Let’s dispel the notion that it is impossible to resell timeshare. In 2009, the websites for Sell My Timeshare NOW generated 61,743 offers to buy timeshare resales and 85,949 offers to rent timeshares. That’s a lot of activity in any market, but especially during a time when consumers are evaluating expenditures more carefully than ever.

Yet even with the outstanding global visibility of the Sell My Timeshare NOW websites, there is still no one-size-fits-all option when it comes to selling timeshare. We’ve always offered timeshare owners the option to sell timeshare, advertising it by-owner, on our well-positioned websites. (That means websites that show up in all the search results, no matter which timeshare or timeshare-related words you may type into your computer.)

However, not everyone is comfortable with or has the time to handle their timeshare sale themselves, connecting with prospective buyers, negotiating the contract, and contacting the timeshare resort. That’s why it is important for us to bring our timeshare broker services, (which we have offered for years) into a more prominent role in our discussions with owners.

Timeshare Resale: You Have Choices

If you choose to sell your timeshare by advertising it on the Sell My Timeshare NOW website as a by-owner resale you pay $599 in a one-time fee and your timeshare ad is marketed until it sells. If your timeshare sells via some other outlet first, we refund the money you paid to advertise it with us.

But if you want a broker managed timeshare sale, you can turn the entire process over to a licensed timeshare broker who is part of Timeshare Broker Services. You timeshare broker will take care of everything—start to finish. For this ‘turn-key’ service, you will pay nothing up front, and then either a 15 percent commission or $2,000 (whichever is greater) when the sale of the timeshare closes.

Yes, you really can resell timeshare and now, you have even more choices about how you do it.

Read our latest media release to learn more: Timeshare Resales Leader Steps Up to Expand Timeshare Owner Options

Brooke Doucha, senior manager of corporate communications at Orange Lake Resorts offered some very sound insights in an article that appeared last week in RCI Ventures (Alert! Alert! Positive timeshare positioning is just 5 steps away.)

Like all search engine optimization-savvy businesses, Holiday Inn Vacations monitors Google Alerts, to stay current on what is being said and written about their resorts and other aspects of timeshares. Brooke wisely points out that many of the negative comments about timeshares that appear in the media are based on perceptions, while comments based on experience with timeshares are generally positive. In other words, some of the criticism you hear of timeshare has more to do with perception than with reality. Timeshares are not the right vacation choice for everyone, yet year after year, industry research validates that roughly 86 percent of timeshare owners are highly satisfied with vacation ownership.

In the end, no matter what the cause, everyone in the timeshare industry—whether they are timeshare sellers, developers, management companies, marketing companies, timeshare brokers, timeshare resales, or timeshare rental companies—shares the responsibility for changing any poor image that people may have about timeshares. And the only way to do this is to conduct business in ways that are transparent and above reproach and then to keep sharing that message in every possible way.

As Brooke points out, listing five ways that the timeshare industry can foster positive impressions, “we can make a difference and overcome these impressions.” Be sure you read her article at www.RCIVentures.com

“One of the ten best beaches in the world,” says Life Styles of the Rich and Famous

This week, Sell My Timeshare NOW announces that it has become the Authorized Reseller for The Crane Resort in Barbados. This is a great development, expanding timeshare resales opportunities for timeshare owners at The Crane Resort and market presence in the Caribbean for Sell My Timeshare NOW.

Kim Goddard, sales director at The Crane Resort explains, “We are excited to enhance our resale program by partnering with Vacation Property Solutions, the Resort Services Division of SellMyTimeshareNOW.com and Timeshare Broker Services, the company’s brokerage organization, to best represent the weeks that The Crane owners may desire to sell. SellMyTimeshareNOW.com is the only authorized resale company for The Crane Resort.”

The Caribbean Timeshare and Hotel Known as the First Resort

The Crane Resort is a very special place with spectacular ocean views and a pink shell beach on the Atlantic Ocean. Built in 1887, The Crane Resort is often described as the Caribbean’s “first resort”. Although fully updated, The Crane retains the original styling that is so much a part of its charm and elegance.

As Jay Bade, RRP (an ARDA recognized Registered Resort Professional) and VP of Business Development for SellMyTimeshareNOW.com says, “Although The Crane Resort has a successful resale program in place, affiliating with Sell My Timeshare NOW increases visibility for The Crane Resort resales, driving traffic and additional buyers through both www.sellmytimesharenow.com and www.thecrane.com. Sell My Timeshare NOW is thrilled to be recognized as an authorized reseller for The Crane Resort’s active resales program and to represent current owners at the resort when they want to sell vacation ownership and fractional weeks.”

Click here to read the full media release: Sell My Timeshare NOW Named as Authorized Reseller for Luxury Barbados Resort

Business today recognizes that it is no longer enough to attract consumers and customers to your stores and websites. Instead, to serve people in the way they want to be served, you must actually go to the places where consumers already are. And in many cases, those places include Twitter, blogs, Facebook, and a host of other social media platforms.

With this objective in mind, always seeking to be the most consumer-friendly, service oriented company in timeshare resales, timeshare rentals, and timeshare brokerage, Sell My Timeshare NOW is working to develop our face and our place in the world of social media. In order to offer the most readily available, easy-to-access inventory of timeshares on the secondary market, we want to be “found” wherever consumers are looking.

Here are a few of the places to look for information and updates from Sell My Timeshare NOW:

• Our Twitter accounts: @JasonTremblay_ and @VacationHotDeal
• You will find us growing our presence on LinkedIn. www.linkedin.com/in/ceosellmytimesharenow and SellMyTimeshareNOW, LLC
• Look for downloadable reports on Scribed www.scribd.com/SellMyTimeshare

But this is only the beginning. We are growing, reaching out, and connecting. Please check out these sites above, but also come back to them often to watch us grow and improve.

One size never fits all (a point we made here on The Timeshare Authority just last week in a discussion of timeshare points programs Getting to the Point of Timeshare Points). Your need to find the best individual solution for you is equally as important when it comes to the right way to for you to buy timeshare or sell timeshare as it is in selecting a points system that fits your vacation style.

Sell-by-owner timeshare resale is an excellent option for many timeshare owners who want to manage details of the timeshare transaction themselves. However, working with a timeshare broker, such as the experts at Timeshare Brokers Services, may be the best choice for your situation. Here are five reasons you might want a timeshare broker to help you buy or sell timeshare.

Reason Number One to Choose a Timeshare Broker:

1. Your time matters. If you are too busy to use your timeshare for vacationing, it is very possible you are too busy to take on the project of selling your timeshare yourself. Using a timeshare broker can be a turnkey approach when it comes to selling timeshare. Likewise, a timeshare broker is a great help to consumers looking to buy timeshare who don’t have either the time or interest for micromanaging the process themselves.

Reason Number Two to Choose a Timeshare Broker:

2. An experienced timeshare real estate professional is a great safety net for both the timeshare seller and the timeshare buyer. You can sell timeshare or buy timeshare with total peace of mind that a professional is handling the details. Most of us have enough on our minds already that it makes sense from a life-management perspective not to add one more item to the list of things that already occupy our thoughts.

Reason Number Three to Choose a Timeshare Broker:

3. A timeshare broker is a trained negotiator. Not only is a timeshare broker a skilled negotiator with your best interest at heart, but he or she serves as a liaison between the buyer and the timeshare seller, providing a “cushion” between the two to smooth the waters over any points of disagreement that may occur during the timeshare resale transaction.

Reason Number Four to Choose a Timeshare Broker:
4. The timeshare real estate market, just like the residential real estate market, is always changing. If you don’t feel confident that your personal knowledge of real estate matters, timeshare laws, or timeshare sales closing and transfer requisites is accurate and current, you could find yourself in over your head trying to handle the timeshare resales process on your own.

Reason Number Five to Choose a Timeshare Broker:
5. Buying or selling timeshare by owner may not save you a penny, first because an experienced timeshare broker—representing either the buyer or the seller— potentially can negotiate his or her client the best deal. Secondly, if you have any problems along the way in buying or selling timeshare without broker assistance, you could wind up not only losing money, but spending money you hadn’t planned to spend in the process.

Is a timeshare broker the best choice for you when it comes to buying timeshare or selling timeshare? Maybe, but you will never know for sure unless you contact one, ask questions, and evaluate what is best for you and your busy schedule.

For the past week, The Timeshare Authority blog has been profiling Jerome Bocquet of Sell My Timeshare NOW’s partner company, Timeshare Broker Services. If you have followed the previous posts: Leadership at Timeshare Broker Services and Timeshare Broker Services VP, Jerome Bocquet, you’ve already learned a great deal about Jerome and his international background.

When you ask Jerome Bocquet about his work in timeshare, he describes his words to live by as, “If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself.” Jerome is a man of greatcharacter, which is why he is a good fit at Sell My Timeshare NOW. You know when you work with Jerome Bocquet at Timeshare Broker Services, or with any of the people on his staff, you will be the benefactor of his strength of character and your timeshare sale will be handled with the utmost integrity and thoroughness.

Jerome Bocquet, No Tilting at Windmills at Timeshare Broker Services

Jerome, who previously served in The French Army, says that in strategy sessions he and his colleagues would sit and talk for hours, working out the logistics of their next mission. As a soldier, he understood the need to take advantage of basic opportunities, to always come to the table prepared. This is as strategy Jerome Bocquet carries forward today in everything he does for Timeshare Broker Services. With regard to this, he quotes Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes, who said “To be prepared is half the victory.”

Clearly there is no tilting at windmills when you deal with Jerome.

Enjoy this interview with Jerome Bocquet, courtesy of AskMando.com and conducted during the C.A.R.E. conference last month in New Orleans.

Timeshare Broker Services is a division of Sell My Timeshare NOW, where Vice President Jerome Bocquet provides experience and leadership in a timeshare broker company dedicated to honest business practices and integrity.

Jerome Bocquet’s background is both international and extensive, having studied and worked in Paris, France, and run companies in Santiago, Chili and Lima, Peru. His hotel and timeshare industry executive experience includes depth and breadth, as past Director of Sales and Marketing for Holiday Inn, Paris; Sales Director with Hilton Grand Vacations Club in Orlando; Real Estate Agent GMAC Real Estate Timeshare Division, Orlando; and Sales Executive with Marriott Vacation Club, Orlando.

Jerome Bocquet is a tremendous asset to Timeshare Broker Services and the team at Sell My Timeshare NOW, skilled in timeshare sales and hospitality sales; key account management; new business development; consultative solution sales; contract negotiations; networking and relationship building; and entrepreneurship.

Jerome and his wife are the parents of a son, age 13, and 10-year-old twin daughters.

Not only is the staff at Sell My Timeshare NOW and our affiliated company, Timeshare Broker Services outstanding in the professional service they provide in timeshare resales and timeshare rentals, but they are some pretty interesting individuals, as well.

Take Jerome Bocquet, for example, Vice President of Sales for Timeshare Broker Services. Jerome was born in Lima, Peru to French parents. He lived eleven years in Latin America, and then moved to France. He holds an Account degree from IPF in Paris, a degree in Business Administration in Hotels from the EPCV in Paris and he served military duty in RPIMP.

More about Jerome Bocquet of Timeshare Broker Services

Fluent in French, Spanish, and English, Jerome Bocquet played rugby in France for 15 years, loves scuba diving and playing chess. A lifelong travel lover himself, Jerome has been in over 40 countries around the globe. Today, he and his family make their home in New Hampshire, where Jerome Bocquet provides visionary leadership for Timeshare Broker Services, a partner company of Sell My Timeshare NOW.

Jerome says one of his most important focuses at Timeshare Broker Services is to build and maintain a loyal base of timeshare customers, clients, and industry partners. We think Jerome Bocquet of Timeshare Broker Services is accomplishing that goal quite well and are we are extremely proud that he is part of our partnership team at Sell My Timeshare NOW.

When the phone rings during your dinner, it won’t be Sell My Timeshare NOW. After reading the News Channel 7 (Spartanburg; Greenville; Anderson, SC; Asheville, NC) news report, it seems like a good time to remind people: Sell My Timeshare NOW won’t be calling you unless you have asked us to call.

We do not make cold calls. We don’t interrupt your dinner, your evening at home with your family, or that extra hour of sleep you were getting on a Saturday morning with a ringing telephone and an unrequested call. Unsolicited phone calls are not respectful, not good business, and in many cases, not legal.

When you want to sell timeshare you no longer use, by-owner advertising may be a great choice for you. But Sell My Timeshare NOW reminds you to base your decision on a clear cut understanding of hat the timeshare company will be doing—and won’t be doing to help you sell your property.

Some less-than-reputable companies take money to advertise your timeshare resale or timeshare rental, imply they will be out knocking on doors trying to help you sell your timeshare, and then do absolutely nothing from that point forward. That seems to have been the type of service (or lack of service) that News Channel 7 was reporting.

Sell My Timeshare NOW offers different types of services to help you buy, rent, or sell timeshare. You can work with a timeshare broker through our Timeshare Broker Services or advertise your timeshare resale as a by-owner property while Sell My Timeshare NOW works to keep your timeshare ad in front of the largest audience of prospective timeshare buyers possible. Our websites average over 25 million visitors each year from more than 176 countries around the world. With our menu of services, you can even choose the level of timeshare resale support that is right for you, customizing how much of the resale process you want to handle yourself and how much you want to turn over to a timeshare resale professional.

But through it all, here’s our promise … unless you ask us to, Sell My Timeshare NOW won’t be cold calling your number. And we won’t be trying to bait you with unrealistic promises or timelines we can’t guarantee. But when you are ready for honest, effective, and reliable help to buy, rent, or sell timeshare, we’re there when you need us.

People who are buying homes and residential real estate right now are doing so because this is an excellent time to buy. And many consumers are finding the same to be true when it comes to buying timeshares, timeshare resales, or other vacation ownership real estate.

Timeshare companies and timeshare developers who sell new timeshare are working hard to earn the timeshare sale … you may find them more negotiable than ever. But the best deals are usually available in buying timeshare resales from belt-tightening, budget conscious timeshare owners, who are anxious to sell their timeshare in order to get out from under annual timeshare maintenance fees and/or property taxes.

So if you are interested in taking advantage of the better-than-ever deals available in timeshare and timeshare resales, here are some important questions you need to ask before you sign on the dotted line.

Applies When You Are Buying Timeshare Either New or as a Timeshare Resale:

• Make sure you know the resort name and exact location. Pay special attention to timeshare resorts that have been built in phases because the description of the Phase I property could be very different from Phase V property. Know the specific address of the timeshare unit or the timeshare property usage you are buying.
• Know the annual maintenance fees, how much they have increased over the years, and the date of the last increase.
• Find out what the property taxes are, if they are included in your maintenance fee, and how and when you pay them if you are responsible for making the payment yourself.
• In a points based system, know the number of points you are buying.
• Know whether you are buying a fixed or floating timeshare interval.
• How many rooms are in the unit, what is the square footage, and can you see a floor plan?
• Find out both how many people the unit sleeps as well as the number of bedrooms. These will not be the same number!
• Ask about the view from your unit. Are you beachside? Have a scenic view of the mountains? Or are you staring at the parking lot? Desirability of view can affect the value of the timeshare.

Applies Specifically When You Are Buying Timeshare Resale:

• Learn what, if any, privileges of timeshare ownership cannot be transferred in a timeshare resale.
• Know how you will handle the timeshare title transfer, the escrow account, and the closing contract.

Applies Specifically When You Are Buying Timeshare New From the Resort or Developer:

• Know the exact sales price you will be paying and the duration and interest rate of the timeshare mortgage if you are using developer financing.
• Know if you can transfer to another financing source without paying a penalty on developer financing and if there are time limits for doing this.
• Find out if there are perks, loyalty programs, or benefits you can take advantage of because you have purchased a new timeshare at the developer’s full price.

And while all of these are critical questions to ask before you buy timeshare or a timeshare resale, based on the situation, there may be many other important questions to ask as well. To make sure you wind up owning a timeshare that fits both your vacation needs and your budget, do three simple things:

1. Take your time, don’t let anyone rush you.
2. Do your own research so that you know exactly what you are buying and the terms of the sale.
3. Do not “settle” for a property that is almost-right. There are too many great deals in timeshare sales and timeshare resales for you to buy anything less than a timeshare that is ideal for you and your family to enjoy for many happy years.

 

Topics: Timeshare Blog, Timeshare Brokers, Timeshare Buyers, Timeshare News, Timeshare Real Estate, Timeshare Resales, Timeshare Sales