As you may already know, the Marriott Reward's Points Program has never been available to buyers on the resale market. We now have access to multiple Marriott listings that, when purchased on the secondary market, transfer with the points program for the new owner to enjoy! To find out more, contact me today! Read all the cool things you can do with the Reward Program Here.
Francine Knowles, representing the Better Business Bureau, warns timeshare owners: "Be aware that in a typical real estate transaction, the fee is paid from the proceeds of the sale at the same time of the sale, not upfront."
The above quote was an excerpt in an article I read recently out of the Chicago Sun-Times. Understanding this one important rule can save a timeshare owner tons of money and will avoid their ultimate distress. It saddens me to think of how many people I've spoken with who have paid up front fees to sell, many times over sometimes, and they still hold the title to the property.
If you receive a phone call from a company claiming to have a buyer all set to go with an enticing offer, and then they tell you they just need a deposit from you to proceed - run the other direction. These kinds of companies are not legit and should be avoided at all costs.
For no-nonsense selling of your timeshare contact me today because I will not charge you anything up front to sell. We have high buyer traffic on our website and if you price your timeshare at a marketable rate it should sell in a reasonable amount of time. Read the full article from Chicago Sun-Times here.
The easiest way to purchase a timeshare resale is, of course, by having the cash on hand, but not everyone has this luxury. Let's review some other options.
Credit Card: Not many closing companies will allow the entire resale purchase to be put onto a credit card, though most will accept them for the good faith deposit. Putting an entire purchase on a credit card is risky anyways and not recommended.
Home Equity Loan: Some timeshare buyers decide an equity loan would work best for them, based on the equity in their home. They receive a lump sum of cash to pay off their timeshare loan. You can save money this way as mortgage refinances and home equity loans tend to have the lowest rates.
Financing: Another option would be to find a loan company to offer you financing based on your credit history. You want to check your credit report to be sure you have a good rating; if you don't then getting a low interest rate may not be possible.
Timeshare financing companies are hard to find! Upon researching, we came across TimeshareLending.net. Check them out and consider them for your next timeshare resale purchase!
According to Vacation Timeshare Owners Report, 2009 Edition, by the ARDA International Foundation (AIF), timeshare owners spent an average of 8.18 days on timeshare vacations in 2008.
Click Here to read about a few more Vacation Ownership Statistics.
For those of us that this applies to: Don't forget to change your clocks back one hour before you go to bed on Saturday!
Just how important is it to own Gold Crown when your goal is to trade through RCI; and 5 Star Premiere when trading through Interval International?
Some would say it's absolutely necessary; others, however, have had a very different experience:
My broker Larry, for example, discovered while attempting to exchange his Gold Crown week, that owning a Gold Crown week was actually LIMITING HIS EXCHANGE because the RCI computer is programmed to not allow a Gold Crown week to exchange into a non-Gold Crown resort!
All he wanted to do was exchange into any RCI resort in the whole geographical area, and since there were no Gold Crown resorts in the area, he was effectively blocked out.
There are a couple of companies out there I’d like you to beware of that we just heard about. There are new scam companies popping up and falling out all the time but these ones below are currently active and will happily take your money.
One is called “Creative Vacation Solutions” which operates out of Florida and the other is “PLS Timeshares,” operating out of Charlotte, NC. If you do an online search using these names you will find several sites with Complaints of Fraud and Rip Off.
These companies, and many others, seem to work in the same way; they will call and tell you they have a buyer offering a ridiculous sum for a timeshare you own or a listing you have for sale.
An associate of ours said that Creative Vacation Solutions called him and had a buyer for his 2 bedroom, Whiskey Jack timeshare in Whistler, BC; the offer was $22,500 (way over priced). Then they told him they just needed $1,287 from him for his share of the closing costs! He asked to be put on their “Do Not Call” list, but they disregarded and continue calling.
Another timeshare reseller we know of stated: “Has anyone heard of PLS Timeshares? One of my clients received a Letter of Intent from them to purchase their Shell Vacation Membership-Kona Coast, Hawaii for $28,700; which seems too good to be true!!”
Stay away from companies with outrageous claims like these and warn your friends. Please be sure and also read our Warning about post card companies.
