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Re: TimeShare by Owners (by Beck):

In response to mike1536 saying maybe there isn't a law that prevents agencies from collecting these fees after the transaction has taken place, I think a fee after the sale is considered a commission regardless of whether it is a percent or fixed amount.

Possibly the companies only interested in soliciting payment from owners misrepresent what constitutes a licensed agent task vs tasks non licensed entities are allowed to do. So far they insist to me that any monies paid after the transaction qualifies as a commision which only a licensed agent can receive.

I am certain that only a licensed real estate agent / broker can represent the owner of real property. My definition of "represent" is answering customer questions about specific property for sale (as opposed to general questions about the resort and unit types), taking a role to submit offers or acting in the best interest of either party when the two parties communicate, actively participating in the offer / counter offer between buyer and seller. I have also read about a number of unlicensed companies charged with selling property they paid for but did not transfer into their name. Apparently you must be licensed in order to conduct transactions where you paid the seller and then sold to a buyer without recording your purchse deed prior to entering into contract to sell. I'm sure there are more criterion, but these should be sufficient for a basic qualification.

A non licensed agent may only provide services more similar to a classified ad. Redweek, VRBO, SMTN, etc all charge a fee up front to make the ad available. Customers are enabled to make inquiries thru the site but communicate directly with the owner, and from there all communication is pretty much between customer/owner. Somewhere in all this there must be a grey area for how much the non licensed agent can do but lines get crossed somewhere and I'm guessing when it comes to money the definition of when payment is made is a part of whether you must be licensed.

But here's a more important clarification. If a non licensed agent is not allowed to "represent" the owner per my definition, then they have no control over communications between the owner and customer. Since they lose control of the communication they do not have the ability to control the payment from customer to owner and probably will not have sufficient knowledge when a transaction is complete and thus they are unable to enforce a fee after the sale of a property.

SO, I think a non-licensed agent COULD fully represent owners renting out their units. As far as I am aware real estate laws do not restrict non licensed agents from managing rentals, only the sale of real property. As far as I'm aware, only TimeshareVacationNow offers this type of opportunity for rentals. And even they usually have a small up front fee with a larger commission once the unit is rented.

One thing I do not know anything about at all is how the sale of non-deeded timeshares are treated. DRI US Collections contracts for example are essentially membership contracts which never expire. Owning one of these pretty much gives the owner the same never ending ownership as a deeded timeshare which can be sold or otherwise transfered the same as deeded except of course a transfer form is processed thru DRI rather than recording a deed in the county the deeded timeshare resides in. Is a licensed agent the only one legally alowed to represent the owner, or can an unlicensed agent also represent the owner rather than only providing classified ad services? Please remember, other people can sell property they don't own. Giving someone a Power of Attorney, limited POA, or the trustee of a trust are examples of individuals with legal authority to represent an owner when selling real property.

Sorry to keep blabering! But these scam companies tend to insinuate they already have a customer when they call. I would think this means one of three things. 1) They have a licensed agent on staff to represent the buyer regardless of whether the buyer is in fact looking for your specific unit, which begs the issue of why they are charging a fee up front (scam) rather than back end commisison, 2) They are of course lying about the buyer just to get your money, OR 3) If they do have a buyer and that buyer is not the owner of the company then they are in violation of real estate law by representing the buyer and you the selling owner in the transaction.