#1 The Golden Rule… never ever pay a fee up-front to a timeshare resales broker. If you can imagine what you would say to an real estate agent if they asked for a fee in advance for selling your home, it’s the same thing. Dont do it! Pay on results or not at all.
#2 Really folks, dont part with your credit card details. One recurring scam is where timeshare owners receive calls from timeshare fraudsters stating that they have a waiting buyer for your timeshare. Then they ask you to pay a small fee so that the transaction can proceed. Dont give them the satisfaction, even if they promise not to charge your card until the sale goes through.
#3 Make sure you are getting the real deal. USA consumers should only deal with licensed real estate agents; they are the only people who can take deposits on behalf of their clients. In the UK (and most of the rest of the world) timeshare is not considered a real estate transaction so anyone can set up as a timeshare resales broker without any sort of qualifications or regulatory restraint. So check their background, check again and then… check again!
#4 Have realistic expectations: Okay so here is the really bad news ” with no sugar coating at all buying a timeshare is like buying a brand new car. It will work wonders for you if you learn how to use it properly. BUT the moment it becomes yours, it has decreased in value by thousands.
Your timeshare resort will most likely not be interested or able to sell your unwanted timeshare week for you. This is because they are making too much money selling their own inventory. Even if they do offer to sell your timeshare for you, they will want a substantial commission to reflect their costs and loss of profits had they sold their own week to a potential buyer instead.
Expect to get around a third ” sometimes less ” of what you paid. You need to be aware that the market for buyers is extremely slim, or perhaps anorexic might be a better word! Competition in the timeshare resales market is fierce. So not only are you highly unlikely to recover anywhere near the purchase price, but it could take quite a while to sell too.
Remember when you bought your timeshare? Chances are you bought it after a slick sales presentation and before that, associated the word timeshare with negative connotations. Sure, timeshare works well for millions of people (myself included), it just has a very bad reputation because of the way it is sold and the problems people have selling it when they no longer want it. What this means is that just about the only people in the market for timeshare resales are existing timeshare owners who are just looking for an additional week, usually in a specific location. Oh, and some unscrupulous timeshare sales people may buy your week from you if the price is low enough and sell it on to a hot prospect for close to what you paid for it.
#5 You must price to sell. You can find out what sort of money your timeshare will sell for by firstly contacting timeshare resales brokers. Call more than one and take an average.
The second way and equally as obvious is to look around the internet for sites that have timeshares for sale. Just remember that you are looking for the prices on timeshares that sold, not that are listed for sale.
#6 Do some basic due diligence When looking for a timeshare resales broker, their website will tell you a great deal more if you know how to read between the lines. If they have hundreds of listings it tells you two (probable) things; first that they are going to ask for an upfront fee and are not selling much as they are geared up to take fees, not sell timeshares or two: either their marketing sucks, their pricing is wrong or both.
Try to deal with timeshare resales companies whose website is listed fairly high in the search engine results. And if you can do a ‘whois’ background check on their website, look for owners information. If this shows as ‘declined to show owner information’ you really need to ask yourself what the owner has to hide.
#7 Be aware of the scams Just like you paid far too much for your timeshare week (should have bought a resale in the first place, right!), you can lose a great deal of money falling for the scams when trying to sell it. There are so many ways you can get caught out it is scary. Deal only with your own legal representative ” dont use the buyers lawyer or the brokers lawyer. Yes it will cost more to use a lawyer but think of it as insurance ” if anything goes wrong, it will not be YOUR pocket that suffers.
#8 Dont just rely on your broker Like selling a house, there are advantages to using a broker to sell your timeshare. They know the market, are geared up to get a steady stream of sales enquiries and know how to present your offering to potential buyers. But this doesnt mean that you cant do something too. If you have the time, check out some of the other articles on selling a timeshare. Compile a list of tips and ideas and get to work!
#9 Treat wild claims with the contempt they deserve. If your timeshare resales broker or a ‘potential buyer’ is offering way more than your research says your timeshare is worth, remember the saying: If it sounds to good to be true, then it probably is. Good Luck!