True Vacations and Timeshare Title Services

I have been contacted by True Vacations that there is a buyer for my timeshare and have been put in contact with Timeshare Title Services to start the closing process. Has anyone had dealings with either of these companies - looking for the good, bad and ugly. I'm very weary of starting the process, though so far documents look legitimate...Help, please!

katew65 wrote:

I have been contacted by True Vacations that there is a buyer for my timeshare and have been put in contact with Timeshare Title Services to start the closing process. Has anyone had dealings with either of these companies - looking for the good, bad and ugly. I'm very weary of starting the process, though so far documents look legitimate...Help, please!

If not, and you received this call from "out of the blue", then it is absolutely a scam. If this is the case, you will be soon be asked for some money for some fabricated, bogus purpose (title search, escrow, appraisal, or some other such nonsense --- which you would never be paying as the seller in the first place in a legitimate transaction). After you pay up on this bogus fee, the "buyer" (who never actually existed in the first place) will suddenly disappear, change his mind, die, be captured by Martians, or some such other lame story). You'll then never hear from the thieves again.

The first time you, as seller, are asked for ANY "upfront" money in the transaction, you'll immediately know it's a scam. You as a seller should not have to PAY out of your pocket to SELL what you own.

Be smart and be careful.

Thanks so much for your response. I do have this actively for sale, but when True Vacations contacted me they didn't seem to know this. I was told that they had a "corporate" buyer with a certain price, I was told at that time that I'd need to pay certain fees (title search, deed transfer, etc.), so I told them that I would need more $$ than their buyer was offering. They came back a few days later and miraculously had another buyer that was willing to pay above what I had told them my minimum was. At this time I began checking our True Vacation to see if they were legit. I found some bad BBB reviews out of New Hampshire, but all the calls I've been getting were based out of Orlando. Relunctantly I agreed to start the title closing process and talked to the title company, Timeshare Title Services. When I got the letter of intent from them it came from a very strange email address and the payment schedule only added up to 98% and the terms of the timeshare were inaccurate. I emailed them back, and True Vacations called me back, which I thought was strange. The letter also had an incorrect phone number, which makes me believe that they are making up these letters on the fly and not a standard form letter. The letter also states, which I had been told throughout, that if the buyer backs out, I'm entitled to the 22% they have deposited in escrow.

I really want to be done with the timeshare business, so really want this to work, but don't want to be scammed.

If you have any suggestions on how to sell this correctly, please advise.

Thanks again

katew65 wrote:

Thanks so much for your response. I do have this actively for sale, but when True Vacations contacted me they didn't seem to know this. I was told that they had a "corporate" buyer with a certain price, I was told at that time that I'd need to pay certain fees (title search, deed transfer, etc.), so I told them that I would need more $$ than their buyer was offering. They came back a few days later and miraculously had another buyer that was willing to pay above what I had told them my minimum was. At this time I began checking our True Vacation to see if they were legit. I found some bad BBB reviews out of New Hampshire, but all the calls I've been getting were based out of Orlando. Relunctantly I agreed to start the title closing process and talked to the title company, Timeshare Title Services. When I got the letter of intent from them it came from a very strange email address and the payment schedule only added up to 98% and the terms of the timeshare were inaccurate. I emailed them back, and True Vacations called me back, which I thought was strange. The letter also had an incorrect phone number, which makes me believe that they are making up these letters on the fly and not a standard form letter. The letter also states, which I had been told throughout, that if the buyer backs out, I'm entitled to the 22% they have deposited in escrow.

I really want to be done with the timeshare business, so really want this to work, but don't want to be scammed.

If you have any suggestions on how to sell this correctly, please advise.

Thanks again

The timeshare resale market is currently bottomed out in our weak and uncertain economy. On eBay alone, there are over a thousand timeshare weeks listed every day --- some offered for FREE still go unclaimed by anyone.

In my opinion, unless your week is one at a high demand location and / or in a high demand season, your odds of selling in this market are pretty slim. The one and only POSSIBLE chance you have at selling a "weak week" is to invest the time and effort to advertise on your own at a rock bottom selling price. I suggest using BOTH RedWeek and MyResortNetwork (both of which have reasonable ad fees) and Bidshares (free, but much less effective). I personally recommend staying away from BOTH eBay (where there is already a massive glut of $1.00 timeshares ) and Craigslist (where there are FAR too many scammers and spammers).

Good luck.

Thanks so much!

We have a timeshare in CA on the beach. We received a call from Host timeshares indicating that our timeshare which they did have the name of had indicated we called in November asking about selling out timeshare, which we had. We were asked for a title transfer fee. When asked why it could not come off of the sale which all our other property sales had done, we were told it was illegal to do so because we were selling time space not real property and only realty companies could do that. Time Share Title Services then said they needed a money order as they no longer accepted credit cards and as soon as they received it they would release the title. They then called and said they had received the check from Host and as soon as the money order was received they would direct deposit the check and we could stay on the line with them while we called the bank to verify the deposit. We're hesitate but not sure if it is legitimate.

janm216 wrote:

We have a timeshare in CA on the beach. We received a call from Host timeshares indicating that our timeshare which they did have the name of had indicated we called in November asking about selling out timeshare, which we had. We were asked for a title transfer fee. When asked why it could not come off of the sale which all our other property sales had done, we were told it was illegal to do so because we were selling time space not real property and only realty companies could do that. Time Share Title Services then said they needed a money order as they no longer accepted credit cards and as soon as they received it they would release the title. They then called and said they had received the check from Host and as soon as the money order was received they would direct deposit the check and we could stay on the line with them while we called the bank to verify the deposit. We're hesitate but not sure if it is legitimate.

Keep hesitating. This is not legitimate. It is a scam, plain and simple. The reason why they ask for a check is so that you can not dispute it with your credit card company once you find out that this is a scam.

I will repeat: Never.....ever.....ever pay a large upfront fee to any entity to sell, rent out, or market your timeshare. It does not matter what they euphemistically label this fee whether is is a lien search fee, title search fee, one-time marketing fee, closing costs, etc.

There is absolutely no need for you, as the seller, to put up any money in such a transaction.

By the way, timeshares ARE real estate property.

lancec13 wrote:

Keep hesitating. This is not legitimate. It is a scam, plain and simple. The reason why they ask for a check is so that you can not dispute it with your credit card company once you find out that this is a scam.

I will repeat: Never.....ever.....ever pay a large upfront fee to any entity to sell, rent out, or market your timeshare. It does not matter what they euphemistically label this fee whether is is a lien search fee, title search fee, one-time marketing fee, closing costs, etc.

There is absolutely no need for you, as the seller, to put up any money in such a transaction.

By the way, timeshares ARE real estate property.

Excellent advice .... yes, timeshares ARE real estate .... that's why all deeds in the name of the owner are recorded in the courthouse in the county the resort is in.

janm216 wrote:

We have a timeshare in CA on the beach. We received a call from Host timeshares indicating that our timeshare which they did have the name of had indicated we called in November asking about selling out timeshare, which we had. We were asked for a title transfer fee. When asked why it could not come off of the sale which all our other property sales had done, we were told it was illegal to do so because we were selling time space not real property and only realty companies could do that. Time Share Title Services then said they needed a money order as they no longer accepted credit cards and as soon as they received it they would release the title. They then called and said they had received the check from Host and as soon as the money order was received they would direct deposit the check and we could stay on the line with them while we called the bank to verify the deposit. We're hesitate but not sure if it is legitimate.

I'm sure the resale scammers would love to have your very popular timeshare on the beach in CA (supply and demand) along with your large upfront fee. That's money in the hand for them without doing one single thing except getting your money order in the mail.

You can sell it yourself on timeshare ad sites such as Redweek and others ..... I would think any timeshare on the beach in CA is high in demand especially in a high demand season.

Thanks for adding to this string...please keep us updated if this turns out to be legitimate, which still unknown...

What did we do before the Internet and Google?

Katew65 and Janm216, I could have written both your posts word for word based on a phone call I received just this afternoon. I was looking at a tidy profit of over $ 20K! according to Elizabeth from the Co, Timeshare Title Services, same 'we have a buyer waiting in the wings' all we need is the Intent to Sell returned, same reasons regarding why the certain fees (title search, deed transfer, etc.), had to be paid a certain way, right down to the Payment Schedule only totaling 98%! (I couldn't help but but chuckle at that part) So thank-you Redweek.com for the open forums, thank-you jayjay and lancec for the straight talk and thank-you Kate and Jan for asking/sharing the good questions. Saved me a buncha money and a lotta future heartache. Peace ya'll

kime118 wrote:

What did we do before the Internet and Google?

Katew65 and Janm216, I could have written both your posts word for word based on a phone call I received just this afternoon. I was looking at a tidy profit of over $ 20K! according to Elizabeth from the Co, Timeshare Title Services, same 'we have a buyer waiting in the wings' all we need is the Intent to Sell returned, same reasons regarding why the certain fees (title search, deed transfer, etc.), had to be paid a certain way, right down to the Payment Schedule only totaling 98%! (I couldn't help but but chuckle at that part) So thank-you Redweek.com for the open forums, thank-you jayjay and lancec for the straight talk and thank-you Kate and Jan for asking/sharing the good questions. Saved me a buncha money and a lotta future heartache. Peace ya'll

Also, thank yourself for taking the time to research upfront fee resale scams .... many people hand over their credit card number because they believe all the lies told to them by the scammers.

Does anyone have any idea how much the title fees and or closing fees are for a week in Hawaii? I cant find anyone who can give me a round about figure.

wandar60 wrote:

Does anyone have any idea how much the title fees and or closing fees are for a week in Hawaii? I cant find anyone who can give me a round about figure.

Have you checked www.timesharetransfer.com ???

wandar60 wrote:

Does anyone have any idea how much the title fees and or closing fees are for a week in Hawaii? I cant find anyone who can give me a round about figure.

I believe there's also a law in place that any escrow for purchasing a timeshare in Hawaii must be handled by a Hawaiian licensed real estate broker.

Anyone ever hear of international financial that does resale? They say I can pay the title search w/ a cc. I thought that would be safer?

I've read of scams where you give a credit card...so beware...

katew65 wrote:

I've read of scams where you give a credit card...so beware...

PostCard Companies (PCC's), on the other hand, operate a bit differently (although they too collect their exorbitant fees "upfront"). The PCC parasites generally want payment by check, presented to them by hand right at the time of their "meeting" with the "mark". This way, the PCC can make sure the check gets cashed very promptly (...hopefully before the "mark" smartens up after-the-fact and stops payment on the check).

Hi, my name is Lisa, I had True Vacations call me back in Sep, and back then there was nothing on the company. So I did the payment and they started the process. They did Actually call me a lot during Sep/Oct, then all the calls stopped. I left mutiple emails, VM's, once I saw that the payment was processed in Kansas City, not New Hampshire. (2 weeks after the process to late to cxnl) I fought with my credit card company, and they told me after reviewing the case, they could not help me, as I had given my creidt card to them. This is BofA. Does anyone know how to fight these scams! Please let me know, as this is a lot of money to give up front. Thanks

lisar548 wrote:

Hi, my name is Lisa, I had True Vacations call me back in Sep, and back then there was nothing on the company.

Thanks

Maybe not about that particular company but, if you had checked out this website, you would have known not to pay ANYONE a large upfront fee to sell, rent out, or market your timeshare. It does not matter what the company is called, if it charges a large, upfront fee, then it is invariably a scam.

To fight this, report this to the Attorney-General of the state in which the scam operation is located.