I'd have to cancel a 2BR upgrade and it would cost me $59.

Dates: 9/1-9/4
Property: Galveston
Unit Size: 1BR Deluxe
Points: 52.8K (upgrade from 1 BR)
Point Shield: Y (free)

Your Cost: 52.8 x 5 + 59 = $323

Terms: 10% overhead for you, payment up front, total $355 via Paypal F&F

Refund Policy: All but the $59 + 10% if canceled within 72 hours of arrival

I'll make the reservation in my name initially, but then I'll change to a guest about a week before.

Let me know.

-Scott

This Ebay listing was just too funny to pass up - $95K for 750K points (which just so happen to transfer as fixed...

This Ebay listing was just too funny to pass up - $95K for 750K points (which just so happen to transfer as fixed week units)! Retail value $195K...if someone wants 750K of units that actually grant points - let me know - I can sell for around $15K at $20/1K points :)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Holiday-Inn-Timeshare-PACKAGE-750-000-pts-DEED-Transfer-ORANGE-LAKE-FL-/252431241662