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.

It is good to see fair, accurate, and positive press lately regarding timeshares, timeshare sales, and timeshare exchange. The naysayers who present vacation ownership and timeshare vacation rentals as only being about timeshare scam do a real injustice to the industry, to the hardworking people whose daily objective is improving the vacation experience for others, and to consumers who could be enjoying affordable vacationing through timeshare resales and timeshare rentals.

Last week, the Miami Herald took an objective look at timeshare exchange, focusing on Interval International, which happens to be a Miami-based company.

Interviewing Jon Fredricks of Welk Resorts, a California timeshare company, the article quoted Fredricks as saying, “In this economy, you’re seeing more people wanting to drive to their exchange, with less use of airlines. Vegas is not in favor as it once was. I think Interval has had to adjust to those changes alone.”

Fredricks’ point is critical: timeshare owners and timeshare renters may be vacationing differently because of the economy, but they are still making use of timeshare ownership and the opportunities of timeshares.

A Changing Profile for Timeshare Owners

Timeshare owners have always leaned on timeshare companies to offer more flexibility. Because of this, over the years, the options of timesharing have changed considerably. But with all the stresses and economic pressures many people are feeling these days, they’ve upped their demands even more.

Here’s what timeshare owners have always wanted in timeshare exchange:

• Flexibility in exchanging one date or property for another.
• The opportunity to exchange timeshare or timeshare points for cruises and other travel amenities in addition to timeshare.

And here’s their new list of add-ons:

• Shorter lead-time for making timeshare exchange.
• More drive-to timeshare vacation destinations.
• Shorter vacation intervals, something most timeshare companies are already striving to offer.

Currently, Interval International timeshare exchange has a network of over 2500 timeshare resorts, representing some 75 countries worldwide. Last year, in response to their member requests, Interval international timeshare exchange launched their ShortStay Exchange Program. Through this option, gold members can deposit their timeshare interval or points and exchange it for one or more vacations of two to six days in length. These ShortStay timeshare exchanges are made online at IntervalWorld.com

According to Interval CEO Craig Nash, “We’re always looking at product development.” He adds, so far the program is, “tracking nicely.”

Other Options for Timeshare Exchange

As the Herald article points out, Interval International timeshare exchange is second in size as a timeshare exchange company to RCI Exchange. Also there are many other timeshare exchange companies that may have smaller inventories of timeshare exchange properties but are targeted to a specific region, resort group, or type of resort. Additionally, Timeshare Users Group, which most timeshare owners know as TUG, offers timeshare exchange along with ads for timeshare resales to its member participants.

While fees may be cheaper in smaller groups, timeshare owners are not likely to have as much flexibility as with a larger timeshare exchange company. Lisa Ann Shreier, author of Timeshare Vacations for Dummies and co-author of Timeshare Management, makes a valid point in saying this about timeshare exchange companies, “They do facilitate the trading process. It makes it easier if 2,000 people are depositing their weeks into a pool.”

And any timeshare discussion always comes down to one important point: timeshare exchange is -and always has been- one of the significant reasons people buy timeshare.

Are you, like much of the US, snowed in or about to be? One of the best ways to deal with cabin fever is planning what you are going to do when you can finally get out of the ‘cabin’ again. A snow day is an excellent time to start building the structure that is missing in your life and that causes you to skip vacations and fail to take the time off you genuinely need and deserve.

Schedule your vacation time. Commit to it with the same discipline you use for other things in life, and then consider doing the one thing that truly makes it easier to stick to your plans — buy a timeshare resale.

Why do timeshares make vacationing easier?

• For starters, you are more likely to take a vacation when you have already made a financial commitment to your vacation accommodations. In other words, when the room is already paid for, why wouldn’t you go?
• Prepaid vacation accommodations also mean that you can take a vacation at times in the future when money might be too tight for you to do so.
• Timeshare vacations give you a starting point. Either you know which resort you will be staying in, or you know in which network of resorts you will be using your vacation property as a timeshare exchange.
• Second only to lack of time to take a vacation, people cite lack of time to plan a vacation as the reason they don’t work in much-needed relaxation days. Buying timeshare means you do the decision-making once and then enjoy a lifetime of easy-to-plan vacations.
• Buying timeshare lets you lock in the price of your vacation accommodations; buying timeshare resale means you do so at a substantial savings.

How to avoid timeshare scam:

• Buy timeshare resale through a timeshare company with an established history of timeshare sales and timeshare rentals. If a company promise’s sound too good to be true, be on guard for timeshare scam.
• Choose a timeshare resale company that can show you testimonials from satisfied customers. (See: http://www.sellmytimesharenow.com/owners/index/content/testimonials/)
• Select a timeshare company that has established professional relationships within the industry, such as membership in ARDA, CRDA, and the National Timeshare Owners Association.
• Look for a timeshare company with a noteworthy website that clearly demonstrates its website prominence and industry dominance.
• Don’t let anyone rush you. There are plenty of great deals on timeshare resales, either through a timeshare broker or a by-owner sale. You can find the vacation ownership proposition that is right for you, your vacation style, and your budget.

Wherever you are, it may be blowing snow and generally miserable. Today is a great day to be dreaming about a little beach time in your near future and timeshare resales are an affordable way to turn that daydream into a sand-between-your-toes reality.

In Monday’s The Timeshare Authority blog, I shared my thoughts with you in a post titled: Timeshare Sales and the Great Reality Check. That timeshare blog post was written in response to an article that appeared in USA TODAY.

Timeshare owners need and deserve more good opportunities to resell timeshare. And I am not disputing that there are timeshare scam companies and timeshare fraud companies that promise everything and deliver little to nothing. These companies are an urgent problem that both legislators and the industry needs to address.

But the article was one-sided and that is frankly, never acceptable journalism. When you take on an industry so unfairly, you can do a great deal of damage to a lot of people. Not only does the timeshare industry contribute significantly to local tax bases through real estate and property tax, but it employs millions of workers worldwide, from sales to advertising, to resort staff, housekeeping, golf course maintenance … and the list goes on and on. And consider the secondary and tertiary impact of timeshares.

Timeshare vacationers spend money on travel, food, entertainment, and shopping. In so many ways, they boost an economy and contribute indirectly to the employment of others. As tourism has dipped and in some cases nose-dived across the country, occupancy rates at timeshares have outstripped those at hotels. And there are even more subtle ways that timeshare contributes to the economy, such as the proven productivity and health benefit for people who vacation regularly.

So with all of this in mind, I thought you might enjoy what others in the timeshare industry had to say in response to the same article that started my rant:

Lisa Ann Schreier, author of Timeshare for Dummies, and respected authority on the timeshare industry, wrote:

NTOA President, Ed Hastry, of the National Timeshare Owners Association, a consumer protection organization comprised of timeshare owners acting in the interest of timeshare owners, wrote:

Lisa and Ed, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

A cease and desist order has been issued by North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem to a Florida timeshare company based in Palm Beach Gardens. The company has allegedly made false promises to timeshare owners telling the owners that they have timeshare buyers in place for their properties.

Attorney General Stenehjem says that the Florida timeshare company’s practices are a timeshare scam and that their claims to the timeshare owners are “untrue” and “are nothing more than a ruse to obtain money under false pretenses.” (source: LegalNewsline.com)

Here is the link to the Cease and Desist Order on the website for the North Dakota Attorney General.

Safe and Reliable Timeshare Sales and Timeshare Resales

With so many safe and reliable ways to buy timeshare or sell timeshare resales, it would seem that fraudsters wouldn’t be able to survive. But as long as we live in a world where people will trustingly wire money to a Nigerian (or scammer from any other location) who randomly shows up in their email with a story that is “too good to be true” then bogus or disreputable timeshare companies will continue to spring up.

Despite how it sometimes seems that timeshare scams are always popping up in the news, they are far from the biggest trouble area for consumer fraud. Identity theft, building contractor fraud, and investment scams are only a few of the problems that do more damage and occur more often than do timeshare scams.

Timely Reminder: Since since December is the month in which consumers tend to do the most “consuming” it also becomes peak season for identity theft. While we have all heard the warnings, it is amazing how we don’t always heed them, so it never hurts to repeat what has been said so many times before:

• When you shop online, make sure you are dealing with authentic websites. Counterfeit websites do an amazing job of ‘looking like the real thing’.
• Don’t walk around with your life story in your purse or wallet. Carry only essential information.
• Shred, shred, shred; otherwise, you are just handing your personal information over to potential criminals.
• Sleep on it. Before you make a major purchase of any kind or sign a contract, tell the sales person you want time to think it over. Chances are, he or she will do everything possible to try to persuade you that this deal won’t be around if you don’t “act now”. Fine! No one should make buying or selling decisions with the feeling that he or she is being pressured into it.
• Lastly, remember, if a deal, whether it is a timeshare deal, absurdly cheap airfares, or an unbelievable price on electronics, seems too good to be true, assume there is a catch and assume you are likely to get caught up in it.

The website InvestorWords.com gives us these definitions of the word, “investment”:

• Definition 1
  In finance, the purchase of a financial product or other item of value with an expectation of favorable future returns. In general terms, investment means the use money in the hope of making more money.
• Definition 2
  In business, the purchase by a producer of a physical good, such as durable equipment or inventory, in the hope of improving future business.

Over the past six years, since Sell My Timeshare NOW was first founded, I have written, stated, tweeted, and probably shouted from a few rooftops, “timeshares are not an investment.”

Timeshares are a fabulous way to vacation, offering ease of vacation planning, spacious accommodations, and amenities to suit every member of the family. But you should not buy timeshare because you expect to be able to resell it at a higher price. And our legal system, including the Securities and Exchange Commission takes a dim view of people who try to tell you otherwise.

Case in point from this week’s Legal Newsline:

This story comes packed with lots of lessons.

• Don’t take tax advice from anyone who is not certified to provide it.
• Don’t transfer your timeshare to anyone or any company on a promise.
• And most importantly, if it seems too good to be true… don’t believe the hype!

Yes, you can resell your timeshare. You can also donate your timeshare, give it away, or use it as a timeshare rental, and these are all strategies for offsetting or eliminating the cost of continuing to pay annual fees on a timeshare you no longer use. But before you take any of these actions, make sure you are dealing with a reputable timeshare resales advertising company or timeshare brokers who are giving you a reasonable and accurate picture about timeshare resales.

KTVZ.com released news yesterday that the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services has levied fines in excess of $2 million against companies and individuals from the US, Mexico, and Panama, who were involved in an investment scam. The fraudulent deal claimed more than $428 million dollars from individual investors.

This unlawful soliciting of funds from Oregon residents, many of them elderly, involved a complicated strategy where unregistered securities were sold as an investment. The securities involved Mexico timeshare along the Yucatan Peninsula, which the investors were told would be rented and would yield a high yearly return to them. According to the sales pitch consumers received, related or affiliated companies would rent these Mexico timeshares through universal leases.

David Tatman, administrator for the Division of Finance and Corporate Securities (DFCS) says, “It’s unfortunate that many elderly Oregonians lost their hard-earned retirement funds by unwittingly investing in this scheme.”

He explains, “… the subject of the fraudulent investments can be diverse—from timeshares to technology to commodities like silver and gold—the one characteristic they share is that they are sold by agents who are not licensed to sell securities. State licenses are not ‘one-size-fits-all.’ For example, an insurance agent is by no means automatically authorized to sell investments.”

To find out more about an individual’s credentials and licensing to do business in the state of Oregon, call DFCS Oregon at 1-866-814-9710, 503-378-4140, or go to www.dfcs.oregon.gov

If you have similar concerns or questions, contact the Office of the Attorney General for the state in which you live. At least ten other state securities regulators have filed or concluded a civil action case against the people behind this timeshare investment scam. The US Securities and Exchange Commission also has a pending civil case and the US Department of Justice has a pending criminal case against them.

Bottom line: With major hoteliers and timeshare developers challenged to make suitable return on their massive number of timeshare resorts, it stands to reason that it is virtually impossible for the average person to get into timeshare development as an investment strategy.

But what is a possibility, is that by buying a right-priced Mexico timeshare resale, you and your family could enjoy many years of outstanding vacations.

Last April The Timeshare Authority told you about Danny Pang, a Los Angeles businessman, who the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged had raised hundreds of millions of dollars, (much of it from Taiwan) in investment money that he and his company then repaid with monies other clients had more recently invested in timeshare projects.

Now, the facts of the case may never be fully understood. Pang, age 42, died last week in an Orange County California hospital, one day after being taken from his Newport Beach home by paramedics. No foul play has been found in Pang’s death, pending results of a scheduled autopsy and of toxicology reports that may take as long as several months to be processed.

Was Timeshare Real Estate Investment Really Just a Timeshare Scam?

The charges brought against Pang alleged that his company was running what was essentially a Ponzi scheme, where he showed false returns on investments in timeshare real estate and life insurance policies, but was using the money from recent investors to pay returns to earlier investors. His family maintains his innocence.

Pang, known for socializing with Hollywood‘s rich and famous, attracted speculation about his high profile and luxurious existence including the allegation that he used investor’s money as a “personal piggy bank to fund a lavish lifestyle, that included spending $35 million on a fleet of jets.”

In 1997 Pang’s wife, former exotic dancer Janie Louise Pang, was murdered at the couple’s home. Pang’s attorney, Hugh “Randy” McDonald, was tried for her murder but the jury was never able to reach a verdict and no new trial was ever sought. The case officially remains unsolved.

Source: AP News and others.

Related The Timeshare Authority blog post:

Frequently Asked Questions About Timeshares and Timeshare Resales

Allegations include fraud, lies, and deception in a tale that involves glamour, Hollywood stars, timeshares, and an unsolved murder.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has frozen the assets of companies run by Taiwanese immigrant and longtime Los Angeles resident, Danny Pang. Pang allegedly employed a classic Ponzi scheme where money from new investors was used to pay the investment returns of previous investors in an effort to cover a life insurance investment that was not paying off fast enough for the company’s needs.

In a civil lawsuit, the SEC alleges that Pang and his companies have raise hundreds of millions of dollars, much of it coming from investors in Taiwan. The actions of federal regulators came shortly after the Wall Street Journal ran a lengthy article that carried allegations from a former executive in one of Pang’s companies who claims Pang misused investors’ money, double billed them for legal and insurance costs, and lied about his academic credentials. The employee, Nasar Aboubakare, has a $50 million breach-of-contract suit pending against one of Pang’s companies. In the past, Pang has represented himself as a former senior vice president and high-tech merger adviser with Morgan Stanley, and as having an MBA from the University of California at Irvine; neither of which officials have been able to verify.

Little about how timeshares were involved in the scams has been revealed other than this statement that appeared in the OC Register: “Pang and his firm told investors that they would purchase life insurance policies at a discount and then collect the benefits upon the death of the insured. But the policies did not generate sufficient returns to cover all the costs. The SEC said Pang had his company pay the insurance investors with money from clients who invested in timeshares.”

Pang traveled in the highest social circles in Los Angeles and ran his companies, Private Equity Management Group Inc. and Private Equity Management Group LLC, from the nearby city of Irvine. His name frequently made the news as he engaged in fundraising and other civic efforts with Hollywood stars and media celebrities.

In 1997, Pang’s wife, Janie, was the victim of a murder that remains unsolved.

Spanish police arrested six British businesspeople over the weekend. The six were all part of a timeshare business based in Costa del Sol. According to reports released by the AFP Newswire, the timeshare business involved offering: … bogus timeshare title deeds for vacation apartments in exchange for “major sums of money.”

Titles to the timeshare properties (and the same intervals) were sold repeatedly to different buyers.

Last week’s raid follows on the heels of other raids made by Spanish police on a company called Global Vacations, where sixteen British employees were arrested on suspicion of timeshare fraud. The Global Vacations employees have been charged with charging money to timeshares owners, assuring them that they had a buyer for the timeshare and that the money was needed to close the lucrative sale.

Watching Out for Timeshare Scams

During these tight economic times, criminals and fraudsters may become more aggressive than ever. After all, with less money in circulation, defrauding others becomes more of a challenge. Now more than ever, keep your guard up when you buy timeshare or sell timeshare. Deal only with timeshare companies that have a proven record of reliability.

Spain timeshares are some of the most beautiful resorts in the world, and offer many incredible opportunities. If you are interested in buying Spain timeshares, don’t let these stories stop you; consider buying Spain timeshare resales from the individual who currently owns them, or renting Spain timeshare as a way to explore a resort before you buy.