Do you know that you can resell your residential home (or any other type of real estate) without hiring a real estate agent or Realtor(r) to assist you? Of course you know that, and you’d be indignant and probably downright angry if it was any other way.

If you own a home, a piece of land, an office building, or other type of property, you have choices when it comes to reselling it. You can handle the sale yourself or hire a real estate professional to help you. You can use a buy-owner company to assist with part of the process, or you can select a range of services, from title agents to real estate attorneys, using only those you need to help you.

And the fact that no law requires you to buy or sell real estate from a real estate professional hasn’t done a thing to harm the real estate industry as a whole. In fact, the diversity of ways to sell is part of what makes the industry competitive and fair.

Millions and millions of people, who have sold their homes by a method, other than hiring a real estate professional, will tell you that they saved a lot of money that would have gone to an agent or a broker for advertising and showing the property or other fees that are paid as part of the commission. You also see the same ads on television that I see, with testimonials from people who have used a buy-owner real estate company to help them sell their homes, and are thrilled with the money they saved, or other features of the service they received. And as with anything, there are stories of people who tried to sell property themselves, and for whatever reason, got burned and wished in hindsight they had used a Realtor(r).

In any industry, including those that involve the sale of real estate, and those that involve the sale of timeshare real estate, there are good services and bad ones; there are services that work well for one person but maybe not for another. But American business is built on our freedom to choose to work with companies that we think, best serve our individual needs.

Ways to Sell Timeshare and Timeshare Resales

Timeshare developers, timeshare resellers, and timeshare advertising and marketing companies are all valid and contributing parts of the timeshare industry. Professional associations, such as ARDA, the American Resort Development Association, recognize this and support all factions of the industry.

While a few timeshare developers offer buy-back programs, the majority does not, leaving timeshare owners to come up with their own ways to sell timeshare they no longer wish to own.

Some people have a network of personal contacts that is so large, and a way to get the word to all of them, that they can sell timeshare themselves. But most of us don’t, nor do we want to hit on our friends and family members, trying to convince them to buy timeshare from us.

Some people want to sell timeshare but be separate from the process, letting someone else handle all the details, and for them it may be a great idea to work with a timeshare broker. And other people, just need help marketing their timeshare resale or perhaps handling the closing paperwork. The right choice for them could be a timeshare advertising and marketing company or perhaps a timeshare title transfer company. But it all goes back to choices…

Real Estate and Timeshare Real Estate in the US

Let’s face it. The residential real estate market in the US is about as bad as it has been in many years. But who do we blame for that? We can lay part of the blame on the rising price of oil that leaves people pumping larger and larger chunks of their paychecks into their gas tanks, with less and less money to spend on a new home.

We can blame a greedy element of the mortgage industry, that put people into mortgages that were so riddled with hidden charges the people couldn’t get out of them before the one obvious cost - that ever- adjusting interest rate, soared through the roof. We can blame politicians, heads of business, or just a predictable swing in the pendulum of life, but we can’t logically say that buy-owner or help-u-sell real estate services are to blame for the falling value of home prices. And it wouldn’t make any sense to say that timeshare resale companies are responsible for the resell price you can or can’t get for your timeshare property.

Whether you are looking at residential real estate, timeshare deeded property, timeshare points, or something totally different like new and used refrigerators, things sell for what the market will bear. People, not companies, set prices by what they are willing or able to pay.

New cars sell for prices that are comparably much higher than the price for which used cars sell. And new cars will continue to sell for that higher price because we are willing to pay the price, and because auto manufacturers spend huge dollars on advertising to convince you to buy their product instead of someone else’s. When that same car is resold, the second buyer pays market value (the price the market will bear) because he or she no longer has to absorb the cost of the car manufacturer’s pricey advertising.

The lower resell price has nothing to do with the used car dealer; it is just a fact of economics that applies in much the same way for resale timeshares as it does to resale automobiles. The economics of this aren’t complicated, but sometimes, you have to keep explaining them over and over again, because a few people, just don’t get it.

Last week, when a timeshare company partnered with a timeshare owners group to offer a members-only timeshare auction, it would have been understandable if some the timeshare owners stared feeling like Rodney Dangerfield claiming, “I don’t get no respect.”

During a three-day period, members of the timeshare group were allowed to bid on any of over 300 timeshare resale properties. While the timeshare weeks auctioned were priced from $800 to $2500 and up, there were no reserves on the bidding that started at 10 cents.

As the official press release for the event stated, “…the potential pitfalls of owner-to-owner auctions via eBay are many. Who transfers the ownership? Who takes care of the legal paperwork? How do I know what I’m really buying? What guarantees do I have?” This timeshare auction claimed to reduce the type of buyer risk associated with eBay property auctions, while offering deeply discounted prices for timeshare buyers.

Market Values of Timeshare Resales

Ironically, the timeshare owners group has historically been critical of timeshare resales companies, claiming that buying timeshare on the resale market, like buying timeshare on an eBay auction, is fraught with problems. Personally, I can’t think of a much bigger problem than owning timeshare property that has been devalued because it has been sold at an absurdly low price.

When the bidding at a timeshare resales auction starts at a dime per property, no one really wins. The timeshare owner who wants to sell timeshare that he or she no longer uses would do just as well (and maybe better) to donate that timeshare to charity or give it to a friend or family member rather than sell it at a price that is so low it is meaningless. And while the timeshare buyer may gain in the short term by purchasing timeshare weeks at a giveaway price, in so doing, the timeshare buyer may have directly contributed to the long-term devaluation of his own property as well as that of all the other timeshare units at the resort.

Timeshare Resales By Owner

For the timeshare resales market to stay solid there must be fairness for both timeshare buyers and timeshare sellers. It is just as detrimental to the value of the product to sell timeshare weeks for pennies, as it is to overprice it and gouge the timeshare buyer.

Look for good deals on by-owner timeshares resales; but expect to play fair. Fair market pricing is good for the buyer, good for the seller, and good for the timeshare resales market.

A Look Back at the Humor of the Late Rodney Dangerfield, With Our Respect:

I’ve written about this before, but in light of Sell My Timeshare NOW’s press release this week supporting more consumer education for people who buy timeshare resales or sell timeshare resales, it never hurts to pass on this message again.

The “Nigerian scam,” also called the “419 scam,” never seems to go away, although its sources have spread far beyond Nigeria and touched many areas besides timeshare sales. When it comes to selling timeshare, here’s basically how the Nigerian scam works:

The timeshare owner receives a letter, email, or phone call saying that someone wants to purchase his timeshare unit. The phony timeshare buyer, or his phony representative, then sends the timeshare owner a check for more than the purchase price of the timeshare unit, a check that the elated owner deposits. If the timeshare owner makes the mistake of promptly sending to the phony buyer the executed deed to his timeshare and the difference between the check sent and the sales price, then the timeshare owner has lost both his timeshare and the money he or she sent back to the buyer.

Even though many people have heard about this timeshare scam, they get bitten by it because the check they receive from the phony timeshare buyer usually looks so authentic that even the timeshare owner’s bank may initially accept it as either a valid bank check or credit union draft. Despite the fact that your bank accepts the buyers check and at first credits it into your account, days or even weeks later, when the counterfeit check works its way back to the issuing bank, its fraudulence will be discovered.

Why People Still Fall for a Timeshare Scam

As old as this timeshare scam is, people still get caught by it. While dozens, maybe hundreds, of bogus deals may cross your desk, never doubt the ability of one lone criminal to craft an approach that sounds so sincere and so genuine, that even savvy skeptics fall for it. Letterheads that look like they come from a timeshare resales company, from eBay, or another seemingly authentic source may trick you into believing that you have a genuine offer to buy timeshare in your hands.

Another variation on this timeshare scam is for you to be contacted by someone who says he or she has a guaranteed buyer for your timeshare weeks or timeshare unit, and asks you to send a check - say for $200 - to cover the transfer costs. Mail that check, and guess what happens next?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

You might as well have taken two one-hundred dollar bills and flushed them away. The loss is not as great this way, but it is still money gone with nothing to show for it.

Reliable Ways to Sell Timeshare

The message here is not a warning against paying fees upfront to sell timeshare, despite what some voices in the timeshare industry try to preach. There are many situations in which it makes good sense to pay someone to help you advertise and market your timeshare for sale. Just make sure you first confirm that the timeshare company you are paying has a proven record of successfully advertising timeshare resales and timeshare rentals in a global marketplace.

More than 1.7 million people visit Sell My Timeshare NOW’s website each month. In 2007, Sell My Timeshare NOW presented over $274 million in offers to buy timeshare or rent timeshare advertised on its website.

Last week, Florida’s Attorney General, Bill McCollum increased his focus on consumer education specifically targeting scams in timeshare sales.

It makes sense that McCollum would have a particular interest in timeshare issues since more timeshare resorts are located in Orlando than in any other city, and more timeshare resorts located in the state of Florida than any other US location. McCollum’s office recommends that people who want to sell timeshare use either, a licensed real estate broker or they sell by owner — and both are excellent suggestions.

Sell Timeshare Through a Timeshare Broker

A licensed real estate broker, like Sell My Timeshare NOW’s sister company, Timeshare Hot Deal, is an excellent choice for some people who are ready to sell timeshare. A timeshare broker gives you the benefit of a commission-motivated sales professional and the plus of paying no fees until your timeshare unit or timeshare weeks actually sell.

Sell Timeshare By Owner

Selling timeshare by-owner is also a good option. By owner selling lets you control every detail of your timeshare resale; and it is the way many of the timeshare sellers at Sell My Timeshare NOW handle their timeshare resales transaction. Sell My Timeshare NOW advertises and markets available timeshare real estate, attracting over 1.7 million visitors per month to our website. In 2007, more than $274 million in offers to buy timeshare or rent timeshare were made on properties in our inventory.

But Attorney General Bill McCollum’s message for more consumer education is important! Before you buy, rent, or sell timeshare, do your research to ensure that whomever you hire to help you is reputable and has a proven track record in the timeshare resales industry.

To read more about the importance of consumer education for people who want to buy timeshare, sell timeshare or rent timeshare, click here to read Sell My Timeshare NOW’s press release.

In a very short time, eBay has created a powerful, effective global marketplace that serves as yard sale, antique auction, real estate showcase, trading post, and memorabilia collector’s paradise. Old, new, valuable, eclectic, or pure junk, you can find it all on eBay.

Beyond creating a worldwide flea market, eBay has also afforded a way for people to supplement their incomes or even build small (and sometimes not so small) businesses. eBay entrepreneurs are a whole new category of business people, so much so, that the eBay empire has also established eBay University to train aspiring merchants in their structure and business model.

When You Sell Timeshare or Buy Timeshare Through an Online Auction

Yes, you can even buy timeshare or sell timeshare on eBay. When you sell timeshare through eBay, you have the choice to handle the sale yourself or to go through an eBay store that resells timeshare. Selling your timeshare weeks this way may work for some people, but online auctions are truly a situation of both buyer beware and seller beware.

For example, I just checked today’s timeshare resort properties advertised on eBay and found timeshare weeks listed at a starting bid of one cent—that’s right—one penny. Some have a reserve amount on them, meaning the timeshare will not be sold until a minimum price is met, but others are sold without the reserve. This is potentially a one-penny selling price; received after you (the timeshare seller) pay a fee to advertise your timeshare resale on eBay. And as a timeshare buyer, don’t assume that these rock bottom prices are actually the amount that you are required to come up with at the close of the auction. Instead, be sure you read all the fine print, because you are sure to be hit with closing costs, maybe advance or past maintenance fees, and other costs that turn your penny-priced property into a much larger expenditure. Additionally, as a timeshare buyer, you may not be given the choice of which timeshare closing company you wish to use to finalize your transaction, giving you even less control of the final dollar amount your budget priced timeshare deal will cost.

A timeshare owner posting on the TUG website recently observed: “Did you see the auction on eBay, a small 1 br gold week so that was an original Starwood went for the whopping amount of $3.25. Yes the decimal point is in the right spot.”

Another reason to be cautious in any online auction is that there is often nothing to standardize the information provided about the timeshare resale. If a timeshare seller knowingly or unknowingly, misrepresents the facts about the timeshare weeks he or she owns, the prospective buyer has no real way of sorting out fact from fiction. Important details about the timeshare weeks being advertised can be omitted or misstated. As a timeshare buyer, your risk can be great. As a timeshare owner who wants to sell timeshare, you will find the timeshare resort ad you credibly present is competing with ads that may promise amenities or terms they cannot deliver.

When you try to sell timeshare in an online auction, you are attempting to sell timeshare in a marketplace that contains timeshare properties owned by people who are apparently willing to pay to give them away! Combine that with how quickly eBay’s ads expire and you have a tough way to sell timeshare unless you too, are ready to pay someone to let you give them your vacation property.

In an interesting move this week, eBay announced that beginning in May, sellers will not be allowed to leave negative comments about their customers. They will still be permitted to leave positive ones. According to eBay spokesperson, Usher Lieberman, “The No. 1 reason buyers cited for decreasing or ceasing their activity on eBay was negative unwarranted retaliatory feedback they received from sellers.”

Remember that no one solution is best for every person who wants to sell timeshare or buy timeshare. Your needs and your objectives are unique. But before you turn to any online auction to buy or sell timeshare, consider all your options. An online auction is truly a case of caveat emptor…buyer beware…and sometimes, it is “seller beware” as well.

To learn more about safe, effective ways to sell timeshare or buy timeshare resales, visit Sell My Timeshare NOW.

Continuing with answers to frequently asked questions, I want to respond to an issue that readers of the Timeshare Owners Blog have heard me address before, but it bears repeating.

Q. When I sell timeshare, is it ever safe to pay an upfront fee?

A. YES. Just be sure you know what you are getting for your money.

Life changes and people sell timeshare for any number of reasons. Sometimes they find they are no longer using the timeshare. Sometimes the fees and annual expenses have become a burden. Maybe there is a death in the family, a divorce, a cross-country move, or oftentimes people sell timeshare because they want to buy something new or different in vacation ownership.

When timeshare owners are ready to sell timeshare they can try to market and sell it on their own; they can let a broker or timeshare reseller try to sell it for them at a fee; or they can turn to a timeshare advertising and marketing company like Sell My Timeshare NOW.

Working with Sell My Timeshare NOW is an excellent example of a situation in which it makes sense to pay an upfront fee to sell timeshare. In 2006, our company brought over $233,864,650 in offers to buy timeshare or rent timeshare to the timeshare owners who advertise with us.

How much of that money went to Sell My Timeshare NOW? Good question and the answer surprises a lot of people.

In 2006, Sell My Timeshare brought over $233,864,650 in offers to buy or rent timeshare directly to the timeshare owner, which means that NONE of the money—that’s ZERO dollars—stayed in the hands of Sell My Timeshare NOW. We charge timeshare sellers an advertising fee and nothing more. No commissions and no fees after the sale.

We are a timeshare resale and timeshare rental advertising and marketing company. Our expertise is putting the timeshare you want to sell or rent in front of the largest global marketplace. Our job is to advertise your property to give you maximum exposure.

Along the way, if you need help with certain aspects of selling timeshare or renting timeshare, we will help you connect with people who can offer you further assistance, but many timeshare transactions are so simple timeshare buyers and timeshare sellers can easily handle them on their own. With Sell My Timeshare NOW, you pay only for the advertising and marketing services you provide and when you sell your timeshare, that money is your money.

No one solution is right for all timeshare buyers or timeshare sellers. When you are ready to sell timeshare, consider all your options before you make a decision on what is best for your situation.

In the next Timeshare Owners Blog, I am going to talk about the different ways people own timeshare and what vacation clubs are all about.

There are always many topics to blog about in the world of timeshares and vacation ownership, but there are some questions that come up so frequently, I want to take a few blog posts and really focus on them.

So here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions that I receive about timeshares, timeshare resale, timeshare rental, and the whole industry of vacation ownership.

Q. Can I trust the timeshare industry? I’ve heard about timeshare fraud and unethical practices.

A. YES you can safely buy timeshare and sell timeshare! Timeshares in the US (and for the most part worldwide) are a highly regulated industry. I think timeshares got off to a rocky start because 30 to 40 years ago, when the first timeshares were established, they were an entirely new business model. There just weren’t existing laws in place to regulate their development and sale because there had previously been no product like them.

Because of this, there were growing pains, while developers, management companies, hoteliers, consumers, and legislative agencies worked out what types of guidelines and restrictions needed to be implemented. Today, in the US, every single state has laws on the books to protect the consumer in buying and selling timeshare.

Some states wrote new laws unique to timeshares and vacation ownership, while other states adapted for the timeshare industry, laws and guidelines that govern other types of real estate transactions.

Yes, there have been scam artists along the way, but these types of people exist in every industry. There are also people who use heavy-handed sales tactics, and other approaches that do not put the consumer first in the transaction. But most of those people go out of business when faced with the competition of legitimate companies, offering worthwhile and straight up opportunities to people who want to buy timeshare.

In fact, often, when you hear about timeshare scam today the fraudulent business is not about the sale of individual timeshares to buyers, but refers to schemes designed to entice people into investing in the development of timeshare resorts.

I am not dancing around the fact that there are still disreputable people in the timeshare industry. There are also disreputable doctors, lawyers, ministers, schoolteachers, and pizza delivery boys. No industry, no matter how tightly regulated it becomes, can entirely eliminate shysters. Sadly, crooks will always find a new angle as long as there are consumers who buy in haste, don’t research what they are getting into, and fail to get reliable answers to important questions.

The warning “caveat emptor” used so frequently in real estate transactions applies just as much when you want to buy timeshare or sell timeshare. Caveat emptor means literally, let the buyer beware.

So here are some important tips you can apply to help you make wise decisions when you buy timeshare or timeshare resales or you look for a company to help you sell timeshare you already own:

1. Contact the Office of the Attorney General for the state in which a timeshare company is located and check that the company has a clean record, without complaints filed against them. If you have never done this before, it’s simple to do, because consumer protection is one of the main purposes of this division of state government. You will find the Attorney General’s Office to be easily assessable and very helpful.
2. Go on line and search the timeshare company by name. Look at their website. Find out how long they have been in business. Check to see if they are a member of the Better Business Bureau. Visit timeshare forums, like Sell My Timeshare NOW’s forum, where you can read the comments of actual timeshare owners and learn from their experience.
3. If you buy new timeshare from a timeshare developer, don’t let anyone rush you into your decision. Study the contract. Ask questions. If the deal seems “wrong” or “too good to be true” - walk away from it.
4. Before you sign a contract to buy timeshare, know the rescission laws for timeshare transactions in the state or country in which you are buying. In some states, you may have only 24 hours to change your mind. In others states, you will have longer. Know this information before you sign the contract.
5. When you buy timeshare in other countries, be doubly cautious. The laws that protect you in the US, do not protect you when you sign contracts in foreign countries.
6. Above all else, take your time. There are many opportunities to buy timeshare and to buy timeshare resales. You can purchase from a developer, from a timeshare broker, or directly from the current owner. Shop around. There are too many options in timesharing and too many different types of timeshares on the market for you to settle for something that is not a perfect fit for you.

Timeshares are one of the fastest growing segments of the hospitality and leisure industry. Don’t let the old image of timesharing stand in the way of you enjoying one of the best opportunities in vacation accommodations available today.

Check back in on Monday. I’ll be continuing in the next Timeshare Owners Blog post, responding to frequently asked questions.

With so much in the news about homeowners trying to refinance home mortgages, I thought it was a good time to also look at the question of timeshare financing and refinancing.

At Sell My Timeshare NOW, we are sometimes asked if an owner can sell timeshare when they still owe money on their timeshare mortgage or loan.

To sell timeshare that you do not own free and clear is just like selling a home on which you still owe money. Selling property requires that you be able to provide the buyer a clear deed or title to it, whether it is a single-family residence, condo, or timeshare. If you still owe the mortgage company for your timeshare, you must arrange to pay the mortgage or lien holder before you can provide the deed to the new owner.

For example, if you own a timeshare that you financed, and you still owe $3000 on the debt, you will want to try to resell that timeshare for $3000 or more. Any amount of money you receive in the sale that is above what you owe to the lender is yours. If you sell timeshare for $5000, and you must pay the lien holder $3000, the remaining $2000 is yours. This money is held in escrow during the transaction of the sale, until everything is completed.

But there are other approaches to sell timeshare on which you still carry a loan. You can borrow money from another source, such as a home equity line of credit or low-interest credit card and pay off your timeshare debt. Under these circumstances, the timeshare itself does not collateralize the debt. While you will now owe money to a new lender, you will own your timeshare in entirety, without mortgage debt on it.

This frees you up to enjoy the timeshare, which is now financed at a lower rate or better terms. It also means you can sell the timeshare, keeping all of what you make on it for yourself, or using those funds to pay off the new debt you took on in order to gain full title to the timeshare.

There are not as many options for refinancing timeshare as other types of property, but timeshare is legally considered real property and you do have some choices. One resource to investigate is Tammac Financial. Another possibility is any lender who will loan you money based on your good credit or other measure of creditworthiness.

As I always tell you, I am not a financial advisor. Paying off your timeshare mortgage can mean that you lose the option to deduct your mortgage interest from your state or federal income taxes, and the lower interest rate is not worth the amount you lose in mortgage interest deduction. It is always advisable to turn to a reputable tax or financial advisor to help you determine what is best for your individual circumstances.

I know you’ve heard it before, the admonishment that one should, “Never pay upfront fees when trying to sell timeshare.” Unfortunately, this advice always comes from people who work in timeshare resales businesses that are based on being able to extract money from timeshare sellers through one add-on fee after another before ultimately hitting the timeshare owner up for a hefty commission when, and if, they ever sell the timeshare unit.

Dollar by painful dollar, some timeshare resales companies, (and some unethical timeshare brokers) charge timeshare owners fees for services the owners do not really need. Property appraisals are a perfect example of an unnecessary service used to generate an add-on and unnecessary fee. Under most circumstances, resale timeshares simply do not need a property appraisal.

When you buy residential real estate, you pay for an appraisal, typically because the mortgage lender requires you to do so. When you buy a resale timeshare, there is no need for an appraisal, unless the timeshare unit itself collateralizes a loan (very rare with resales) and the lending company requires the appraisal as a condition of the loan.

Yet over and over again, you hear warnings directed to people with timeshares they wish to sell, to never pay an upfront fee to sell, advertise, list, or market their timeshare. The warning should be, “never pay an upfront fee unless you know specifically what the fee covers and that the company to whom you pay it has a proven track record of helping timeshare sellers successfully connect with timeshare buyers.

If you have timeshare you want to sell, visit the website of Sell My Timeshare NOW. Read the information offered there to help you understand more about your options for selling timeshare. No one answer is right for every situation, but I can tell you that Sell My Timeshare NOW averages six hundred thousand dollars per day, in offers made to timeshare owners who are trying to sell or rent their timeshares. Obviously, sometimes, paying an upfront fee for the right services is a pretty good idea.

The owners blog at Sell My Timeshare NOW launches new forum, giving timeshare owners, renters, buyers, sellers, and anyone interested in knowing more about timesharing, the opportunity to SPEAK OUT!

The new forum at the Timeshare Owners Blog wants to hear from you. Tell other people about your timeshare experiences—both good and bad. Ask the questions you’d like answered by other people who own and enjoy their timeshare vacation properties. Find out the secrets that seasoned timeshare owners know for easier exchanging and better use of perks, points, and other timeshare benefits. The timeshare owners forum is open 24/7, so post your questions, and then check back often to see what other people are saying. Here are the links you’ll need to know to get started:

• Click here to register for the forum!
• Email forum@sellmytimesharenow.com for technical help.
• General help for first-time forumgoers.