Original Message:
May Newsletter Q&A: Second Market Timeshare Owners 'Caught' By RCI (by Steve W.):
You know how the Kelly Blue Book works, right? They have researchers who attend auctions, gather sales data from dealerships as to vehicles sold, etc. They then compile that data to determine the current value of each vehicle. It's based on actual sales.
In timeshare, there is no one who wants that data compiled or processed. They hate the idea!
None of the timeshare developers want the secondary market to exist. They want to sell you the timeshare and then they want you to pay your maintenance forever so they can make hay while the sun shines because almost invariably they own most of the weeks. So by you paying you insure the value of their holdings.
If you sold yours to a third party that could prevent them from selling that party one of theirs. They don't want that!
This is why there is not much valid secondary market for timeshare interests. The big dogs don't really want there to be one. They really only want their holdings to have value, not *yours*.
Timeshare owners are just cash cows to those big dogs, they have thousands of timeshare owners to deal with. When you have plenty of something they are worthless, so you as an owner are worthless to them. They already got your money and you are under contract to keep paying them.
Witness in many cases they took a $78,000 condo, split it up into 50 shares and sold them for $5,000 each. So that $78,000 condo has now been sold for $250,000. No wonder it's such a high pressure sale!
So your interest is greatly diluted by the fact you have very few shares and there are a lot of others similarly situated. Also, it's entirely possible (like at Poipu Pointe) that the developer may own 30 of that 50 shares, so when the time comes to vote you he votes his 30 and *all* the other owners only have 20 all together. So it's no surprise he can vote that you should pay to protect his interest, he owns more than all you together! He wants you to pay $25 million so he won't have to.
This is why they like that you are under contract and you can't just "walk", or they will put you in collections, sue you, etc. Whatever. Bad things.
Whereas if the law was changed so you could just "walk" they would have to treat you like a valuable customer without which they would have nothing. As it is timeshare owners who have already bought are essentially worthless. That should be changed so timeshare owners are more valuable to the timeshare property. Only by changes of the laws can this happen.
This is the trouble with the timeshare proposition. It's not a healthy type of market. I wish it could become more healthy but only by acknowledgement of ownership rights and a reduction of the influence of the developer can this occur.
Naturally the developers hate the idea.