Mistake 1: Paying upfront fees
If a resale company asks you to pay any fee upfront to market your timeshare, don’t walk, but run away. This is the sure sign of a rip-off. The fee quoted can be anywhere from $200-$1,500 depending how desperate and vulnerable the listing agent feels you are. They’ll tell you the money is to be used for a listing, appraisal or advertising fee. Some really disreputable timeshare resale companies will tell you they just so happen to already have a buyer and just need $500 to open escrow.
Regardless of the story given as to why you have to pay money upfront, companies that charge upfront fees are far more interested in collecting fees than selling your timeshare. The most these companies do to actually sell your timeshare is to put it on their website along with hundreds of others. There it will sit and sit and your calls will not be returned.
Do not listen to how they advertise in the New York Times or USA Today or how much they spend on web exposure. If they’re asking for money up front it’s a scam. Many of them will tell you they will sell your $15,000 timeshare for $25,000 just to get your listing fee.
A sure sign of a reputable timeshare resale company is that, other than a nominal fee of $50-100, they will take their typical 10% commission at close of escrow just like in the regular real estate market.
Mistake 2: Listing your timeshare too high
Most timeshares sell, when they do sell, for only 10-50% of your original purchase price. As mentioned before, this is because of original marketing costs and the vast supply of weeks for sale.
You must research what your or comparable resorts are selling for on the Internet. Look first to your resale company’s listing for comparable properties but don’t stop there. Take some time and look at some of the thousands of other resale sites as well. You will find a great disparity in prices for exactly the same timeshare. I’ve seen the exact same week listed for $1,500 on one site and $15,000 on another. The company that had it listed for $15,000 was most likely a rip off and told the owner it could be sold for that just to collect the upfront fee.
Most importantly, if the company you are going to use has your exact same timeshare for sale, which is not unusual, for $2,500 you should obviously price yours below that. You’ll need to check back periodically to see if someone else has undercut your price and adjust accordingly.
Tags: Selling Your Timeshare, timeshare, timeshare resale, timeshare resale companies
