FAQ’s - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT

VACATION WEEK OWNERSHIP

at the NEPTUNE HOUSE on Beautiful Block Island!

…..Celebrating 24 years of Vacation Week Ownership!

1985-2009

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. A website that many of the Block Island Realtors use is: www.vrbo.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner); or if you do not wish to rent out the unit yourself you can hire one of the Block Island Real Estate offices to do so for you for a fee.

-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 $135 to exchange your week at the Neptune House to another location. There are now over 5,000 timeshare resorts worldwide. Annual membership fees run from $14.99 (RedWeek.com) t0 $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 of the 26 week /6 month timeframe of November to 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 or RedWeek 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 $650. For more information on these lower season ‘floating weeks’ see the detailed handout specifically on the topic.