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Re: Selling my timeshare (by KC):

bernards15 wrote:

I own several weeks at the manhattan club in NYC that I purchased for about 42k/week in 2005. I've noticed that resales are going for about half that amount. The manhattan is still selling units for 42K. I would like to sell some weeks but am a bit confused about the economics. How can the club sell for its price when so many resales are available for far less.

thanks

I don't know much about the Manhattan Club (except that it is very popular) or about about the figures which you've cited. However, this exact same phenomenon occurs virtually every single day in timeshare facilities everywhere in which the developer has not yet sold all available weeks / units.

I'm willing to bet that when you bought initially, you were either entirely unaware of the existence of a resale market at all (or, perhaps, at that time there simply were no resales yet available there). No timeshare salesman has EVER said to a buyer, "Why don't you search out the resale market first and pay just 15 to 50% of what you'll pay if you buy from me?" It just doesn't happen. Unfortunately, that initial developer sale figure will never again be attained (nor any figure even remotely near it) later in the resale or "secondary" market.

Some "company" outfits have developed cute little ways to attempt to artificially preserve and promote (too high) developer selling prices. "Elite" programs, "VIP" status, "Bonus" points and "Reward" programs, etc. (which are only available through developer purchase and NOT subsequently available to resale buyers) are all different flavors of these thinly disguised efforts to keep developer prices pumped up high and to lessen interest in the resale market for the version of that particular product which lacks those particular bells and whistles. The actual real-life-application value of those "elite, VIP, bonus, reward, etc." programs is certainly open to debate....

The GOOD news here is that Manhattan Club in NYC is a popular, high demand location which you certainly won't have much difficulty selling. Unfortunately, in the resale market, you plainly and simply won't get anywhere near what you paid initially -- half, at best, in all likelihood. It's just the reality of the difference between timeshare developer pricing and resale market value.....

I've read numerous times that in developer sales, 50% of the selling prices goes to recouping the outlay for developer marketing and sales costs. Assuming that often repeated assertion to be valid, it certainly offers some insight into the immediately downward value of any given timeshare once it next becomes a product in the "resale" market.