Marriott Surf Club Time Share Resale

Today my wife and I took the points presentation at the Marriot Surf Club. They were very nice, but the presentation was very poorly thought out because they assumed that we had paid the $600 a night fee for the two bedrooms we are currently renting and their pitch revolved around that price. I have always rented my timeshares off redweek and everytime its been for cheaper than the yearly maintenance fee. Marriott's pitch was to buy instead of renting. I am a mortgage banker so I get the canned rent vs own pitch. However, again renting a timeshare has always been cheaper for us than actually owning one. We've always rented a two bedroom for less than the current maintenance (approx) fee of $1850, and this does not even factor in the upfront cost to buy a timeshare.

As I explained this to the salesperson and their rebuttal was the Marriot has first right of refusal, and they are starting to buy back all open market timeshare resales. So it got me thinking that maybe one day this option that we have been taking advantage of for so many years could be at the end of its road soon.

I have been sifting through a lot of the messages in here but wanted to start my own thread so that I can easily come back to it for reference. So I have some questions, and I would be so grateful to all of you experts on assistance in moving forward with a possible private resale timeshare purchase. Here are my questions

1) Is the Marriot Surf Club truly trying to buy back all timeshares or was this a scare tactic to get me to buy into their points program?

2) I understand the difference between RTU & Deeded. It sounds like I would want deeded. Is this truly the case? It seems like a deeded high season unit has very limited supply.

3) If I want to use every year I want to buy something with annual use?

4)What are some things I need to look out for when buying a timeshare?

Any insight info help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

richardy87 wrote:

1) Is the Marriot Surf Club truly trying to buy back all timeshares or was this a scare tactic to get me to buy into their points program?

I can't really answer the other questions accurately for you but as for question number one, remember one of the cardinal rules when dealing with a timeshare sales person. If his lips are moving, he's lying. That was probably a scare tactic. Why would Marriott be trying to buy back all the timeshares?

If they're trying to buy back all the timeshares, why are they making such an effort to sell you one?