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Parting company with timeshare ownerships... (by KC):

marieb169 wrote:

Thanks for your response, have you had a timeshare and if so how did you "Get Rid" of it? Are there no laws for consumers who get sucked into these things?

I have owned multiple timeshare weeks over the past nearly 30 years now. I still own and use a number of weeks even today. All my weeks were purchased in the resale market --- NONE directly from any developer or "chain" company.

How easy (or difficult) it is to "get rid of" a timeshare week depends on many different factors, not the least of which is the quality of (and the market demand for) the particular resort, season, and week at issue. In the past 5 years, I have sold off three weeks at a loss (although not a huge loss), sold off three other weeks for about what I paid for them, and sold off two others at a small (...very small) profit. Two more weeks I basically had to give away for free as their parent companies (specifically Celebrity Resorts, now called Legacy Vacation Club and Wyndham Vacation Resorts each developed practices and / or financial conditions which I came to regard as unacceptable). I had obtained both of those weeks for next to nothing to begin with, so giving them away for free was not really financially painful.

To sell (or even give away for free) ANY timeshare week, you obviously have to advertise --- and to sell you obviously also must have competitive pricing compared to other similar listings. RedWeek and MyResortNetwork are both very good advertising sites, although both admittedly cost money to place ads --- and certainly neither site can "turn a sow's ear into a silk purse". Some weeks are quite simply worthless, particularly in a weak economy.

On Timeshare Users Group (http://www.tug2.net), there is a "Bargain Deals" section where TUG members can (at no cost besides the annual $15 TUG membership fee) offer their timeshares for little or nothing (that was exactly how and where I gave away my Wyndham and Celebrity weeks). You can also advertise on Craigslist and Bidshares.com for free, but Craiglist has lots and lots of assorted scammers and spammers who reply to ads there. Bidshares is seldom successful, although I DID sell ONE week (at a small loss) by advertising there.

As far as applicable consumer protection laws go, all states have "cancellation periods" (which range from as few as 3 days to as many as 15 days, depending on the individual state) in which a buyer can choose to cancel a developer direct timeshare purchase, without any penalty or any other repercussions. That cancellation or "rescission" right does NOT apply to private resales, however. Aside from that one piece of consumer protection, timeshares are an arena where the phrase "Buyer Beware" applies more than anything else I can think of (...except maybe used cars).

Seldom (if ever) does it make any financial sense (nor is it ever actually necessary or smart) to actually PAY someone a few thousand dollars to take your timeshare...

I hope some of this helps you. Good luck.