RE: thousand trails
Hi bumpy.. It is a good idea of a fact sheet, but there are just too many variables/options in Campground Memberships to cover them on this thread..
I think huntram said it best.. If one wants to look into purchasing a Membership, they need to first figure out if one would work for them and what options they are looking for..
There are several different types of Affiliate systems and several hundred different Parks in those systems.. example, TT-thousand trails, C2C-coast to coast, RPI-resort parks international, ROD-resort of distinction, AOR-adventure outdoor resorts, etc..
Most of those systems have more than one different plan, example C2C has a classic and deluxe plan.. Also included in those plans are good neighbor parks, ELS-Encore parks, best parks in america..
The deluxe plan waves the 125 mile rule, and allows longer stays in the deluxe parks.. There are other perks too..
The individual parks in each system have their own rules/regulations/contracts.. There are some that have sister parks where you buy into a park and can use the other parks just like your home park.. The annual dues covers them too...
Many of the parks belong to several different affiliate systems.. You can join one or several, or none at all, your choice...
Each park sets its own annual dues, has their own rules about how often you can visit the home park. Some allow 2 weeks in, 1 week out, some will allow you to buy your week out time and stay as long as you like..
Some parks have the 3 time limit you can sell a membership, some have no limit on how many times a membership can be sold..
You cannot sell a C2C, RPI, ROD membership.. Each time someone buys a home park membership that is affilitated with the above, the new member just joins the one that they prefer.. there is no long term contract with those affiliates..
This is just a small fraction of the facts one needs to know before buying a Campground Membership, and that's Why most of us say to really do your homework before joining one..
Attending a Sales Presentation is one way to start, but go into one with the ability to just say NO to any high pressure.. A few parks have high pressure, but not all of them do..
Picking a Home Park is very important to some, less to others.. You can get a new membership for less than a $100 with locked in dues under $100.. You can also spend thousands for a membership with high annual dues..
A lot of the more expensive home parks will have someone that is selling theirs for a lot less than they paid for it, so "RESALES" work for a lot of us..
Buying a resale can have some restrictions over buying a new membership, but most don't... The transfer fees can be high, some are very reasonable..
Like I've said many times, Campground Membership are not for everyone, but for us, they have worked out very well..
This post is far from perfect, I am no expert on memberships, but just maybe, a start to understanding what Campground Memberships are about..
At the present time, we are just members of our Home Park, have dropped our affiliate membership, but can pick one up again when/if we decide to..
When we were fulltimers, they helped us keep our park fees very reasonable, and used them about 1/2 the time in out travels.. We still enjoy going to our home park and have no plans to sell it anytime soon...
RE: thousand trails
So if you are buying one with one transfer left - why would anybody buy a membership they couldn't get out of? I could only think that if your a retired couple and pass away, then of course there would be no recourse for Thousand Trails. I don't know legally if they could sue the estate for anything or not?
But it seems on this BB I have read of an instance where this has happened......
yes, there have been reports here where they billed the heirs/estate for the fees.
And the "facts" should be spelled out for TT and for all of the other outfits out there that are asked about here, such as Coast to Coast. and yes, somebody previously posted about the 100 mile limit or some such for a home park. Since somebody here posting did not know about it, that is exactly the type of thing that is NEEDED to be posted in one of these threads.
bumpy
Bumpy.. C2C has NO long term contract.. In fact, if you don't pay your annual dues, THEY WILL DROP YOU, PERIOD.. They will send you a reminder, but you do not have to continue your annual dues, if you so choose..
I think you are confusing C2C and a Home Park that someone belongs too.. Totally different contracts.. Each Home Park has their own separate contract they sign with a buyer..
Since there are several hundred different Home Parks, no one will really know what is in each one of them..
TT also has different contracts, and one need to understand them, just like ANY contract you sign..
That is why we say, to read/understand what is in them..
The 125 mile rule does NOT refer to TT, but does to C2C..
I think the only way TT would bill an heir/estate for annual dues, is they probably didn't know the person died.. NO heir/estate would pay such a bill.. A lawyer would have a field day with this one... OR a letter letting them know about your death would probably work too..
If you still owe money on your original contract, making payments, then it is possible they would want that fullfilled, just like making payments on a RV or car...
Would your payment to your RV, Home, Car stop if you died?? I think banks holding the contract would still want their money.. Your heirs would still need to fullfill the contract..
RE: thousand trails
they certainly know what has been said by previous posters in the know. and you probably get a better, less biased viewpoint than somebody who was dumb enough to spend $12,000 for a membership and contract for $700 a year fees with an unbreakable contract, but that's JMHO.
bumpy
bumpy... Do YOU really KNOW anyone that has spent $12,000 for a membership with $700 yearly fees with an unbreakable contract???
We have attended several TT sale presentations, and within a very short time, they dropped their price.. Best offer we got, was
$4995, and turned it down..
We did buy into a Campground Membership, but not with TT... I do know a few that did buy into TT, most paid less than $2000, they bought a resale and did their homework.. At the time we bought our Membership, we could not find a TT for sale for less then we paid for our Membership..
RE: Members of RV Resorts
Hi Tim.. I do not own a TT membership.. We could not find one for pennies on the dollar back then..
We did look and even went to a couple of sales presentations, liked the parks but found a different membership that filled our needs..
We have a Camnpground Membership that is affiliated with C2C, RPI, ROD..
RE: Members of RV Resorts
Then some of you need to read all the post on memberships and the problems encountered . If they are that good, why can you buy them for pennies on the dollar?
Study long, study hard, then make the choice dependent on your needs.
I wish when I bought my RESALE,it was pennies on the dollar.. New membership cost in my home park is $1275.. We paid $800 including transfer fees, and consider it was a bargain for us..
Buying a NEW membership is just like buying a NEW motorhome, car, boat or almost anything else,, never expect to get the full price we paid for it, when we sell it..
WE did study long, study hard before making our decision, and over 10 years later, still consider our membership a good buy...
However, doubt we will get $800 when/if we decide to sell it.. The amount of time we have used it so far, has more than paid for itself several times over..
Even thou we no longer fulltime, decided to keep our membership for now.. BUT there will come a time when we no longer will want it.. At that time we can sell it, give it away or just turn it back..
I also realize Campground Memberships are not for everyone but has worked very well for me and many others that did their research before buying into one..
RE: Campground Memberships - Best To Have or Not?
For membership parks (like Coast to Coast), the membership is usually LIFETIME, cost in the thousands range. Dues and maintenance fees are annual, hundreds.
Here is a link to Why Buy A Camping Membership
Hi tatest.. The link you gave showed that the memberships can be bought for $595, not thousands... Showed the annual dues, frozen at $99, not hundreds...
Most of todays memberships have an out clause, that states you can sell it, give it away, or just turn it back when you are done using it.. some do require you keep them for 3 or so years..
The lifetime part is to say you can use it for as long as you like, providing you keep your annual dues present...
As far as joining Coast to Coast or RPI, if you don't pay the annual dues, they will drop you, no lifetime contract there...
We have owned two memberships over the years, both said in writing that we can give it away, sell it, or just turn it back... We make sure that clause is in the contract we sign..
One membership we bought cost me $200, and the present one cost me $800.. The first one we bought, the annual dues were $149 and frozen..
The present one, annual dues $240, but we get the first 35/days included with that.. Works out to around $10/day...
True, there are some memberships that cost thousands to join, but you can usually buy "RESALES" for far less.. The present cost to join my home park is around $1200, but resales can be had for less...
With my home park, we can stay as long as we like, for $10.50/day, some stay several months each time they visit the park..
RE: Home Base
My only regret, is that we left the freedom of full-timing and bought another house...
Two long years later, I still long for the full-time lifestyle... Wife liked the full-time lifestyle too, but decided she wanted a house...
I missed my chance of taking her to a headshrink when that idea popped up in that head of hers...
RE: RV Resorts Membership Costs
of course if you pay the big bucks up front, you have to factor those costs in as well as interest paid or lost.
bumpy
This is exactly what we did, factor in the big bucks we paid, which amounted to $800.. The yearly interest we would make on that amounts to less than a day or so of camping..
Have owned a Campground Membership for over 10 years, paying less than $10/day, is very easy to make up within a very short time when it usually costs us more than $20+/day to camp at other RV parks..
Our home park includes full hookups for everyone, year round swimming pool, hot tub, suana, large clubhouse, free air station to check your tires, main gate manned 24/7.. All sites have concrete patios, picnic tables.. Three different comfort stations with laundry rooms..
Also a seperate building for wood working, stained glass, exersize room, card/game room..
In our case, we have received very good value for our Membership costs...
RE: RV Resorts Membership Costs
and some folks have posted here that their "free" sites are generally not full hook up, etc.
bumpy
We have been to very few Membership Parks where we didn't get full hookups, and the ones that did not have full hookups, did have a dump station..
We have also been to plenty of private campgrounds without full hookups, and same goes for state/coe parks and still paid more than our membership park..
RE: RV Resorts Membership Costs
Way too much! Unless you enjoy being limited to only a select few parks, I would never waste the money.
I can certainly understand why you wouldn't waste your money.. I believe that you prefer to volunteer/workcamp for your sites..
Just like you, we chose a different way to fulltime.. We decided to spend a little money upfromt to save on campground fees rather then our time, volunteering/workcamping for our sites..
I had plenty of parks to choose from, more than enough to recoop our cost to buy-in and annual fees paid....
RE: Cost to Full-ime: What goes up, what goes down?
Maybe I'm just cheap, but if I spend the money for a membership then that's where I would feel compelled to go. You know it's just my opinion. Y'all don't need to get huffy just because I don't feel like wasting my money on a membership. To each his own. I thought this forum was for ALL opinions.
Bottom Line: You sure got defensive about your memberships. Perhaps you protest too much.LOL
I would NOT say that you are cheap, when I read an earlier post by you, saying that you spent $32/night to cross the country... Too me, that would be wasting my money if I were to spend that much staying at other RV parks... Our nightly average is far less than that and includes all of my annual dues..
I don't think I'm being huffy,, just mentioned the fact the we like/prefer going to our member parks but I personally don't feel compelled to go to them...
Most of the member parks that I have visited usually has more to offer than other parks in the area and cost me far less to use them...
I have also mentioned many times that I don't think Campground Memberships are for everyone..
RE: Cost to Full-ime: What goes up, what goes down?
We never felt COMPELLED to go the the member parks, we ENJOYED and PREFERRED going to them..
Never felt like we were going out of the way to visit them either, they were in places we liked to visit..
Of course, if I didn't visit the Northwest Coast, like visiting the Colorado river area, and plenty of parks to choose from in Texas, Arizona, Calif, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, then they probably wouldn't have fit my Rving lifestyle either..
Yep, we also went to private/public parks too, but paid the price when we did, costing us 2/3 time as much in camping fees... Saving money on our membership park fees was a great benefit and worked well for us...
RE: Best site to purchase a CG membership...TT, C2C, etc.?
There are several different Memberships to consider..
Thousand Trails.... They can also include Leasure Time Resorts in the Northwest, Outdoor World resorts in the East.. and you can also join RPI and ROD from what I understand.. There are many different contracts that cover belonging to TT...
To belong to C2C, RP{, AOR, ROD, you have to belong to a Home Park that they belong too..
Most home parks belong to some of them, but very few, if any, belong to all of the above affiliates..
Several Home Parks also have sister parks, and usually cost more in annual fees but your daily use fees are usually included in the annual fees to visit the sister parks..
As an example, Western Horizion has about 22 sister parks.. and they also belong to AOR and ROD..
Colorado River Adventures has about 6 sister parks, and belong to C2C, RPI and maybe ROD..
There are of course, several other Park systems like the two examples mentioned above..
A lot of Home Parks have no sister parks, they belong to two or three affiliates.. Some of these home parks have very reasonable annual fees...
Before deciding to join any of them, take your time to investagate each, decide which will best suit your RVing needs, look at their websites..
Once you decide which system will work best for you, check out some the different sites mentioned above.. Let them know what you want..
You can also find Memberships on ebay, craigs list, in RV magazines, daily newspapers, etc..
READ/UNDERSTAND the contract before signing.. Each are very different... Just like the Home Park you may choose..
We have belonged to a Campground Membership for over 10 years, quite happy with it, but we did our homework before signing on the dotted line...
Good luck on your search...
RE: campground memberships
One of the membership pitfalls I've heard about is where you have to pay an exorbitant "transfer fee" to sell the membership, to a point where it isn't financially reasonable to sell, or where the person who buys your membership has greatly reduced usage benefits which keep people from buying from anyone but the corporation itself. At the same time, your yearly maintenance fees keep going up every year. So you can't sell it, and you keep paying more and more per year whether you use it or not. In some instances, you can't even GIVE the already paid for membership back to the company just to get out of the maintenance fee. If the contract wording is confusing, or if they try and confuse you with various "levels" of service, and different fees, it may pay to hire an attorney to weed through the contract wording so he can tell you what you really getting, and for how much.
Quote.. "Greatly reduced usage benefits"???? Don't know what you mean by that..
We bought a RESALE and we can use it just like the first time buyers do.. Our annual fees are the same, we can stay just as long as they can and we get full hookups just like they do...
We can sell it or give it away, or just turn it back when we are done using it..
The only thing the First time buyer has over me, is that they paid a higher rate when they bought in...
My Resale cost me $800 and INCLUDED the TRANSFER fees...
Bye the way, there are far more TRANSFERS of Campground Memberships every year than New Memberships sold, at least in my home park...
My annual fees have stayed the same for the last few years even when other RV parks are raising their daily fees to use their parks...
Yep, they have gone up and down over the years from $180 to $260.. but for the past few years, they have been $240...
The PROBLEM with most contracts, is that some people don't take the time to read/understand them... If one doesn't like wording in a Contract, Change it, or just don't sign it..
I have owned two Campground Memberships over the years, both were written in ENGLISH and was NO harder to understand than any other contracts that I have signed when purchasing something.... Never had a Lawyer look over anything that I have purchased so far in my life, even the 6 or so homes we have bought over the years....
RE: Colorado River Adventures Resorts
We went to Emerald Cove and enjoyed our visit there.. Right along the Colorado River.. The park has two swimming pools, plenty of activities going on, and full hookups..
We also attended the sales meeting, and said NO.. Could care less if the salesperson got mad or not.. That is their problem..
If one wanted to buy into CRA, then a Resale is the way to go.. We bought into a different Home Park, but still visited the CRA parks thru C2C, at least the 4 along the Colorado River..
Go, enjoy the visit.. Plenty of nice sites to see along the Colorado River.. Just be prepared for a strong sales presentation and let them worry about getting ulcers over your rejection, if you decide not to buy-in..
Since we both posted our messages at approx the same time, just ignore mime since you have already decided not to go..
RE: Short Term Storage of RV
Couple places come to mind..
Call a few RV Parks and RV Dealerships to see if they have short-time storage..
Look in the yellow book for storage places, to see if one is in your area...
We used a RV Park a couple of times, one up here in the Northwest and one in Nevada.. We put our RV in storage for a week each time..
Just make sure you have enough propane for the refrig, and batteries are fully charged if you want to keep it running while away, or have elec hookup..
RE: Is it worth joining a RV Resorts?
We have a Campground Membership, have owned it for over 10 years.. Cost me $800 to join my home park, annual dues are $240..
With my Home Park, the annual dues cover the first 35/days use, than pay $10.50/day after that..
We have used it enough to recoop our annual dues, and considering the average park fees, we have more than recooped our cost to join our Park..
Membership Parks are worth it to those that use them... We like visiting our home park so it is worth it to us.. We have had NO problems getting into our home park, but there are a couple months each year we need to make reservations in advance..
If you consider buying a Membership, look for a RESALE and read/understand the contract before signing..
We were also members of Coast to Coast, and was well worth it to us, especially when we fulltimed..
Some are in out of the way places, like, along the coast of Oregon, Washington.. Along the Colorado River from Bullhead city to Yuma... In the lower Rio Grande Valley, Rockport, Tx. and many other places we went to.. Best place to check out the place where the parks are located is at their website to see if they will suit your needs..
RE: Memberships
Lets see.. My Home Park cost me $240/year and that includes the first 35/days use.. I stay there long enough each year to recoop my annual dues..
If we want to stay longer, it cost me $10.50/day and includes electric, even 50amp service... We can and I have stayed there several months at a time..
That works out to $315/month and includes elec..
By belonging to my Home Park, I can belong to Coast to Coast, RPI or ROD.. All I do is pay the annual dues.. Example, ROD is around a $100/year..
the annual fees include your daily stays at the approx 100 affiliate parks.. That makes it easy to recoop your annual dues in a short time..
My Home Park has a large year-round swimming pool, suana, indoor Jacuzzi, large clubhouse, card room.. free place to check and air your tires.. can wash your RV at your site at no cost.. They sell propane at our park.. The main gate is manned 24/7.. They also have mail service, free wifi.. wood-working shop and stained glass shop.. exercise room..
All sites have picnic tables, concrete patio, all sites have full hookups.. Half are pull-thru.. There are three dog runs.. play area for the kids, and shuffle boards, pool tables, game room.. Lots of planned activities..
The park also has 10 accommodation unit that can be rented by the members for friends and family..
Just outside the main gate are two casinos, one has a new bowling alley, and building a multi-plex movie theater.. Just down the street is a super wallmart.. And the park is about one hours drive from Las Vegas..
We belonged to C2C that cost me less than $100/annually.. That let me visit approx 300 affiliate parks for $10/day, up to a week each visit... They also have approx 200 good neighbor parks that charge $13/day...
I paid $800 for my membership and know some that bought in for less thru a resale.. That included the transfer fee.. The new price to buy in is around $1100..
All of my associated costs have been recooped many times over throughout the years that we fulltimed.. We still have and use our Home Park enough each year to recoop our annual dues..
People keep saying it cost thousands and thousands to join Campground Memberships, and they can, but you can get into many of them for far less than what I paid to belong to one... Just do your Research and to those that want to spend thousands, let them..
Those that think all Membership parks costs thousands, don't do much research or don't know how to shop for a better price.. Yep, if my wife would have waited a little longer, we could have bought in for less than we paid..
You can find good deals on ebay, craigs list, several internet sites or just look in RV magazines for many membership parks.. Some may even be better than my home park, but we like ours, so we splurged..
Our reasons for a membership and its associated costs... I know it does not work for all, but for a lot of us, it works well, especially fulltimers..
RE: Fulltime in a class A motorhome
When we first started fulltiming, we had a 5th wheel.. Bought a motorhome within a year..
Our reason, we just liked it better.. Wife could use the bathroom while underway.. Make a sandwich, or just get up and streach.. Yep, we know about the safety and laws that can/do affect this while underway and was very careful when she did it..
We could stop anywhere without getting out if we so choose, especially if the weather was not agreeable.. Also take off just as quick, if needed, without getting outside the motorhome..
We had more storage space outside.. Needed it more than inside, for us...
Pulled a small p/u.. gave us pretty good gas milage.. around 30mpg with the 4/banger and 5/speed trans..
I think a 5th wheel/trailer or motorhome makes very good fulltime RV.. Just boils down to personal preference.. above are mine..
RE: I'm Soooooo Close! Here's What's Been Done Thus Far
If you haven't done so, may want to look into paying your bills online and even have the statements online.. It will eliminate the bills trying to catch up to you and less snail mail to worry about..
Downsizing your snail mail will make living the fulltime lifestyle more enjoyable, at least, it did for me..
Is your computer set up for wireless or aircard?
Are you looking into going with satellite TV??
Just a couple more things not mentioned in your post...
Good luck on your new adventure..
