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Re: raintree vacation club (by Mike N.):

gailm163 wrote:

Bare with me, I'm new on this site!! (Tug Board), I couldn’t find it on the web page suggested??

If you want to check out TUG, here is site for the Forum: www.tugbbs.com. Bargain Deals is a sub-forum off the Buying, Selling, Renting thread. The site for the TUG marketplace is www.tug2.com.

gailm163 wrote:

If not Raintree Vacation Club, can anyone suggest another timeshare company?? Or stay away all together?? Thanks

Many people question whether or not timeshares are a good value. There is a thread on TUG discussing the cost of timeshares from a financial standpoint.

For example if you bought a modest TS (with cash) today for $5000 your annual outlay would be $500/yr over 10 years. If you invested the 10K and got a 5% return, then you have to take in into account a loss of interest of approx 3200. So now your 10 year cost is really $820/yr. Add maintenance fees and your annual cost can be $1400/yr or $200/night for a week's vacation. If you want to exchange with RCI or II, then you also have to add $200-$300/year in membership fees and exchange fees. Of course high demand resorts like Disney or Marriotts command a higher purchase price and higher annual MFs. I did not factor in any resale price since the market is so fickle.

All that being said, we did not regret buying our first TS (from a developer). The TS gave us the opportunity to travel places we probably would not have gone if we rented. However in today's economy renting may be cheaper.

You need to decide how you want to use a timeshare. My suggestion is to buy where you want to vacation every year. Let the exchanges be the "icing on the cake". If you hope to get great exchanges, then buy a TS at a high demand resort during a high demand season. Even then you may not get the trade you desire since people who own units such as these may use them or rent them instead of depositing them.