Imagine going on a vacation and staying at a beautiful resort. If you are enjoying the trip with your family and are also amazed by the resort, deciding to stay for a bitter longer than planned can come to your mind. Like a three-day trip turned into five days.?
But a US couple did much more than that.
They ended up buying a part of the Hawaiian resort they were staying, and that too for a mammoth $1.1 million. When they were planning for the vacation, US couple Joan and Ned Woodward?had no idea the Hawaii resort they were about to stay in, would become such a big part of their lives.?
The Washington, D.C.-based couple decided to vacation at the 450-acre resort community last summer after receiving a glowing review from their daughter, who had already been there and had given positive reviews about the golf course and restaurant. The Timbers Kaua¡¯i resort¨C Ocean Club & Residences has 47 luxury condominiums and townhouses.
The couple had initially booked a three-bedroom suite and took the family for what was supposed to be a short vacation.?¡°By day three, I was talking with the salesperson about buying into it,¡± Joan, an insurance executive, said. ¡°My husband just said, ¡®We live on the east coast. Are you insane?¡¯¡±
The couple even attended an owners-only dinner and got to rub shoulders with a famous hockey player. ¡°It was the cherry on the cake, especially since we¡¯re such big hockey fans,¡± Joan says, as per CNBC.
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Then in October last year, the couple signed a fractional ownership deed for a 1/6th stake in an oceanfront three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bathroom townhouse with 3,100 square feet of interior space for $1.125 million.
For that mammoth price, the family will receive six weeks of planned vacations annually, plus the ability to take a short-notice vacation if another fractional owner cancels at the last minute. The average daily rate for guests at the Kaiholo residences at Timbers reportedly starts at $2,025.
Don¡¯t confuse the Woodwards' setup with a timeshare. In fractional ownership, the buyers own part of the title, rather than time spent at the property. That means that if the property goes up or down in value, so does the value of their 1/6th share.?
¡°We have a deed and a physical asset that we can sell,¡± Joan says. ¡°We can give it to our kids when we retire, which is very different from a timeshare.¡±?In addition to the seven figures the Woodwards put down, they are on the hook for roughly $50,000 in annual dues, though the figure can change from year to year.
When she first learned about fractional ownership, Joan was a bit wary, but the turn-key nature of the property made the prospect too good to resist, she says. Joan estimates that the couple will be able to spend around 10 weeks at the resort this year.
¡°The thing we loved about it versus some of the other properties we¡¯ve looked at over the years is it really feels like a family,¡± she says.?
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The perks at Timbers Kaua¡¯i go beyond the 18-hole golf course and great food. Similar to a traditional five-star hotel, the resort offers owners personal concierge services, a private lounge, pre-arrival grocery shopping, and daily housekeeping. The resort can arrange for private dining, in-residence chefs, and cocktail parties as well.
Another reason why the resort will remain special for the family is that the staff at Timbers Kaua¡¯i even helped their daughter plan her wedding proposal last December.?For Joan, the decision to take the plunge on the oceanfront property was a lifetime in the making.
¡°Life is too short. If you wait to retire to enjoy your life or think that you have to get to a certain level before you do these kinds of things, you¡¯re going to miss out,¡± she says. ¡°For 40 years, I didn¡¯t take that extra week of vacation, and now I make a point of it, because you only have one life."
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