Sell My Timeshare

This post is just a quick update – due to schedule constraints I had to take this past week off from blogging, and when I finally came back I was suprised to discover 300+ comment spams awaiting moderation. I was in a hurry, so I skimmed through the comments briefly before deleting all of them. If anyone who isn’t a robot has tried to post comments here, I am sorry, but your comment is probably gone. Please resubmit your comments and I’ll be happy to get back to you.

As you probably noticed, we’ve been juggling themes a bit lately, I have yet to settle on one I like. This is the first WordPress blog I’ve managed and I was surprised by the wide range of available themes. It’s kind of like a car – I’m shopping around for the right model, in a manner of speaking.

Expect a few technical tweaks in the coming weeks, but this shouldn’t pose an inconvenience. We should be on track to roll out a few podcasts in the weeks to come.

I do have some exciting news – we’ve finished crunching the numbers for 2006. During 2006, we generated $229,962,492 in buyer and renter offers. I am absolutely blown away by the traffic that we drive to SellMyTimeshareNOW. There is a clear need for a timeshare resale solution, as only we can provide. Look at these numbers. $229,962,492 in buyer and renter offers!

We’re only just getting started. There’s a huge market for timeshare resales and rentals, and I can only imagine the volume of offers our advertisers will receive a year from now.

I was honored to participate in ARDA‘s Fall Conference at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, DC. Most interesting to me was the think tank session dealing with timeshare resales. There is amazing growth in this sector.

Regrettably the timeshare resale market is not well documented. Previous studies (Ragatz and associates, etc) have delved into the resort sales industry, but the secondary market for timeshare has received little attention until now. I predict a great deal of change in the timeshare resales industry in 2007. It’s interesting to study the movers and the shakers in this business. It’s plain to see, as timeshare resales get more attention, that this sector of the industry is really going to take off in 2007. It’s exciting to be part of this business; my staff and I are making history. I’d love to share more but …you’ll just have to wait and see what develops.

Do you like auctions? They’re like the holidays: there’s drama, anticipation, maybe disappointment, hope, joy…. and bragging rights if all goes well.

Auctions are very popular nowadays. Well, actually, they have been for ages. Probably the cavemen held them over the very best dwelling: “I’ll trade ya twelve saber-toothed tiger hides for that there awesome cave with a spring in it.” With the advent of a really workable internet, auction sites like eBay have changed the way we do business. You don’t have to roast beast with your neighbor before doing business; you can transact with someone on the other side of the planet, in the middle of your night and their breakfast, even if you don’t speak their language. The internet is an awesome tool.

Opposable thumbs were a good start, and they have led us to some amazing technologies. But you’ve got to have the right tool for the right project. And the right auction for what you’re looking to sell or buy. If you want to unload an old but useful item, like a banged-up bureau, and you don’t care about its value or receiving any money for it, then a charity fundraiser is a great way to go. If you have an extremely valuable chair used by Napoleon, you’ll want to head to Christie’s. Reason: the right audience of buyers will pay the very best price. And, by the same token, if you want to buy a brilliant piece, you would go to the very best auction, not to the corner pawn shop.

Timeshare auctions work the same way. Not only is the timeshare itself important, but the venue in which it is being sold affects price and the types of buyers. SellMyTimeshareNOW.com is “la creme de la creme.” We rise to the top of the internet world every day, whether you are in New Zealand or Russia or the United States or anywhere in between. We have the best venue, the best available inventory, and the best prices.

Go to the top, the cream of the crop.

In their online edition (www.deseretnews.com), Salt Lake City’s Deseret Morning News recently ran a series of three articles about timesharing. Here are some of the points made by author Lee Davidson:

“Developers sell timeshare for far more than what they are worth on the open resale market. Value of units easily drops 40 percent or more when the purchaser walks out the door after a sale…High-pressure sales are still a staple of the industry…Developers often charge high to astronomical interest rates to finance timeshare loans and sometimes make deceptive claims…”

Such harsh criticism of the way the timeshare industry in general, or any timeshare company specifically, conducts business is hard to hear. But I want to take this opportunity to remind you that such searing critiques about timeshare promotion or timeshare financing are NOT directed at resale timeshare or timeshare by-owner marketing companies like SellMyTimeshareNOW.

SellMyTimeshareNOW.com affords timeshare owners a marketing platform from which to sell timeshare or rent timeshare to smart buyers and renters who have learned that it is not necessary to pay the marked-up prices some timeshare companies charge. Timeshare resales are competitive. They provide an excellent way for people to become satisfied timeshare owners and take advantage of the opportunities and flexibility afforded by vacation ownership. Best of all, when buyers deal directly with the current timeshare owner, they skip the middleman and they avoid paying inflated developer prices for great timeshare vacation property.

Typically many people who buy timeshares deal with a big timeshare company that sells new property owned by a developer. But by-owner timeshare promotion companies, like SellMyTimeshareNOW, are using the internet to redefine the ways people buy, sell or rent timeshare vacation homes and condos.

David Koenig, a business writer with Associated Press/Dallas, recently interviewed Elizabeth and Robin Wood, owners of a second home in Florida. The Woods were in the market to rent out their Vero Beach property during the months they were not using it themselves. Their first step was to hire a local real estate agent to look for renters. They also paid $300 to list their home on various specialized websites. The arrangement with the real estate agent included a 25 percent commission to the agent on any rentals, even the ones the Woods found online.

According to Elizabeth Wood, who recently parted ways with her realtor, “every tenant came through my listings on the web.” Of course, this meant that the property owners were still paying the realtor the commission even though he or she had actually played no part at all in the transaction.

The Woods’ story is not unusual; instead, it is a perfect example of how the internet is changing the way people make a vacation home or timeshare deal. More and more satisfied timeshare vacation property owners are bypassing the heavy handed timeshare promotion done by development companies. They are buying or renting their timeshare vacation property directly from the owner through a company that specializes in timeshare promotion and advertising of by-owner timeshare resales and rentals.

When you are interested in renting or buying timeshare, deal directly with the person who owns the property. There is no reason for a vacation home owner or timeshare vacation property owner to pay commission to a third party real estate or timeshare company.

On the world wide web, companies like eHarmony, Monster Job and eBay have already changed so many of the ways we interact and conduct business. It really is no surprise that well-informed vacationers recognize the benefits of an online vacation home or timeshare deal that eliminates the need for commissions paid to a middleman.