Kristi asked me to write a little about owning and trading timeshare condos through RCI. I am far from an expert, but have traded for places all over the country for over 30 years. For a young family, it was an economical way to us to travel, and with a child who was a picky eater, it was always nice to have a full kitchen, one or two bedrooms, plus a safe area with other kids to play and do pool time with.. (only chil)
We are “weeks” members with each week being assigned a point number.
Condo 1-Stoneridge Resort-Blanchard, ID (about 3 hours away) Studio max occupancy 4. Paid $700. Annual maintenance fees $290. Point value 9-12 depending on when you deposit. If you don’t want to deposit and want to go there, I think or week is in Feb, which is in the lower season.
Condo 2- same as above, bought from an ad in the Moneysaver from a nice lady who was done travelling for $200. I think its a November week.
Condo 3-FREE! Pend Oreille Shores resort, Hope, Idaho (20 mins from Sandpoint) 2 bed/2bath, annual maintenance fee $850 (this one has gone up quite a bit the last few years, started at $500) Point value 21-18
After you own a condo, you join RCI, a trading company, (there are other ones, but I am only familiar with RCI) Member is $99/annually but offers deals for multiple years for less. If you choose not to use your “home” week, you deposit it, then log into their website and search thousands of condos around the world. Once you deposit AKA “space bank” you have a three year window to trade and us. Each time you trade they charge $269. (When we originally joined it was $175). Some might that that’s expensive but I usually don’t care because when I check out of a resort after 7days/nites I don’t owe anything, if I paid for a nice hotel for 7 nites I am sure the tax alone would be more than that!
Getting started with one week might be hard to build up points to trade much, we usually have an account with 70-130 points waiting to use. Just this morning we were hashing over with our son, if he had some extra time off over Thanksgiving and I scored a condo at Stoneridge for 4 points. The most points I have ever spent for a week was aprox 40 for Hawaii. Gorgeous resorts in Florida are usually 18 and other places are sometimes a great deal for under 10.
Due to the aging owners of condos bought in the 1970-80s (probably the timeshare craze heyday) a lot of owners want out or their kids are interested in travelling. Both resorts we own have owner deed back programs and resell their inventory of condos for very reasonable prices. I viewed a list for Hope, Idaho and there was over a couple hundred for under $1000 with a free week, then the second year fees of $850. So two weeks for only $850 up to $1850 or so. If you buy direct from an owner contact the resort, and they will prepare the deed, and record and provide title insurance for a couple of hundred.
I hope this has been helpful and if you any other questions, please reach out to me, my name is Teresa Kamerrer and my cell is 509-751-6532 or I welcome your email at TeresaK@assist2sell.com. I have lost count of how many trades we have made, but probably well over 40 to wonderful resorts in the US, Canada, and Mexico. since we have nothing invested in these three condos we always feel like our trades are wonderful, some resorts are older, but we often get to trade into the nice resorts that people have paid thousands to belong too, of course, we might not get peak season, but we are flexible and! Happy Travels my friends!
https://www.rci.com/pre-rci/us/en
https://www.stoneridgeresort.com/
Let your adventure begin 
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