Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

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Jay69
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Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by Jay69 »

Anybody have advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

My MIL has 5-6 weeks of timeshares. Most weeks are in MN where she lives with one April week in Hawaii. She has asked me in the past to help her sell the Hawaii week and today because of medical reasons it maybe time. From my understanding the Hawaii one is under different group than the others if that matters.

I not a big fan of timeshares myself, all I know is that a person buys them and pays maintenance fees on them, that would be the extent of my knowledge on timeshares.

We are in no hurry to sell but it would be nice to get it gone within a year or sooner just to be done with it.

Is this something that will sit on the market for a year? I assume it comes down to pricing, maybe the available week?

What should we expect in this process, I really have no clue?

Thoughts?

Thanks

Jay
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psteinx
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Re: Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by psteinx »

I'm not a timeshare owner, present or past, but I've looked into them a little.

As you might expect, it is difficult to sell timeshares, and values received seem to be a relatively small fraction of typical new timeshare prices.

There seems to be a cottage industry of businesses that try to sell your timeshare but want money upfront. Not surprisingly, there is a lot of dissatisfaction from would be sellers with these.

Some folks list them on ebay or Craigslist.org. Also have a look at tug2.net and redweek.com.
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PaddyMac
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Re: Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by PaddyMac »

The first place to try is the timeshare development themselves. Whenever we visit our timeshare (or any timeshare property), the agents always have a list of owners trying to give back their unit.

There are lots for sale on eBay. Needless to say, in this recession, the market is swamped with people trying to unload them pretty much to get the maintenance cost off their backs. Don't expect to make a big profit, although the Hawaii one will be the most in demand.
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epicahab
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Re: Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by epicahab »

I have sold one for my father on Ebay. It took a good amount of legwork...probably 4 or 5 calls to the timeshare office, some faxing, and emails to the buyer to make sure the transfer was successful and all the proper paperwork was done.

But we got around $800 for it and it was something he didn't want or need (inherited) so I'd probably do it again if given the chance.
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epicahab
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Re: Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by epicahab »

It was in Sedona, AZ if that matters.
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Jay69
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Re: Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by Jay69 »

PaddyMac wrote:The first place to try is the timeshare development themselves. Whenever we visit our timeshare (or any timeshare property), the agents always have a list of owners trying to give back their unit.

There are lots for sale on eBay. Needless to say, in this recession, the market is swamped with people trying to unload them pretty much to get the maintenance cost off their backs. Don't expect to make a big profit, although the Hawaii one will be the most in demand.

I dont have an idea what they paid for the Hawaii one, as you noted, not looing for a profit, just looking to get out the maintenance cost. I hope I dont find that they sold bought it for $10,000 and it sells for $1,000 but who knows.

I know they bought the other ones in the early 80's, I think they paid a good dollars for those.
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Re: Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by Jay69 »

epicahab wrote:I have sold one for my father on Ebay. It took a good amount of legwork...probably 4 or 5 calls to the timeshare office, some faxing, and emails to the buyer to make sure the transfer was successful and all the proper paperwork was done.

But we got around $800 for it and it was something he didn't want or need (inherited) so I'd probably do it again if given the chance.

Boy for $800 I would not want to take to long to dump it. At $225 a month for maintenance fees would not take to long to make that up.

What happens if a person quits paying the maintenance fees? Going to lock up mom and toss the key?
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chaz
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Re: Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by chaz »

Try craigs list.
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Allocationist
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Re: Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by Allocationist »

Within the past 18 months I sold one timeshare (Maui) at a profit and couldn't sell another (Maui) timeshare for any price so we donated it to charity. Fortunately we purchased the timeshare we ended up donating at a very low price on the secondary market so we were able to write off the loss as a donation to a very good cause. We donated ours (it took a couple of months to complete the sale and paperwork) to:
http://www.turpentinecreek.org/donations.html

As an aside, the commonly held belief is that timeshares are poor investments. While that is true for a large portion of circumstances, in some unique situations, if a person does extensive research on the individual timeshare (such as determining the quality of management) and only makes purchases on the resale market, IMO the transaction can be very positive.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Accept the fact it will probably not be easy to sell/dispose of the property.
2. Attempt to find out the true value, if any, of the property. You can check out E-Bay but be sure to look at completed sales rather than just what is up for purchase or auction. Another reputable place to look is the timeshare owners web site:
http://tug2.net/timeshare_advice/tug_ti ... vice.shtml
Charities like Turpentine Creek are careful about accepting properties. They will only accept donations for property they feel can be sold.
3. Be very careful as there are a lot of sharks in the pool that will attempt to take advantage of a timeshare owner trying to sell. Some will make big promises they probably won't keep and/or ask for non-refundable fees up front.
4. Before stopping payment of maintenance fees I'd advise watching for unintended consequences. Depending on the timeshare there may be liens and/or penalty fees involved that would further complicate the future sale of the property. It may also result in a referral to a collections agency with the attendant hassles and a potential blemish on your credit history.

Good luck!
windscorpion
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Re: Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by windscorpion »

Clark Howard's been advising his listeners who have a hard time selling/giving away their timeshares to try donateforacause.org
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Re: Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by Jay69 »

Is there companys out there that sell these without a big upfront cost or minimal upfront cost? I would prefer to pay a higher commision to keep them motivated.

I will check out Ebay and Craigs list, I never even thought of those. Sold many things on CL like cars and boats.

Charity donation is not a bad plan if it works out either as the MIL donates regulary.
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Re: Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by Jay69 »

Boy I was watching the news clips on donateforacause.org about timeshares, can it really be that tough to move one, I knew it maybe a tough sell but wow!
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prudent
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Re: Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by prudent »

I have seen dozens on ebay giving timeshares away for nothing just to get out of the maintenance fees.
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Jay69
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Re: Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by Jay69 »

prudent wrote:I have seen dozens on ebay giving timeshares away for nothing just to get out of the maintenance fees.

You dont wan't to know what the fees are for 6 weeks that the MIL owns, oh boy is all I can say!

I feel really bad for her being for most of the time they sit empty!
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stan1
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Re: Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by stan1 »

My take:

Start the process with the assumption that the timeshare is currently worth $0 (no matter what it cost originally). Primary goal is to get out from paying the monthly fees (reduce expenses). The rest is sunk cost, and hopefully your MIL got some enjoyment out of the timeshare. Think of most timeshares as a vacation expense -- not an investment.

If you can get something for the property (or a tax write off), its a bonus.
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Jay69
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Re: Advice on how to sell a Timeshare?

Post by Jay69 »

stan1 wrote:My take:

Start the process with the assumption that the timeshare is currently worth $0 (no matter what it cost originally). Primary goal is to get out from paying the monthly fees (reduce expenses). The rest is sunk cost, and hopefully your MIL got some enjoyment out of the timeshare. Think of most timeshares as a vacation expense -- not an investment.

If you can get something for the property (or a tax write off), its a bonus.


I can not agree more from what I have been reading now.

I know its going to be hard for her to swallow, I'm sure for the first three they bought in 80's I bet they paid $10,000each for them, those I see selling for about $1,000 or shall I say asking a $1,000, I hate being the bad news guy!
"Out of clutter, find simplicity” Albert Einstein
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