Timeshare - Who to Use to Sell?

bwatt72 on 16/08/2023 - 23:33
Last edited 17/08/2023 - 08:43 by 1 other user

Probably not the best place to ask but maybe can be provided with useful info.

I own two timeshares from a company called Vistana in Florida. I not been using them in at least 14 years. Not only that, I could have rented out my weeks. I never went, and I could have exchanged it for points if I never went on my allocated weeks. Not to mention I could exchange it for top hotels and if member of say RCI and others exchange it for other places around the world.

I obviously paid a lot for these which are different sizes back in the day and I just need to know best way to sell them.

Financial Timeshare

Comments

  • Mechz on 17/08/2023 - 00:00
    +3

    Probably best to contact someone in the Floridian real estate business.

  • Iwantthebestprice on 17/08/2023 - 00:16
    +6

    I watched something on YouTube recently, think it was last week with John Oliver and people were literally crying because they could not get rid of time shares.
    Something like a 99 year contract/lease which cannot be broken and is even handed down to the children or the estate to manage. To me what I saw looked criminal, but this is the USA and of course something like this would be completely legal

    Edit, found the link. Pretty decent 20 min watch I found it very interesting
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd2bbHoVQSM

    • JimmyF on 17/08/2023 - 09:19
      -1

      and is even handed down to the children or the estate to manage

      Yeah this has been a new recent change to the timeshare contracts. Its criminal. I'm guessing too many oldies had been dying and they had been missing out on their money!

  • Cluster on 17/08/2023 - 01:08

    You can offer the timeshares for $1 and there's a high chance no one will buy them.

    Dave Ramsey has some advice for how to get rid of timeshares: https://www.ramseysolutions.com/debt/how-to-get-rid-of-a-tim…

    I would caution however against using the company Ramsey is sponsored by. They apparently are shady and have many unsatisfied customers.

    Do you want to recover some value from the timeshare, or just get rid of them because they're unused and keep costing you money?

    • bwatt72 on 17/08/2023 - 07:33
      +1

      Both I want to get rid but I also want to sell as I purchased one on my first trip there planning to go regularly but I never.
      I stayed say a little closer then than I am now in Australia.
      I think I went once back again this was many years ago purchased one and paid it up on finance.
      I then stupid me purchased one off eBay again many years ago after getting the first one why I don’t know was cheap and bigger.
      Was an impulse buy off eBay.

      I did ask the vistana resort people they have something called exit and I questioned are you not purchasing them from me it looks like they are not.
      But i believe lol will take it back for free I was young and stupid at the time and loved Florida and had money burning a hole in my pocket probably most stupid thing I done.

      Not used these to there full advantage as can do so much with them swap for high end hotels and many more things.

      • Cluster on 17/08/2023 - 09:33

        Unfortunately timeshares have a well deserved terrible reputation and you will have trouble selling it for any reasonable amount of money. Some people are even trying to give away their timeshare to stop paying the fees, but without success. The timeshare company doesn't want to take back a timeshare as they would stop getting income. You might have to accept a near total loss on the timeshare to stop bleeding even more money into it.

        I'm amazed you bought a timeshare off ebay. I thought these things had to be purchased at high pressure seminars.

        If you can't get rid of the timeshare, what would happen to you financially? Presumably you live in Australia and not the USA for tax purposes, so if you cancel your credit card and stop paying what can they do?

      • AustriaBargain on 17/08/2023 - 12:13

        Not using them is the worst part. The resort can't have been that nice if you couldn't even justify the airfare there and back, and couldn't convince family or friends to pay their own airfare so they could use it for free as a gift.

  • 87percent on 17/08/2023 - 08:06

    Did you buy it because you went to a presentation at some fancy hotel?

    • smurftastic on 17/08/2023 - 08:32
      +1

      Used to go to timeshare seminars when I was a uni student (a while ago).
      Would sit through the presentation and just kept saying no when they had a one on one afterwards as I was just there for whatever free food and gift they were offering (digital camera, DVD player etc)

      As someone who is very skeptical of anyone trying to sell me anything the biggest red flags for me were the hard sell they put on you and the constant "sign up right now and you get this unbelievable once in a lifetime discount", especially since signing up meant I was in a long term contract to pay them lots of money.

  • JimmyF on 17/08/2023 - 09:12

    I own two timeshares from a company called Vistana in Florida. I not been using them in at least 14 years.

    Yikes….. So on top of the upfront payment to buy, you have been paying the yearly fees too?

    I just need to know best way to sell them.

    I'm sorry to say, honestly they are near worthless as you found out from Vistana who will take them off your hands for 'free'. Timeshare is a scam that hooks people in for the 'running costs' in exchange for 1-2 weeks a year usage at the crappiest times. Its a great way for say Vistana in this case to cover their outlaid build costs by 3rd parties instead of getting a loan.

    There are lots of places around to offline timeshare, its all cents on the dollar you paid for it.

  • Bargainitis on 17/08/2023 - 10:20

    legal question - what happens if you just stop paying the annual fees? Because if you can't sell it for anything anyway, why not just default on it.

    I'll be shocked if they can have proper recourse if you are in Australia (I have never read the T&Cs of a timeshare but I have sat in a seminar to get a free nice dinner, I politely passed on the kind opportunity).

    • JimmyF on 17/08/2023 - 10:26
      +1

      legal question - what happens if you just stop paying the annual fees? Because if you can't sell it for anything anyway, why not just default on it.

      Basically like not paying any bill really. But in this case you technically 'own' part of the business/land.

      I'll be shocked if they can have proper recourse if you are in Australia (I have never read the T&Cs of a timeshare but I have sat in a seminar to get a free nice dinner, I politely passed on the kind opportunity).

      Timeshare is in Australia, I'm sure they'll have a legal presence here and chase up people to pay as it would happen all the time.

      Basically debt collector.

      • Bargainitis on 17/08/2023 - 11:43
        +1

        Okay that sucks. Effectively trapped because no one else wants the perpetual liability.

        My understanding is the annual management fees keeps escalating so it get quite big, quite quickly.

        I wonder if at some point if you don't pay for long enough, the property gets notionally "bought back" by the timeshare company? I would gladly just give back the property to terminate the ongoing fee. The initial costs to purchase is sunk cost at this point.

        • JimmyF on 17/08/2023 - 13:13

          Effectively trapped because no one else wants the perpetual liability

          Basically, people get sucked in thinking this place is 'great' lets come back every year, not understanding they have just taken on a perpetual liability until death, but now the contracts have been changed, that your estate gets stuck with it. Taking on a liability for 99 years.

          My understanding is the annual management fees keeps escalating so it get quite big, quite quickly.

          That they do. You in effect 'own' a part of the company, so you get lumped part of the running costs as such, in exchange you get to use the place 1-2 weeks a year at the worst possible times normally, unless you pay even more money!

          I wonder if at some point if you don't pay for long enough, the property gets notionally "bought back" by the timeshare company? I would gladly just give back the property to terminate the ongoing fee. The initial costs to purchase is sunk cost at this point.

          In the OP case it appears they'll take it back for 'free' but generally most of these places won't accept them back unless there is demand to on sell it to someone else, but if there is, you could do this yourself.

          The timeshare company doesn't want the share back, as that also means you stop paying the annual management fees. So less money for them.

          Check out the timeshare for sale websites, lots of people basically giving them away for free just to get rid of the annual liability they signed up to a decade ago not understanding what it means.

          • Bargainitis on 17/08/2023 - 15:05

            @JimmyF: yeah crazy. Its almost a scam but I guess T&Cs must be read.

            • AlienC on 18/08/2023 - 04:02

              @Bargainitis: I have learnt that the difference between a scam and non scam is just the fineprint lol aka legalese.

              We live in a shady ass world mang stay safe out there.

  • Duckie2hh on 17/08/2023 - 10:26
    +1

    I own two timeshares

    Yikes.

  • Cluster on 17/08/2023 - 11:32

    Looking on eBay, there are lots of timeshares for sale but very few actually selling. Three sales for $0.01, one for $3, and another for $2900 (wtf, people are mad). $0.01 is about the expected value of a timeshare for which you have to keep paying every year.

    To the op, I would consider how much you're paying annually versus the expected sales value of the timeshare. If I was paying $1000 per year for maintenance, but hoped to sell the timeshare for $5000, I would seriously consider dumping it for $1 to anyone.

    • JimmyF on 17/08/2023 - 13:17

      I would seriously consider dumping it for $1 to anyone.

      In a later comment the OP seemed to say they'll take them back for free. So basically This would be the best path. But you are right, lots of people 'giving away' timeshare just to get away from the annual costs that come with them.

  • Cluster on 17/08/2023 - 11:53
    +1

    I'll just add my thoughts on timeshare salespeople and the industry in general, after having a few run ins with them.

    Timeshare sales people make the dodgiest used car salesman seem like the paragon of virtue.

    My family was lured to a presentation under false pretenses, and after many hours of high pressure sales tactics we were physically blocked from leaving by the salesman when we had had enough. He stood in the doorway of the building to stop us leaving. We had to push our way out to leave the presentation.

  • AustriaBargain on 17/08/2023 - 12:09

    You'd need to be in love with a specific location to get a time share and you'd want it to be cheaper than any comparable hotels in the area, after you factor in your fees for the timeshare. Everyone knows time shares are giant scams. I'm sure some time shares turned out to be good value but they'd be the exception.

    • Cluster on 17/08/2023 - 12:30

      The strangest thing for me is you must keep going back to the same place every time to holiday. For me that would be incredibly dull. Also the timeshare has complete veto power over letting you use the thing you already paid for. Want a week in September? Sorry, you can't have it.

      I know timeshares can be traded with others (a big selling point), but how often does that actually happen?

      • JimmyF on 17/08/2023 - 13:23

        I worked with someone who got sucked into timeshare decades ago. You basically are at a 'level' and can easily move your booking around to other places of a similar level or pay extra to 'upgrade' to a higher level.

        There is time banking if you don't use your 'time' each year, but everything seems to have fees if you want to bank your time. Its basically a giant scam.

        Honestly from what they told me about it with all the fees they paid each year you could just book directly with the place for the same price they paid. But without the hassles and if you want to skip a year, no need to pay!

  • coffeeinmyveins on 17/08/2023 - 14:08

    what i'm getting from this post and comments is that I should create a timeshare company. seems like an easy way to get constant revenue for the next 99 years.

  • Slinky0111 on 17/08/2023 - 15:04

    Sucks to be in that position OP. Hope you can get rid if it soon.

    On the other hand timeshare can be great. I found someone giving their week away for free, they paid all the transfer costs and it came with a free week as well. We can use (and have used) the week every week of the year except christmas and new years week. 2 bedroom apartment, sleeps 6, right on the beach at coolangatta during september school holidays. A place like that would set you back $1500 to $2000 for the week, give or take. The yearly levy is $965. So comparing the two you are much better off with the timeshare.

    It's also great as i have 2 other siblings with young families, so we just take it in turns year on year. So everytime we go, kids are older so we always experience new things.

    I would never ever pay the $10,000 price tag to buy into it though.

    • Bargainitis on 17/08/2023 - 15:07

      well the US ones that much more expensive too. I've heard US$50K and above.

      They way they show you the math was also dodgy as hell.

      • JimmyF on 17/08/2023 - 17:17

        They way they show you the math was also dodgy as hell.

        I guess $50k over the 99 year lease is only $505/yr you're paying ;)

      • Cluster on 17/08/2023 - 17:51

        The timeshare presentation I saw focused on empty self affirming statements (you only live once, so go on holidays, etc), the wonderful tropical and sky resorts you can swap with other people (don't focus on the dreary rainy venue they're actually selling), and most of all how much money you'll save by forking out many thousands of dollars, plus a thousand dollars per year.

        Seriously, half the presentation was about how much you'll save. Psst - don't mention the little part about having to buy into it, and the timeshare owning your soul.

        Oh, and they loved to mention that you could sell the timeshare to someone else at a profit. Yes, this wasn't just a holiday destination, this was a quasi investment.

  • Lunarboogie on 17/08/2023 - 16:29

    Without buyers, how does anyone escape this nightmare? I'd almost claim bankruptcy to be freed from their yoke.

  • AlienC on 17/08/2023 - 18:38

    I don't know what's worse time share industry or mlm industry like usana and herbal life and acn.. Just thinking of it gives me shivers but I'm glad to have learnt about them from my parents generations.

    • Cluster on 17/08/2023 - 19:30

      Timeshare is a lot worse than MLM. At least with an MLM you can quit at any time. The timeshare has you in a legal contract that means you cannot quit, and must continue paying. In the USA there is (according to John Oliver) even a limited time for heirs to cancel the timeshare, or the heirs must continue to pay fees. It's the only toxic 'asset' that you must continue to pay after you die.

      • AlienC on 18/08/2023 - 03:30

        Damn that does sounds a lot worse.

        I think I am sold that there is no greater evil than timeshares now.

  • ds311 on 20/08/2023 - 12:23

    This is not financial/legal advice but if I was in this situation I'd stop paying. Since it's a Florida based company they will sue you in Florida so unless they extridite you to the US there's not much they can do. This might effect your credit but I'd rather have bad credit than to keep giving money to crooks. Speak to a lawyer to see what the consequences of breaching the contract are, it will cost money but probably much less than the annual costs you're paying now.

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