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Cold Hard Facts about Selling Your Timeshare.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but selling a timeshare is very, very difficult and in some cases almost impossible. Since you are reading this you are likely in the market to sell your timeshare, so please read on for some very enlightening information! Here you will not read what you want to hear, you wont discover that it is easy to sell your timeshare, or that this is the "best time ever to sell". You will get the truth and only the truth, and that truth can save you thousands of dollars in wasted fees! Not to mention endless headaches surrounding the process of selling your timeshare in the resale market!Why is selling a timeshare so tough?
The main reason is supply and demand. The supply of timeshare resale's greatly exceeds the demand for resale's. This has always been the case in the timeshare industry due to the fact that so few people even realize you can buy a timeshare resale! The vast majority of owners only discover (or even think about) selling a timeshare on the resale market, when they are ready to sell! As a buyer it is common knowledge that you can buy a used car, but for some reason people fail to discover that you can do the exact same thing with timeshares!In fact its an even better deal as there is no such thing as a "new" timeshare, unless you are the absolute very first person to stay in that room at that resort, someone has been there before you!
Fact is with this information, combined with the struggling economy and ever increasing maintenance fees, sellers outnumber buyers by a huge margin. This has driven the prices of resales down to levels never before seen in this industry. Some timeshares have depreciated over 99%, and it is more and more common for individuals to actually list their timeshares for a single dollar in hopes that someone will take it over for them! While we are not saying this is the case for all timeshares, it is certainly a much different message than you would read on other resale websites that want nothing more than for you to pay them money in the hopes your timeshare will get sold.
The fact remains that if you do NOT do your research and obtain an accurate and REASONABLE resale price for your timeshare, it simply wont sell...PERIOD. If someone tells you differently, they are lying to you...and are just about to ask you to pay them money.
Remember, telling you the TRUTH is not going to get you to part with your money, as who would pay knowing their timeshare has zero chance of selling at a price anywhere near what you paid for it new from the developer!
Remember how you got involved in timeshares?
It was probably in response to a promotional offering with some type of free gifts or vacations. Then, you where probably only informed about the developer's property and prices. Nothing at all about resale's, even if they were available at the same resort. The developer spends between 40 and 60% of the selling price of the timeshare just to MARKET each unit at a new resort. Then because of their over inflated prices and high pressure sales tactics, many people buy without really knowing what they are getting involved in. Being shown a book full of 1000's of resorts and being told they could trade to any of them they wanted. No wonder so many timeshare owners get discouraged and want out... creating the glut of supply.When you buy a timeshare, you are not given instructions on how to use it. You are not told that you can rent it out vs leaving it unused, you are not explained how the exchanging process works in detail. It's like being handed the controls to an airplane and being told to figure it out on your own! It's no wonder so many people just give up in frustration! I know people who have been doing this for 20 years and still don't know all the ins and outs, so to expect someone to just know everything right after they purchase is absurd!
The Demand Side
Unfortunately, the demand side is just as bad for timeshare resellers. Most people don't even know there is a resale's market available until after they buy from the developer. Those who do know about the resale market are usually the more experienced timeshare owners and are only looking for real bargains. This is furthered by the industry who has zero desire or benefit to promote resale's!Why would anyone buy new if they could get the exact same week, at the exact same resort, for pennies on the dollar from an existing owner?
Factors in Selling
So where does that leave the timeshare reseller! Of all the factors (price, location, time of year, amenities, quality of resort, advertising etc.) that determine if and when a timeshare will sell, you can only control two factors... Advertising & PRICE! Unfortunately you can't spend $1000 on dinner and gifts for your prospects as the developer did for you. The developer is spreading his cost over 100's or 1000's of units and is inflating the price to cover the cost (which he can get because new buyer don't know any better). On the other hand, you are trying to sell just one unit to someone who knows about resale's, is educated about timesharing and is comparative shopping among hundreds of like offers available.So what do you do?
First you must price your unit competitively if you really want to sell it. Check the prices of other resale's at your resort (the closing sales prices, not the for sales listings), see what the final prices was at the auctions and contact resale brokers for more pricing info about your unit. Check prices listed on our Classified ad section and what other broker might have your units listed for by other sellers. You are competing against all those other sales listing. Think about it from the buyers point of view, they are looking for the best deal and if you want to sell your timeshare, yours must be that best deal!Or you can just click on the link above ,enter your information, and submit the form above, and we will hold your hand through this tedious and potentially dangerous sales process, and make sure you get the best price possible for your timeshare!
