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Re: New to Redweek, why purchase vs rent (by Michael F.):

This is an age-old debate; to buy versus renting. It depends on how you wish to use your weeks and how much hassle you want to put up with if you rent them out. If you always use the weeks yourself and enjoy that sort of vacation, then purchasing makes some sense. I've owned and rented out weeks over the last 10 years. The maintenance fees keep going up as everyone has pointed out. I'm up to about $3,000 per year now based on two contracts that give me a couple weeks every year. Now my wife and I would like to visit Europe more than stay in a U.S. timeshare, so we started to rent out our weeks to pay the maintenance fees and if there's any left over to pay down our contracted purchase (which we financed via American Express to earn points). If you rent out a week in Hawaii it can more than pay for your maintenance fees. But if you rent out a week in Palm Desert you won't get the same rental fees and it most likely will not fully cover your maintenance fees. So you need to understand how much you can rent it out for and where. BTW renting weeks via Redweek has been relatively easy and hassle free. If you rent your weeks you have the added stress of waiting for someone to rent it. If it doesn't rent, you either go yourself, or lose the week. Last year we gave up a week that didn't rent because we recently traveled to Europe and would have incurred additional travel expenses to use the timeshare week. We opted to save the transporation and food cost, so gave up the timeshare week.

Here's another hassle to consider. Redweek now has to file a 1099 form for any weeks you successfully rented. That means the IRS will be looking to see that you reported the rental income. I have not 100% determined that it's correct to offset the rental income with your maintenance fees, but some people think that's appropriate. You will have to research that and make your own determination for tax purposes. Good luck!