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Re: Successful Resales & Rental Feedback Wanted (by Steve M.):

johnl880 wrote:

My question is how you went about selling your timeshares. We have much the same problems now on travel, but I am at a loss on how to sell our points timeshare all I get now are cold calls from upfront listing companies.

I have purchased 3 time shares and sold 4 time shares in the last 3 years. If you understand the market situation, and are willing to accept that you will not make money selling your time share, then it is possible to get out from under the annual fees of time share ownership.

The two obvious places to sell your time share, would be RedWeek and eBay. Both will incur fees for the listing. eBay also requires an annual fee to belong to their system for verifying that you actually own the time share you are trying to sell or rent.

Look for time shares that are comparable to yours, to find out what the going price is - usually under $100, but sometimes more. You will need to list yours at or below the going rate or you won't get any interest from real buyers.

You can arrange for the closing company to handle the actual transaction. They can provide a generic sales contract, and also escrow service if needed, should the monies involved be large. This can often be secured for under $500 in total costs. They will make sure all the papers are signed, deed recorded and ownership transferred at the resort (very important, as you will still be billed until the resort transfers the unit into the new owners name).

I have had 3 closings with Titleoutletinc.com and 2 with Timeshare Closing Services, Inc. Both are located in the Orlando, Florida area, but can handle timeshares elsewhere as well. The advantage of using the escrow service is that all monies go through a third party, as does your title. That way, you don't give up your title, until you know the ownership has been transferred away from you.

You can make your sale more attractive by offering to pay all or part of the closing costs, and/or offer the usage for the current year or banked weeks as part of the sale.

What it come down to is to stop the bleeding, of the annual fees for a timeshare that no longer fits your needs. With the current buyers climate, and the changing demographics of the country, I don't think that the time of high resale prices is coming back anytime soon.

The other option that may be open to you, since you have a points system, is to see if there are any resorts in your system that would interest you, which offer shorter stays. My points system offers stays of three or more days to owners, and shorter stays with an added fee. These are all based on a points per day per unit basis, that add up to the same total points that the unit requires for a full week stay. If you system offers such an option, it may be better for you than selling the time share, at least for now.

good luck