Originally Posted by bigguyinpasadena
Is doing a pre-con purchase on a project like this a good investment?
Only in that you can recoup more of your capital costs than someone who purchases later in the build-out process, assuming both of you buy developer.
There are some MGC intervals which have nearly doubled in price since sales first opened. They will continue to trend higher until all intervals are sold.
The property we own at, NCV (Newport Beach), saw price increases of 15-20% for developer intervals last year, and this resort is 5 years into occupancy but is still building out until 2009. At that point, if current trends continue, we can sell our intervals resale (which is usually about half of current developer) and break roughly even on cap costs. MF's (maintenance fees) and property taxes still must be accounted for, but renting intervals (which usually rent for 2-3x MF's at NCV) can easily offset that, and still leave money for a different vacation that year/time period.
I would never look at a timeshare as an investment, rather a pre-paid vacation. Crunch the numbers and see what you think. As I mentioned earlier, TUG is the place to go for this stuff. It's the FlyerTalk of timesharing.
Pat