sELLING MY TIMESHARE

The cost depends on your unit price. Last price I am paying is $14.50 , but not like other companies this does include the lawyers fee. Others charge extra .

Anyone hear of a company called IBD Marketing? I am waiting for contracts to come in mail but before I sign I want to find out a little more about them. I did authorize a $799 fee in advance to cover title search, deed transfer, etc. The gentleman was very knowledgeable and assured me I can sell for a profit.

Hi Ellenm84,

I have, and unfortunately, like jayjay warned, they are one of those companies where all they do is list your timeshare on the internet and not market them. :(

Ellen, as I have reiterated numerous times in these forums, do not ever pay an upfront fee to a company to sell your timeshare. If they truly want to sell your timeshare they will take their fee after the sale not before.

If you have authorized their upfront fee on your credit card, get in touch with your credit card company asap and have the charges revoked. Do not sign the contract.

These types of companies are merely a listing service and they list your timeshare on their computer with no marketing involved. They will tell you all sorts of lies like your timeshare is worth many times it's value or people are waiting in line for a week like you own. I honestly don't see how these people sleep at night.

You can LIST your timeshare here at Redweek or on other listing sites that get volumes of internet traffic with very little cost involved.

The main thing to remember is to list your timeshare at a reasonable price. If it was bought developer, then 99% of developer bought timeshares will bring only about 1/3 to 1/4 in the resale market of what you paid the developer.

ellenm84 wrote:

Anyone hear of a company called IBD Marketing? I am waiting for contracts to come in mail but before I sign I want to find out a little more about them. I did authorize a $799 fee in advance to cover title search, deed transfer, etc. The gentleman was very knowledgeable and assured me I can sell for a profit.

jayjay, mine is a complicated situation,I am going to talk with an attornry about it before I list it to make sure everything is okay. I have 4 units for the next 22 years,3 in the even years and 2 in the odd,all under one lease agreement.I have a good deal of money invested,and am looking to sell for as close to my investment and also a good price to a buyer,or buyers. thank's for your input, and anybody else who may be able to give me some pointers as I have never been down this road.

sam

Question: Could I sell half of a two bed lock-off?

John

Even and odd year timeshares are sometimes hard to sell. You have to find the exact buyer that would want such a mix.

If you bought your weeks from the developer you will not get your investment back. With developer bought timeshares you are paying for marketing (and everything that goes with marketing) and a profit for the developer. Resales are typically 1/3 to 1/4 of developer bought timeshares in the vast majority of cases.

My suggestion would be to list your weeks here on Redweek or other timeshare listing sites. If you get no response to your ads in a month or so, then keep lowering your price until you start getting some interest. You may take a loss, but that's common in timesharing. It just depends on what the market (buyer) is looking for.

samf21 wrote:

jayjay, mine is a complicated situation,I am going to talk with an attornry about it before I list it to make sure everything is okay. I have 4 units for the next 22 years,3 in the even years and 2 in the odd,all under one lease agreement.I have a good deal of money invested,and am looking to sell for as close to my investment and also a good price to a buyer,or buyers. thank's for your input, and anybody else who may be able to give me some pointers as I have never been down this road.

sam

I've never heard of anyone doing this as your contract more than likely includes both units. If you have two different contracts that would be a different story.

johnm13 wrote:

Question: Could I sell half of a two bed lock-off? John

jayjay wrote:

The rule of thumb in timesharing is to NEVER, EVER pay anyone an upfront fee to sell your timeshare under ANY circumstances. The best and most economical way to sell your timeshare is yourself via sites such as Redweek and the many other resale listing sites on the internet.

I have to say in response to someone saying never pay an upfront fee. I payed a timeshare resale company a fee and they sold my timeshare. Is there any company out there that does not charge an upfront fee? NO! Why, because in order to resell a timeshare you have to advertise. The company I used did everything they claimed they would do. Of course you have to do your homework like I did and check the BBB before you pay to make sure that they do not have an unsatisfactory record with the bureau. Redweek has links to timeshare resale companies on their site that charge an upfront fee! There are timeshare listing companies that charge a fee and the extent of advertising that you receive is being placed on their website. No one goes on line to buy a timeshare! If you do some research you can find a good company.

There are resale companies that do not charge an upfront fee. Google 'no upfront fee timeshare resellers' and you will see numerous companies that don't charge an upfront fee.

The vast majority of upfront fee resellers take your money and list your timeshare in their computers, they do no marketing or advertising to try and sell your timeshare.

It's common knowlege among educated timeshare owners and timeshare discussion sites on the internet the mantra will be 'do not list your timeshare with an upfront fee reseller'.

As I've said many times before on these forums, you can list your own timeshare on the many listing sites such as Redweek and sell it yourself withlittle out of pocket espenses. And listing sites such as Redweek get thousands of hits a day.

If the upfront fee resale companies really want to earn their money by selling your timeshare, they will take their percentage after it's sold not before.

BTW, how much did you play the upfront fee reseller to sell your timeshare?

Hi Garyp 104,

As someone who has paid a company an upfront free to sell my timeshare,( Ih have a listing out right now) could you please tell me which company you used? The company I used said they have showrooms and actually do timeshare resales face-to-face and don't just put your lising on the internet like so many companies do, like jayjay said.

He made me feel somewhat comfortable paying them because he said he makes hismoney on the financing of the timeshare. (either that or he's just a GREAT salesman)

norin wrote:

Hi Garyp 104,

As someone who has paid a company an upfront free to sell my timeshare,( Ih have a listing out right now) could you please tell me which company you used? The company I used said they have showrooms and actually do timeshare resales face-to-face and don't just put your lising on the internet like so many companies do, like jayjay said.

He made me feel somewhat comfortable paying them because he said he makes hismoney on the financing of the timeshare. (either that or he's just a GREAT salesman)

Unfortunately he is almost certainly the latter--a Great salesman/con artist. Did you ask him where these alleged face-to-face encounters take place, where their "showrooms" are located? And if he gave you this type of info, did you check with the Better Business Bureau in the area to see if the company is registered with them? Are there any complaints? Did you check with the state regulatory agency to see if they have the required real estate and other licenses?

I am an active long-term member of a timeshare owners group in New York. Many of us own 10-15 timeshares, and collectively engage in numerous purchase and sales transactions each year. We are well aware of most, if not all, of the reputable timeshare resale companies and none do business in the way you describe. And none of the reputable companies collect any fees/commissions until they actually sell a unit for an owner.

The scenario you describe is a common scam that pops up from time to time. Try to get a refund of your money. Do a "google" search of the company. Perhaps if you find out enough negative information, you can file complaints and dispute the charge with your credit card company. I do hope you paid by credit card! Good luck.

Greetings. I have no financial interest in, and have never worked for Timeshare Transfer, Inc. I have had one dealing with them. I consider them an honorable firm with which to do business. However, I suspect that the originator of this forum might be in need of another suggestion of a title transfer firm.

stanleyf5 Greetings. I have no financial interest in, and have never worked for Timeshare Transfer, Inc. I have had one dealing with them. I consider them an honorable firm with which to do business. However, I suspect that the originator of this forum might be in need of another suggestion of a title transfer firm.[/Q

JUST" DO NOT" USE "TIMESHARE ADVENTURE". BAD BAD BAD COMPANY. LOSS BIG MONEY BECAUSE THEY DID NOT DO THEIR JOB.

jayjay wrote:

timothyh20[/Q wrote:

I agree with you, I got ripped off as well. But what are some effective ways to market and sell your timeshare where they don't charge fees up front??

I sell my timeshares via Redweek, www.bidshares.com (free) and www.myresortnetwork.com (minimal fee). Ebay is also very popular. I feel the very best seller is the owner of the week (you). I always keep dropping my price until I get some interest. It depends on what season you own, the popularity of the week and the popularity of resort as to what you'll get for your week.

JayJay,

You seem very knowledgable. How do you decide on what the right price for your timeshare is.

Gulin

I am in complete agreement with your assessment of Timeshare Transfer (www.timesharetransfer.com). I used them many times for closings and they were always professional and honorable.

stanleyf5 wrote:

Greetings. I have no financial interest in, and have never worked for Timeshare Transfer, Inc. I have had one dealing with them. I consider them an honorable firm with which to do business. However, I suspect that the originator of this forum might be in need of another suggestion of a title transfer firm.

davidg307 wrote:

JayJay,You seem very knowledgable. How do you decide on what the right price for your timeshare is.Gulin

We bought one developer timeshare before we researched the internet and found resales and we then bought several resales.

It was hard to figure out what to ask for the developer bought timeshare when we were ready to sell it since it's the market (buyer) that sets the price. We paid almost 11K for it. It was a Gold Crown timeshare in Florida in a very prime location at a very popular resort. I advertised it on various resale sites on the internet, including Ebay, asking 5K, and had no interest or bids.

I then took the rule of thumb in timesharing using the 1/3 or 1/4 rule. In the vast majority of cases, you will get back only 1/4 +- to 1/3 +- of what you paid developer when selling your timeshare (note: there are some high end timeshares where you may get more, or perhaps your investment back, such as Disney, some Marriotts, some Hiltons etc). I ended up selling the 11K developer bought timeshare for $2900 with a loss of $8100 (typical). And then there are some timeshares where you may not even get 1/3 to 1/4 of what you paid developer. It all depends on supply and demand of the area and of the resort (suppy and demand are two very key words in the world of timesharing).

With the remaining resale bought timeshares, I started the asking price at what we paid. I sold all of them via internet resale sites with no problems and even made a little profit, however I had learned beforehand to look for very good deals when buying resale. We bought where we liked to go, within an 8 hour drive of our home, and traded them on years we didn't use them.

You're probably asking yourself why we sold all of our timeshares? When we got into timesharing it was an economical way to travel, but the increases in costs of everything related to timesharing (re: exchange company membership, exchanges, guest certificates, maintenance fees, rising closing costs, surprise special assessments) each and every year became more of a financial burden than a joy.

Also, we moved to an area where we had owned several timeshares weeks, so we didn't need those any longer. Since we have moved to one of our favorite areas, we no longer want to stay anywhere for an entire week. We now take short trips of 2-4 day duration.

When we owned a total of 9 timeshare weeks, we saw much of this great country in very nice accomodations, and we're grateful for that. But in a word, timesharing just became too expensive and we now rent since there are thousands upon thousands of timeshare rentals on the internet alone. There were not that many timeshare rentals sites when we first got into timesharing and before Redweek, My Resort Network, Bidshares and hundreds of other timeshare rental sites were developed.

Hence, the story of our timeshare history. Along the way I learned a LOT about timesharing.

Can anyone give me some tips on how to sell my timeshare. It has been posted on redweek since Aug 06. I really want to get rid of it. It's a one bdr studio deluxe with ocean front view. I own wk 13 @ the Casa Del Mar in Ormond Bch, FL. I thought it would have sold by now. What else can I do?

Hang in there. Most often it is just a matter of time. All of a sudden, when you least expect it, you will get a sale. To increase exposure try putting it on additional sites like bidshares.com for free. I think this past year was slower than usual for the timeshare market. I knew someone that had their timeshare on bidshares.com for almost two years before selling. It will happen for you, it is just a matter of time. In the meantime you can rent out your unwanted weeks for a profit.

It's a buyer's market out there Vicky.

I offered one ebay seller his opening bid after his unit did not sell due to zero bids on ebay and my offer was turned down. The same seller then listed the same property again on ebay at an opening bid of $100 higher than the price at which it did not sell the first time.

At about the same time, I saw another owner on ebay offering his identical 105,000 points deeded property at the same Fairfield resort and offered him what I offered the last seller at $100 less ..., which he jumped at immediately.

I'm now one less potential buyer in the marketplace in competition for a time-share.

Moral of the story ... when one gets a genuine offer, do not reject it out of hand. Look around and see what other sellers are getting (NOT ASKING) for their similar properties. Many sellers are simply dumping their units at bargain prices because they don't want to be saddled with increasing maintenance fees and air travel costs, illness, old-age, or they may have inherited a property that they simply don't want to be burdened with the annual cost associated with keeping the place, and would rather settle with the estate through a quick sale. There are lots of bargains out there that competing sellers have to contend with. Timeshares are not the wonderful investment that trained salespersons touted them to be in their hyped presentations.

Like buying new automobiles at the dealer showroom at close to list prices ... timeshare re-sales seldom bring anywhere near their original purchase price. Used car dealer lots are over flowing with inventory ... and so are timeshare re-sales on the Internet.

Having said that, then there are the folks who are content to keep the old car until death, rather than sell it at giveaway prices.