Today our company, Sell My Timeshare NOW, released some important news about our expanding services and new options for timeshare owners.

We want to be the timeshare resale advertising company that steps up to the plate—to ‘man up’ if you will—by offering timeshare owners the full diversity of services they may need when they get ready to sell or rent their timeshare. To help us reach this goal we are transitioning to a sales team almost exclusively comprised of licensed real estate professionals.

For months, we’ve been involved in providing in-house training here in our Dover, NH timeshare sales offices to help prepare our timeshare sales professionals for the testing necessary to receive their state real estate license. Not only do we want to be the timeshare resale and rental company with the very best trained personnel, but we want to know we are making every option available to timeshare owners who want to sell timeshare or use their timeshare as a rental.

When you contact Sell My Timeshare NOW and want to talk about selling your timeshare, we will be explaining both your option to sell by owner, which we have always offered, and our expanded focus on selling with a timeshare broker, through Timeshare Broker Services, the brokerage arm of our company.

To read all the details, click on our latest media release: Timeshare Resales Leader Steps Up to Expand Timeshare Owner Options

“It’s better to go on a vacation than buy a new couch, is basically the idea,” says Elizabeth W. Dunn, an associate professor in the psychology department at the University of British Columbia in an article titled, “But Will It Make You Happy?” that ran this week in the New York Times. Professor Dunn is referring to research by psychologists Leaf Van Boven and Thomas Gilovich on the subject of money and happiness.

The article, written by Stephanie Rosebloom, explains, “… that spending money for an experience — concert tickets, French lessons, sushi-rolling classes, a hotel room in Monaco — produces longer-lasting satisfaction than spending money on plain old stuff.”

Remarkably, there is much talk about money’s potential (or lack of) to buy you happiness, but until recently, surprisingly little research. Professor Thomas DeLeire, University of Wisconsin in Madison, recently studied seven categories of consumer consumption. He found that only a few translate to happiness, and these are expenditures for vacations, entertainment, sports, and sporting equipment such as fishing poles or golf clubs. Professor DeLeire equated the happiness of money spent on vacations and entertainment with the happiness boost most people feel when they walk down the aisle, pointing out that a $20,000 increase in spending on leisure is roughly equivalent in happiness factor to the happiness increase experienced when getting married.

And when you consider that $20,000 (or even a lot less) can buy a wonderful timeshare resale and an entire lifetime of vacation accommodations, one has to think that buying timeshare might turn out to be a very “happy” use of your hard earned money.

Follow this link to read the full New York Times article on money, happiness, and vacations.

(Hat Tip to Sharon Drechsler of Resort Trades for finding this timeshare industry good news item)

Interested in some timeshare industry good news? It’s out there, it just doesn’t always make the headlines, like this update for example:

Keith Trowbridge is a name well known in the timeshare industry. A pioneer of the timeshare industry, he is CEO of Executive Quest, an executive placement company that specializes in the timeshare, fractional and vacation ownership industries. He’s also the author of How You Can Invest In Inflation-Proof Vacations For Life (Simon and Schuster) and co-author with Richard J. Lynge of Real Estate Broker’s Guide to Resort Timesharing (Real Estate Education Company). Clearly a voice of experience about timeshares, and when he talks, we all listen.

So it was good news to hear Dr. Keith Trowbridge say the following, “We are now witnessing clear signs of a modest recovery. Companies across the glove are beginning to replenish their inventories. Global GDP and global trade are strengthening and job losses are declining. And, we are beginning to see incremental increases in leasing, and sales activity across the board, and absorption, while still negative in many markets, is moving toward positive territory.”

Thanks again to Sharon for sharing this in the most recent issue of Resort Trades.

Liberty Bank has established a new lending relationship with Breckenridge Grand Vacations timeshare providing an initial loan of $10 million. Bank spokesperson, Denise Brewer, Vice President, says, “We were very impressed by the company’s track record and well-respected position in their community.”

President of Wellington Financial, (the exclusive Resort Finance lending correspondent for Liberty Banks) Ron Goldberg says, “the Breckenridge Grand Vacations team has demonstrated a fantastic track record in developing, marketing, selling and managing Gold Point Resort, Grand Timber Lodge and the Grand Lodge on Peak 7, as well as being a great asset to the community.”

Rob Millisor, resort operator adds, “Over the last 25 years, we’ve (Breckenridge resort) developed a business philosophy to serve investors, owners-and-guests, employees and our community. This attitude governs everything we do and has allowed us to provide family after family with excellent vacations for many years. We strongly believe that our dedication to ensuring the satisfaction of all four of these constituents has given us the focus for our success in the vacation ownership business in Breckenridge.”

Sell My Timeshare NOW is the only authorized reseller for Grand Timeshare Lodge resales. Grand Timber Lodge is a 5-star, year-round resort located at the base of Colorado’s Breckenridge ski resort and within minutes of the shops, restaurants, and entertainment in downtown Breckenridge.

More information about Breckenridge timeshares on The Timeshare Authority Blog:

• Timeshare Sales Good News for Grand Lodge Timeshares in Breckenridge, CO
• Grand Timber Lodge Timeshare Resort