FAQ’s - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT
VACATION WEEK OWNERSHIP
at the NEPTUNE HOUSE
on Beautiful Block Island!
…..Celebrating
25 years of Vacation Week Ownership!
1985-2010
The Neptune House has a total of 23 vacation condos in two adjacent buildings. Each has a full size, fully equipped kitchen, living room/sitting area, dining table, and sleeping for 2 (studio), 4 (1 bedroom unit), or 6 (2 bedroom unit). Just about every unit has a porch, balcony, deck, or screened in porch.
The ‘Victorian Building’, also known as the Original Building,
was built in the 1870’s as a private mansion and used as a single family
residence until it became a B & B sometime in the 1900’s. In the middle 1980’s the B & B’s rental
rooms were changed over to full vacation ownership condos, with deeded
perpetual ownership. After quickly
selling out of this original offering of 14 units, a second building was opened
in 1990 offering 9 additional units, for
a total of 23 apartments.
-Vacation weeks at the Neptune House are deeded property
just like your house (if you’re a homeowner), that you can will
to your heirs, resell, etc.
-The cost to transfer a week
to you is approximately $100-300 depending on the purchase price.
-Prices are not negotiable, as they are already listed at the
lowest price that will be accepted. We feel this is a fairer way than having
the final price be subject to the level of skill of the parties in bargaining. Takes the negotiation out of it, but also the
high pressure.
-After you purchase your vacation week you become an owner of
your vacation condo for 1 week out of the 52 weeks in the year. As an owner of property you have annual
ongoing upkeep fees for real estate taxes, insurance, utilities, upkeep,
etc. You will be billed at the end of
the year with the ‘maintenance fee’ being due in January for the upcoming year.
-You may rent your week, or give it to friends or family to
use. All you need to do is call the
Neptune House Office and leave a message at 401-466-2987 or send an email to
the front desk at NeptuneOwners@NeptuneOwners.com
giving them the names, date, and estimated
time of arrival of your renters/guests. We do not provide rental
assistance.
-The Neptune House will accept a payment program. Suggest to us what financial arrangements
will work for you, and we’ll consider it.
-For financing options you may wish to consider:
-if
you own your home a home equity loan or line of credit. This is usually the most favorable interest
rate you can borrow money at.
-ask your credit
card company if they offer ‘convenience checks’ with a special lower interest
rate until the amount is paid off. You
would use the credit card convenience check to purchase the week, and the
amount is put onto your credit card balance, often at a special interest rate
until the loan is paid off.
-if one credit card
does not have enough available credit remaining you may use two or more credit
cards to total the amount of the purchase for your vacation week.
-try your local
bank. It may be an unsecured (personal) loan. But ask if they will loan you
money for the same rate as they do for car loans.
-There are at least
two online companies that specialize in loans for the vacation week ownership
(timeshare) industry: www.tammacfinancial.com
or FirstAgain.com. A google search
may lead you to other such companies.
INTERVAL INTERNATIONAL
(I.I.) VACATION EXCHANGE:
-If you cannot take your vacation on Block Island during the
vacation week you own, you can always take your vacation at another time of the
year at another vacation ownership resort by exchanging your Block Island week
with a timeshare trading company. The
Neptune House is affiliated with Interval International (I.I.) and RedWeek.com
which charge a small fee of approximately $139 to exchange your week at the
Neptune House to another location. There
are now over 5,000 timeshare resorts worldwide.
Annual membership fees are approximately
$85 (Interval International).
-Half of our year, the 26 weeks from week #18 through 43, which
is the 6 month period from May through October, are ‘fixed’ vacation
weeks. You would own the same week every
year in the specific unit you purchased. The week number and unit number are ‘fixed’—they do not change.
-The other half of the year is ‘not fixed – but floating’ which means that you do
not own the same week year after year.
Instead you own a ‘week of time’ to be scheduled every year on a first come-first serve
basis. This allows you to visit Block
Island during different months in the lower season - November, March or
April. We typically schedule visits to
the Neptune House during this period in the months of March, April, and
November – using the other 3 months for maintenance projects.
-With the purchase of any fixed week (week #18-43) you have an
option to own a second slower season week at no additional cost to purchase or
deed. (Normal purchase cost is $1000
with $100 to record the deed.) You can take this second week to visit Block
Island in the months of March/April/ or November; or trade the week with Interval
International and vacation at another available
timeshare resort. The annual
maintenance fee on these lower season ‘floating weeks’ is lesser than the fixed weeks, and is only
$660. For more information on these lower season ‘floating weeks’
see the detailed handout specifically on the topic.
GOT QUESTIONS?
CALL OR EMAILTHE NEPTUNE HOUSE OWNER RELATIONS REPRESENTATIVE:
Joanne Regnault Cell:
401.261.2032
12
Noon – 10Pm Eastern, 7 days OK to call
Email: jr4seasons@yahoo.com