How to buy a Thousand Trails resell?
As I near retirement we are considering purchasing a Thousand Trails resell membership. What is the best way to go about this? I see them regularly on eBay. I have never contacted TT or attended ...
Forum Discussion
This guy has a blog with an excellent article on buying T/T memberships and that ins and outs of the different types of memberships. RVlife
Use Yahoo for a search and plug in "Thousand Trails Craigslist" and you will find listings from all across the US. It will give you a good idea what's out there and benefits in older memberships. Now should be a good time to buy at the end of the season. We're going to sell our KM membership in Wa. and go with an upgraded T/T one. No way would we buy from ebay either. Better to be able to talk to the current owner and get all the details first and confirm with T/T.
There's a lot of detail on T/T memberships that is worth learning about as well as their rules (length of stay, in/out times in system, etc.). Some membership types are NLA and have good features. We're thinking about upgrading our basic T/T membership ($550 annual dues) to something deluxe and that will get us into all the CGs across the country.
I think in every case, you still have to pay a transfer fee so make sure to take it into account.
One major downside to T/T is that there are no CGs in about the middle/50% of the US and you'll need another network like RPI if you want to travel around a lot.
If you only want to camp in your local T/T zone, it may not be worthwhile to buy a permanent membership unless you want the right to have longer stays and other benefits. T/T often has sales on their basic annual membership or a 2 for 1 zone special.
I don't know about the eastern US, but on the west coast, their CGs are often old, tired and poorly maintained. Electrical systems can be bad, hardly any sewer hookups and water pressure can be dismal. I don't recall many, if any CATV hookups and often there is no OTA signal. Cell phones and mifi will not work at some CGs. Wifi, if available, is awful. They don't trim trees and overgrowth either and it can be very hard to get around a CG and in/out of sites. Many sites are small or tiny and also on a very inclined site. They can be in noisy locations too, like next to a racetrack or interstate. Some are outstanding like the one near Seaside in Or. and the one at Pacific Shores in Wa. Reading internet reviews can be extremely misleading we've found. Each category of RV-er, full-timers to weekenders and MHs to small TTs all have vastly different expectations.
We don't like the permanent sites in their CGs either. Takes away from all us ordinary RV-ers. We like having other folks around to wave to or chat to. Can be rather lonely in some sections amongst all the permanent sites. Expect to see more and more of this because Equity Lifestyle Properties gets more revenue from permanent sites. Same thing with rental cabins. I particularly don't like most cabin renters as they aren't RV people and can be really obnoxious and have no sense of etiquette in a CG.
Use Yahoo for a search and plug in "Thousand Trails Craigslist" and you will find listings from all across the US. It will give you a good idea what's out there and benefits in older memberships. Now should be a good time to buy at the end of the season. We're going to sell our KM membership in Wa. and go with an upgraded T/T one. No way would we buy from ebay either. Better to be able to talk to the current owner and get all the details first and confirm with T/T.
There's a lot of detail on T/T memberships that is worth learning about as well as their rules (length of stay, in/out times in system, etc.). Some membership types are NLA and have good features. We're thinking about upgrading our basic T/T membership ($550 annual dues) to something deluxe and that will get us into all the CGs across the country.
I think in every case, you still have to pay a transfer fee so make sure to take it into account.
One major downside to T/T is that there are no CGs in about the middle/50% of the US and you'll need another network like RPI if you want to travel around a lot.
If you only want to camp in your local T/T zone, it may not be worthwhile to buy a permanent membership unless you want the right to have longer stays and other benefits. T/T often has sales on their basic annual membership or a 2 for 1 zone special.
I don't know about the eastern US, but on the west coast, their CGs are often old, tired and poorly maintained. Electrical systems can be bad, hardly any sewer hookups and water pressure can be dismal. I don't recall many, if any CATV hookups and often there is no OTA signal. Cell phones and mifi will not work at some CGs. Wifi, if available, is awful. They don't trim trees and overgrowth either and it can be very hard to get around a CG and in/out of sites. Many sites are small or tiny and also on a very inclined site. They can be in noisy locations too, like next to a racetrack or interstate. Some are outstanding like the one near Seaside in Or. and the one at Pacific Shores in Wa. Reading internet reviews can be extremely misleading we've found. Each category of RV-er, full-timers to weekenders and MHs to small TTs all have vastly different expectations.
We don't like the permanent sites in their CGs either. Takes away from all us ordinary RV-ers. We like having other folks around to wave to or chat to. Can be rather lonely in some sections amongst all the permanent sites. Expect to see more and more of this because Equity Lifestyle Properties gets more revenue from permanent sites. Same thing with rental cabins. I particularly don't like most cabin renters as they aren't RV people and can be really obnoxious and have no sense of etiquette in a CG.
