Selling Timeshares

Selling a timeshare can be difficult.  Sometimes it is necessary to unload the burden of timeshare ownership.  You should know that you will rarely make money selling a timeshare.  As a matter of fact, in the current economic times I have read that when selling timeshares owners usually get about 10-25% of what they paid for it.  However, hopefully you got all the value out of the timeshare by having wonderful vacations in them.  Below is a list of things to den when you are selling timeshares.

Find a real estate agent.  Make sure you are dealing with a licensed agent or broker.  You will need to research the local governing agencies where your timeshare is located to find out what licenses are available.  There are many scammers out there, so it is important to make sure you are dealing with a legitimate agent.  Agents can help you market your timeshare to a wider market than you may be able to do on your own.

Do not pay upfront fees.  This is a major red flag for a scammer. If you pay a broker a flat free upfront to sell your timeshare, then you have thrown your money away.  First of all, the broker or agent has no incentive to get you the most money for your timeshare.  Additionally, they could run with your money and not do anything at all for you.

Consider selling your timeshare by owner.  Obviously this would require much more work than using a real estate agent, but it could save you a ton of money in fees and commissions.

Use an appraisal service.  Hire a respected timeshare appraisal company to come and tell you what your property is worth.  This will give you leverage when negotiating a deal.

Price your unit correctly.  If you try and sell your unit for what you paid for it you is going to sit on it forever, especially if you bought your unit from a large company.  These companies will spend enormous amounts of money marketing their timeshares and then pass the cost down to you.  This may help you get an inexpensive vacation.  However, you will be upside down in value.

Advertise your sale.  There are special venues for advertising timeshares for sale and it is important to invest in this.   It is not like people who are shopping for timeshares are going to actually go down to the place they are considering.  They are going to purchase the timeshare from home, and then go on their vacation.  So if you are selling your timeshare by owner make sure you invest in good timeshare advertisements.

There are several reasons why you may be thinking about selling your timeshare.  Maybe you are losing privileges at the location where the timeshare is located.  This can make fractional ownership less attractive. 

Are your maintenance fees continually increasing and making it no longer affordable for you?  In this case, you may want to unload your timeshare ownership to avoid all the increasing costs associated with it.  Some people do not use their timeshare as they probably should.  In this case, the expense of the timeshare purchase is not justified because you are not even using the property at all.

In some cases, timeshares are inherited from the death of someone who owned a timeshare.  However, maybe you as the beneficiary are just not interested in owning the property and would like to sell it instead.  Or maybe you just feel like it is a good time to sell your timeshare and that you could make a profit off of it (this would be a very rare circumstance).

These are just a few of the many reasons why there is a very large market for selling timeshares.  This is good news if you are selling.  There are many reputable companies that can help and make the process easier and the most profitable.   When measuring profitability, keep in mind how much you have gained by using the timeshare.  Typically, it is considered a good deal if you can sell a timeshare for what you paid for it.  In this case, it is profitable because you were able to enjoy the property and therefore you got more out of it than you put into it.

The best case scenario for selling a timeshare would be to find a licensed agent that does not charge any fees upfront for listings and appraisals.  These agents work just like any other real estate agent and they make money only when the deal is closed.  This offers the seller the guarantee that the agent is going to sell the property as quickly as possible and for as much money as possible.  Obviously, this is because the more money they can sell the timeshare for the more money they can make.

So if you have invested into a timeshare and have decided that you want to sell it, go ahead and start researching agents.  It is always possible that you could sell the timeshare on your own, just like a home can be sold “by owner”.  This would of course save you real estate fees. 

There are pros and cons for selling a timeshare by owner as well as with an agent.  These issues will be continue to be discussed on this website.