One downside with owning a timeshare are the meetings. When I’m on vacation, the last thing I want to do is sit through a pitch, upsell, spiel, etc. for half a day. We were spared this on our 2010 visit because Las Vegas is one of the ground zeroes for the recent real-estate meltdowns (primarily caused by the overpaid financial caste); hence no tours happening in the background. However, we were curious about Tahiti Village’s future. Would there be the additional two towers? What about the steak house plans? Are the Europeans gobbling up the vacant spots (no chance with an uncertain Euro now)? Could we buy additional days since we encountered numerous “Distant Locals” (Vegas slang for people from the neighboring states) renting space as if TV were a hotel.
Contrary to the infamous South Park episode, the sales people do cut their losses when you firmly say “no,” and give off a disinterested vibe as we’ve experienced in Orlando. At other times the meeting has informative aspects.
Our concierge is a great dude named Mikey and he arranged our meeting to take place at 830 AM for day two. It’s always great to get this stuff out of the way, especially if there’s nothing new. Then all the fun things we had tentatively planned won’t get hampered by it being scheduled in the middle. I’ll blather on about Mikey another time. He gave me his card so I sincerely hope we keep in touch.
In short, our sales rep Warren gave us the lowdown: a new company acquired the property for a song through a Chapter Seven bankruptcy (liquidation). We’re covered though. Unlike other timeshares you may end up leasing indefinitely, this place is equivalent to owning an apartment/condo which could be a different headache. Anyway, the current owner’s pretty cautious on how to finance the complex’s remaining two towers and accessories. Things appear to be picking up as we’ve seen tours again.
I had a short list of questions prepped. Warren tackled the big ones since they concerned who managed/owned Tahiti Village now. Buying additional days was being phased out, bummer!
Then came the anticipated offer we were braced to reject as usual…did we want to buy another deed; this is your only chance; blah blah blah.
Currently, we will have our pad paid off in full by August (five years early!) thanks to us really focusing and organizing our finances since July 2006. Despite the satisfaction we knew we’d feel over eliminating this debt, trips to Vegas would be an odd-year thing. Even years mean hotels, if we went. (Fear not, we will be visiting other places!)
So Warren wanted to know if we were interested in getting our Moorea every year or upgrading to the Bora Bora yet it would remain an odd-year thing. I was surprised since they weren’t allowing that when we did this in ’08. We said we were curious but wanted to know exactly, how many pennies on the dollar are being offered (it was a common litany in the presentation). When Warren and his supervisor offered us an even-year deed for six grand we didn’t hesitate…okay, I asked for a minute to make sure Somara agreed which turned out to be unnecessary.
Now we have our Vegas pad every year for seven days! What’s even better is that the payments on the new deed will kick in after the original is completed and the minimal amount is half as much. Come August though, we will continue with the same strategy we’ve been employing since 2010 when Somara’s third student loan was killed off. According to my forecast, we should own the entire timeshare in another year.
I love it when a plan comes together, especially when it involves finding a feasible way to stay in Las Vegas every year.
Now if I can find a way to get certain friends to tag along. The couch has a hide-a-bed inside which will cover his/her accommodations and I need someone to hit the craps table with me!
Gambling Report:
- Video Poker: Somara 2, Steve 0 ($16.25, $0)
- Somara: +25 cents
- Steve: -$40