When listing with the CasaYbel Sales office they recommended setting the price at $10,000 for each unit. That was in September 2007. I was also told that if I set the price too low that the Sales Office would not list the units.

But let me make it very clear I did not attempt to list both of these units with the Sales Office at a package price of $10,000, and the Sales Office DID NOT in any way refuse to list them. I just chose not to at this time therefore the listing price issue was never formally requested or rejected.

The problem I have with listing with Casa Ybel Sales is you must agree with them to handle the sale for 12 months at a 25% sales comission. Even if I myself sell the unit during this 12 month agreement without any help from them, Casa Ybel Sales still gets a 25% sales comission.

Additionally I have been told that the units are only showcased during the weeks that they are to be used. So that tells me, if true, that no one in June looking to buy units are going to see a listing presented for availability in September.

If you have had a postitive experience in the condo market place I am open to recomendations for listings.

Four Years ago I purchased weeks 38 and 39 for $5,000 each for use by family in Denmark and England.
Our fall season beats the weather in Europe at that time.
You should know taxes are prorated according to the sales value for our Lee County Tax office by the week and added up for the full year. Our tax collector Mr. Wilkinson (since the seventies) has worked with inputs from Hilton (Chris in our front office), and I was told we should be able to obtain them from our Management Company as public information for the owners.
This was two years ago, and last I saw Wilkenson privately he told me there should not be a problem releasing them to the owners who are paying the taxes.
April weeks are of course much higher than September weeks in taxes due to valuation of the unit.
All owners should really be contacted individually from Lee County regarding tax collection, but an arrangement was made for the Management Company to collect the individual owner’s taxes and submit them for a one time total payment from our management company to the County each year.

You know purchasing or selling a time share unit it is handled like transferring a car. (Car Titles)
The Details of this tax collection process has never been released to the FGH or IJK owners by Mariner.

I am not aware that the Board has ever seen the details of this financial arrangement.
Are we charged for this collection job or is it part of our management fees?
The Lee County Tax Office needs a short Quit Deed form deed to register the owner for the tax collection; no other legal type papers are needed anymore. No legal forms, titles or appraisals.
If a title company charged you for title papers ask to see them. You should just submit an assurance that there are no debts on the unit for that particular unit week. (This is included in the Quit Deed form). Quit Deed Forms are available at Office Depot and other office supply stores in Florida for a few Dollars. I have copies in my office. I can e-mail you a copy at no cost.
A small transfer fee (around $30 in my case) is paid to the County Office as so many thousands (mille)of the value.
It takes 5-10 minutes to execute the transfer on 4th floor of our Tax Office.
I will post a copy of my "home made" evaluation graph for a full year based on weekly sales prices on our www.casaybel.com web site.

I just became aware of the $10,000 minimum when I received a renewal contract to sign. I have listed my unit 224-G 37 since last August with Grand Vacations. I listed it for $6,000, then in April called to reduce it to $3,995. I called in May and they said it was $10,000. I told them it was supposed to be $4,000, then she "found" that it was $6,000. Now I think they never offered it for sale below $10,000.
WHY? Because the renewal contract says "this brokerage firm does not wish to represent listings priced below ($10,000)". Also, the latest newsletter report from Christine Beale, states that "so far this year...sold for...an average price of $23,584."
This will be reported to the Florida Real Estate Div.

I am stunned that owners have less and less influence over our own Casa Ybel property. So a minimum of $10,000 sales price is set from our Hilton management company for any sale?
The new issue of SANDSCRIPT is selling a unit G 201, wk 38 at minimum bid of $3,200? Are we talking to each other?
Who is selling it and at what expense? Where is it advertised besides this letter that only goes to owners?
I will place an ad for the sales for the world to see, at no cost to our owners on our owner's web, since this is an emergency situation for us. We, the owners should not have to carry additional expenses for this sale, we need every penny we can get for the property.

The management company has not yet informed owners about their individual weeks tax value as our county tax collector Wilkenson has suggested we the right to know about our taxation, since it is public information.

Our management is still telling us the stones blocking our path (to the pool) separating restaurant and building H is legal,and of no concern to us since we do not own that property. During my stay in July several of our "old time" owners were still wondering who was in charge of our affairs?
In addition a new hedge of tall Sea Grapes is now dividing the lawn in front of H and the restaurant.
The city of Sanibel tells me all buildings at Casa Ybel have easements, we have no Zero property lines.

Several owners suggested we asked the board to have a survey done to establish our threatened borders.
Building G seems also to have lost property to the pool and shuffle board expansions.

Last but not least, who looks after our grass?
Both lawns towards the beach front of G and H are deteriorating!

I completely support Carl in having a check carried out to ensure that the resort is not encroaching on property owned by G building, and to ensure that the grounds are maintained properly.

Regarding the pricing - there are two sides to that argument. I can understand the sales dept wanting to keep the prices up for the long term benefit of the owners. From what I understand, they have been achieving a good level of sales at good prices, which I am pleased about. This record is much better that the general situation with timeshare resorts.

Once you start reducing prices for quick sales, you start on a very slippery slope, and it is very difficult to get back from there. We must accept that in the present climate, people do not have the same amounts of money as before and have to cut back, so people must not panic. Once the credit crunch is over, things will be back to normal again.

I am glad to say that rentals and a few sales have been going on for a while now, but who keeps the records?
Our downtown Lee County Property Tax office registers each sale and can give us needed data.
The Lee County tax collector Mr.Wilkinson does not understand we do not have the weekly tax rates data available to owners (the taxpayers) in one place when dividing 52 tax weeks into 4 season of property values. Lee County does the total collecting with one check from Hilton according to what the levied tax is. It is up to us to find out how to divide it amongst 3800 owners, and I think we as owners should have a say.
The Lee County tax office did not like to send out 3800 tax bills, so Hilton could pay the tax office all in one check from our maintenance collection. This data calculation should not be kept from the owners, since we are the investors.

We just started a new procedure on our web, simple and to the point for owners placing rentals and sales on the www.casaybel.com web site.
Had many positive comments from owners on our "new look" on our "sign up" with less complicated procedures for owner's renting and sales. Updates are now posted early Thursday and Monday mornings each week. Deadlines are of course Wednesdays and Sunday nights.
We all realize our room for gaining some of our losses back from our investments at Casa Ybel is very narrow, since we have such a high level of maintenance fees to cope with. Almost at the same level of renting it yourself. This needs correction, or the idea of Time-Share is out.
Our visibility in accounting has slacked off, our board meetings use to go for several days looking into all our expenses to justify the fees.

I wish owners would be asking more questions about where and how big these money channels are growing, we have to justify millions just for upkeep.
Room cleaning costs are high, and not to effective, we used to put unused (undone) cleaning funds back into working funds, and with 75% occupancy there should be a lot of cleanings made unnecessary. Where do these savings go now? Do we still pay the same total amount each month as for 100% occupancy?
We also kept a close count on what went into package of household bundles placed for use at each starting week.(Soap,towels,bags, etc) and had more say in what was spentd towards our owner's check in, key handling etc. Are we paying dearly for this service from the "hospitality" group, only one 5 minute time spand a week, and why have our pool access cost gone up steadily, how much are we paying each week pr unit?
At one time our budget was broken down much more than now. It seems to be one big black hole with no visibility?
We( McElroy and I) made studies of electric bills for each unit and found we were paying for more than we used.
We spent time evaluating expenses to Hilton Orlando office, Periwinkle Hilton office and our own Hilton office Casa Ybel location, later also what we had to pay out for renting and using the check-in office and use of the pool. We wished to have expenses divided with participation with owners of the one bedroom units also.
Why do we not have our own maintenance man, I understand Hospitality uses their mechanic to work for us at a much higher cost rate making a commission income to the front office?

Finally our lawns need better maintenance and care.
Do we have our own contract lawn people, or is this also done by front office? I saw the same people working both areas, with a lot of detail on the Golf grass.
The lawn in front of H is so badly worn from trucks hauling beach furniture back and forth each day to and from the beach, (and we are not allowed to use this furniture). The precious golf course lawn in front of the restaurant is now off limits for golf carts, wherefore 3 new roads have been cut to the beach from our lawns through the protected green areas. (supposed to save plantings of seaweed and sea grapes, which was a restricted area to work on due to the beach erosion problems.
Where these new roads permitted? They do not seem necessary!
A new row of the large Sea Grape bushes are now also planted in front of Building H towards the beach which further divides the restaurants Bermuda grass lawn from our torn up lawn to further separate Casa Ybel from the wedding area.
And finally, several owners during my stay, asked me why we did not ask to remove the large rocks from our usual traditional short cut from H to the pool?
They are leaning on the H building, and Hilton tells me we have a "zero lot" property line around H, therefore we have no defense hoping to open up our old path.
I see more and more we need someone on the staff at Casa Ybel that will stand up for once for the 3800 owners employing the Hilton management company.

Thank you, Carl, for your very enlightening entry. What you have said gives cause to worry.

I appreciate that our Board members are dedicated to the resort and feel that they are doing their best to keep our costs down. However, I own at a number of timeshare resorts around the world, and Casa Y'bel has by far the highest annual fees.

There must be something that can be done to help bring the fees down, and Carl's comments could be a good starting point.

Don't forget that the current financial climate is making it difficult for a lot of people to raise finance. Also, people are tightening their belts, so it is not surprising that the number of enquiries will have dropped off. Things should improve once the current credit crunch is over.