FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
A fee simple deeded week purchased from an owner rather than from the developer will retain all the usage right features that guarantee the size, season and view category at the home resort as well as the fixed and floating usage rights of both the unit and the week. You may reserve the home resort exactly the same way with the same priority as an owner who bought originally from the developer and you are treated no differently than any other owner when you stay at the home resort. A resale ownership may be excluded from certain exchange and status features depending on the vacation club. Make sure to ask one of our professionals to learn about these differences for specific brands and resorts. Typically, a resale ownership will lose the ability to exchange for points with the affiliated hotel loyalty program and will not be eligible for status levels within the vacation club. Exchanging to other resorts within the vacation club’s internal network may or may not be affected by owning resale, depending on the resort and the brand. External exchanges to other resorts using Interval International or RCI are not affected whether you own resale or retail. Please inquire with our professionals to learn more details about these differences.
A fee simple deed entitles ownership to a piece of land and the property built on it. A fee simple deed becomes part of the owner’s estate and they have the right to transfer it, sell it or pass it along to their heirs through a will. Because fee simple represents the highest form of land ownership, a fee simple deed is an asset with the potential for long term value.
All the vacation ownership programs in Hawaii have a certain amount of inventory that was sold with floating usage rights. This means that an owner, when taking advantage of their home resort reservation priority (which varies by program), may reserve a unit of the same size and view category that they own for any time within the season (or range of dates) that they own. In Hawaii, almost all of the vacation clubs’ floating weeks have a “year round” season which is typically all weeks of the year excluding the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s. Although a floating week owner is not guaranteed the ability to reserve any specific time of year, they are guaranteed a reservation for seven nights between weeks 1-50 if the reservation is made before the beginning of the calendar year. The earliest a floating week owner may make a reservation at their home resort is 12 months prior to a check in date (13 months for Marriott week owners who reserve two or more weeks consecutively or concurrently). This reservation may always be changed with no fee or penalty up until 60 days prior to the check in date. Please ask one of our professionals to learn more about the floating week reservation nuances and rules of a specific resort.
For all vacation ownership properties that MRR represents, the developer, or the entity that originally offered the vacation ownership interests for sale, retains the right of first refusal to purchase an ownership interest under the same terms and conditions as may be offered to or by a third party. This means that once a Seller and a Buyer agree to a purchase contract for a vacation ownership, the developer has the right to review the contract (usually up to 15 days) and buy it from the Seller under the same terms. The developer cannot prevent a Seller from selling their vacation ownership. As long as a Buyer’s offer is for a price that is more than the developer is willing to match, the developer cannot prevent a Buyer from buying a vacation ownership. The developer’s decision to exercise their right to purchase is almost exclusively based on price. As long as the Buyer’s offer exceeds the developer’s “exercise price”, they will be able to move forward to escrow and close the purchase. The developer’s “exercise price” for a specific type of inventory has fluctuated in the past and may change in the future. There are no guarantees of whether a developer will or will not exercise for any given transaction. Our professionals have the experience and real time data to make a judgment about the possibility of a developer exercising their right of first refusal.
A resale ownership with either the Marriott Vacation Club, Hyatt Residence Club or Westin Vacation Club will not allow the owner to exchange their home resort use for hotel loyalty points (unless they make a subsequent retail purchase that re-establishes developer status with the ownership). Resale owners of Hilton Grand Vacations Club retain the feature to exchange for Hilton Honors points. A resale ownership will not exclude an owner from earning hotel loyalty points on room charges at these vacation clubs. A significant amount of value is lost when exchanging vacation ownership for hotel loyalty points and most owners find more value through other exchange options or through rental. Because of this, the hotel loyalty point exchange feature is typically used as a last resort.
Each owner of a vacation ownership property has a vote to elect members of their peers to serve on the Board of Directors of the ownership association. The Board of Directors set the budget for the maintenance fees each year and hold a meeting once a year where all members may attend and ask questions afterwards. The maintenance fees are comprehensive and include all property taxes, utilities, housekeeping, front desk management, engineering, security, loss and replacement, grounds and pool maintenance, insurance, self-parking and a reserve account amortized over a number of years to refurnish and refurbish every unit and all common areas.
