posted 12-12-2000 09:33            

The second way is to purchase directly from a Royal owner. You can find Royal listings right here in the TUG classifieds, in Timesharing Today classifieds, or a web site/publication called the Owner's Manual. You can find the web site at http://www.cancunsupermall.com/Enter.htm/ Click on the "Owner's Manual" and look at the listings by resort or week. You will find lots of weeks available from owners, however, not always the best prices due to Royal Owners being rather savvy in knowing they own quality and expect to sell for more money than I or possibly you are willing to pay. I am not saying you can't find a good deal this way, but every time I've tried, the owner rejected my offer or if accepted, backed out of the deal before completion.

The only other way is to research all of the various resale companies on the web and look for Royal weeks up for sale. I have successfully purchased weeks through Holiday Group, Tri-West, and ERA Stroman. During the last 2 years, I have worked with ERA Stroman quite a bit. My salesperson at Stroman, Vicki Whaley, seems to be able to locate Royal weeks that at prices acceptable to me, and somehow convert my offers into sales. Stroman has great inventory. They seem to be able to locate owners that are not internet savvy and who need to sell.

Of course we are all looking for bargains, but sometimes the desire will outweigh the common sense. So the price will always be dependent on how bad you want it versus how desperate
the sellers want to sell it. That's the reason we need to look in a "range" of prices. What this implies is that neither the cheapest or highest price is necessarily a "bad" price. Obviously, the cheapest is most desirable. But what if the week
for sale is at exactly the resort you want, exactly the season you want and the location is just right for your needs? You may be inclined to pay a little more in order to get that week, right?

All of the Royal weeks are priced differently based on the following factors:

1. Resort
The newer Royals cost more and the older Royals cost less. This is because the older resorts originally cost less, people naturally want the newer resorts more and the "Right to Use" period is fewer years for the older resorts. Ranked by current value, cheapest to most expensive. (with year of expiration on the RTU):

Club Internacional (2007)
Royal Mayan (2014)
Royal Caribbean (2018)
Royal Islander (2023)
Royal Sands (2048)

2 Season
Each timeshare is sold as a fixed week. The week you own is yours every year. There is no floating time. The highest season is winter which is roughly Christmas through Easter. The next highest is Summer, July-August. Then the medium seasons of May-June and mid October-December. The lowest time is the height of hurricane season which is September-October. Prices, of course, vary with the season.

3 Unit location
Each timeshare is sold as a fixed villa. Every time you show up to use your week, you stay in the very same villa that you own. Therefore, the prime locations are worth more now and they sold for more when new. The most desired locations are the beach front villas, then the penthouses and higher floors with good views.

The point of all this is that when making your offer for a week, all these factors will affect the price. There are a lot of variables to consider. I have noticed little difference in trade power from one resort or week to the next. They are all red time, all Gold Crown or Five Star and all are much desired by exchangers. Unit location seems to make absolutely no difference to RCI or II. I would suggest that if buying a week, to preferably purchase the week and unit you would enjoy using yourself every year. The years you don't use it, it will exchange very well and with a preference into any other Royal week, regardless of season.

IMHO, here are "fair" prices for Royals during the summer months of June thru August: (Bear in mind that June is slightly less valuable than July-August)

Royal Mayan--Beachfront= $4000 to $7000
Off beach= $2500 to $5000

Royal Caribbean--Beachfront= $5000 to $8000
Off beach= $4000 to $7000

Royal Islander--Beachfront= $6000 to $9000
Off beach= $5000 to $8000

Again IMHO, here are "fair" prices for Royals during the winter months (HIGH SEASON) of Jan. thru March: (Bear in mind that January is slightly less valuable than Feb-March and should price cheaper)

Royal Mayan--Beachfront= $6000 to $10,000
Off beach= $4000 to $7000

Royal Caribbean--Beachfront= $7000 to $11,000
Off beach= $5000 to $8000

Royal Islander--Beachfront= $8000 to $12,000
Off beach= $7000 to $10,000

Note that the bottom prices of all ranges are absolute bottom. If you find anything cheaper than that, grab it! You will probably not find any asking prices at these levels. You will need to make offers, which will usually be less than half of asking price, and hope the owner accepts.

Residual values are the original selling prices that each interval sold for. This amount is guaranteed by the contract to be returned to the member at the expiration of the Right To Use period. The newer resorts have higher residuals due to their higher selling prices. Be careful if looking at a Club Internacional resale, as some of these do not have the residual. Make sure there is a residual as without it, and only 7 years left before expiration, the values of these weeks are very low.

Good luck.