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[Q=eileenh177] Thank you very much. No, I do not have proof that the homeowner owns the unit. How do you go about finding out? Simply ask? Many thanks again![/Q] 1. You can call the resort directly. To protect owner privacy, the resort absolutely will never [b]disclose[/b] any information, but if you [b]already[/b] have the owner's name and identification of the specific unit / week involved, most resorts will at least [b]confirm[/b] that the person is indeed the owner of that particular unit / week (but will reveal absolutely nothing more). 2. You can ask the owner for a copy of the most recent maintenance fee bill. This is a document that could of course be forged, but with that document in hand you can go right back to item 1. above to get confirmation of its' legitimacy directly from the resort. P.S. One benefit of being RedWeek "verified" is that the owner'd legitimacy and accuracy of unit / week ownership claim is [b]independently[/] confirmed by RedWeek. It frankly escapes me why an owner would fail to pony up the extra $14.95 to be independently "verified" by RedWeek, for a rental that usually involves at least several hundred dollars. That's just being "penny wise and pound foolish", at least in my own personal opinion. You can also request to have a phone conversation with the advertising owner. That conversation may or may not give you some additional confidence and assurance regarding their legitimacy. If they won't even talk to you person to person, that seems very suspicious (to me, anyhow) in and of itself. If the advertising owner is resistant to all of these suggestions, I respectfully submit that you should think long and hard about whether you want to do business with them [b]at all[/b]. A contract protects the owner as much as the tenant, so it's very hard for me to comprehend why any legitimate owner would [b]ever[/b] balk at executing a formal, mutually signed (and mutually protective) rental agreement / contract. Just my own thoughts and personal opinion, for whatever they may be worth, based upon my own 35+ years of timeshare ownership and experience. I have been on both sides of RedWeek rental transactions on many different occasions. Exercising care, caution and due diligence (and always using a rental agreement, no matter which side of the transaction I'm on), I have never encountered a problem being on [b]either[/b] side of a RedWeek-advertised rental.