Never in history is there an industry more misunderstood than the timeshare industry. It started out as a good idea to benefit both developers and timeshare owners alike but marketers have tarnished the industry with their hardselling ways. As a result, many people who can’t benefit from timeshare were forced to sell their timeshare ownership.

These timeshare companies often promise all kinds of help to get the resort you want and promise to secure the best airfares but often over-promise and undeliver. Unable to get the resorts they prefer and frustrated with the lack of help and support, many genuine customers also begin to look for buyers for their timeshare.

To add fuel to fire, some groups of unscrupulous scammers began looking for ways to further victimise these timeshare victims by making them cough up unrefundable deposits, legal fees, upfront fees and so on with their over-promises and non-delivery.

To Sell Or Not To Sell Your Timeshare?

Before you sell your timeshare, you should seriously consider why you want to sell it. Did you buy because

1. You love travelling?

2. Does staying for a week or more in a single resort excite you?

3. Do you prefer free and easy holidays to guided tours?

4. Do you enjoy being familiar with the place?

5. Do you feel at home when the staff recognize you and call you by name?

6. Do you prefer resorts that are more like serviced apartments than hotels?

7. You like the flexibility of being able to exchange to over 3000 resorts and condominiums worldwide?

If your answers are yes to most of the questions above, it looks like you will be able to enjoy your timeshare ownership very much. You might want to reconsider selling it and look for someone who can help you benefit from your ownership instead.

Before You Sell Your Timeshare

There are a few important things to note before you sell your timeshare.

1. Selling timeshare is often a long process, taking half a year to a year or more, so if you need to be patient. If you’re thinking of selling your timeshare because you’re in desperate then you may need to sell at a huge loss.

2. Timeshare is not an investment, unless you consider the intangible benefits of travelling as returns on investment, so don’t expect to profit from reselling your timeshare. Furthermore, many buyers of timeshare were unwitting victims of unethical marketers so chances are you bought your timeshare at a premium. Typically, most timeshare on the resale market are sold at 20% to 50% of the developer new price, while some premium resorts can command up to 85% of the original price. This means that you will definitely lose money by selling, and that’s not including advertisement, brokerage and closing fees, so do think twice before deciding to sell.

3. Avoid scammers. One easy way is to reject everyone who calls or emails you to say they can sell your timeshare for you, especially those who say they can sell at your buy price or higher.

4. Timeshare ownership is property ownership so the process and costs of buying and selling timeshare is similar to buying and selling of real estate. There will be advertisement costs, broker commissions, as well as legal and administrative closing costs. However, every broker deals with the costs differently so you will need to compare a few to find the best deal.

5. Don’t bother with appraisals or valuations. It’s just another way for people to make even more money out of timeshare owners. It’s pretty easy to find transaction values of other sellers of other units in your resort on the internet.