Timeshare Resales

Unusual situation at timeshare resort means problems for timeshare owners.

The Legends Resort and Country Club in McAfee, NJ has had an interesting history to say the least. Originally built in 1972 by Hugh Hefner as a 600-room Playboy Hotel, Hefner sold the property in the late 1980’s. It seems that Hefner’s vision for the resort could not be realized when the gambling license he sought was not approved.

After Hef sold the property, the hotel faced one problematic ownership situation after another. When the current owners, Metairie Corporation, purchased the property, it was already in bankruptcy.

At first, the purchase seemed like it would bring better days. Metairie turned 28 suites into studios and one and two-bedroom timeshare units. They promised owners amenities including indoor and outdoor pools, a children’s pool, conference center, a health club, restaurant, and other enticing features. The timeshare units sold for prices between $8,000 and $18,000. Some 1600 people invested in the timeshare units, which means that the funds generated by their sale netted Metairie Corp. roughly $15 million.

Fifteen million should have gone a long way to building and maintaining promised amenities at any timeshare resort. But instead of The Legends improving with the influx of capital; it went downhill.

Over the years that followed, despite the fact that timeshare owners continued to pay their yearly maintenance fees, conditions at the resorts deteriorated. Not only were many of the promised improvements never made but routine maintenance was also neglected. Currently the outdoor pool, the gym, store, restaurant, and clubhouse are closed and the tennis courts have deteriorated significantly. Other complaints include mold problems, protruding nails, sinks falling off walls, and abandoned cars left in the parking lot.

Perhaps the final indignity came in August of 2005, when RCI, the largest timeshare exchange company in the world, dropped The Legends Resort from its exchange privileges. Since that time, other timeshare exchange companies have dropped them as well. The timeshare owners have now organized as a group called, Legends Owners United, and are trying to effect legal action. In March, New Jersey State Real Estate Regulators began investigating the situation. Until last year, in the state of New Jersey timeshare issues such as this one did not fall under the direction of the State Real Estate Regulators, which in New Jersey, is a division of the State Department of Banking and Insurance.

It goes without saying how much we all hope the members of Legends Owners United get satisfaction. Let me also add, first, that this type of problem is the exception, not the norm in timeshare resorts today, and that secondly, buying resale timeshare rather than buying timeshare units as new or pre-construction property, reduces your risk of getting caught in such circumstances. With resale timeshare, you are buying a proven product, and just as importantly, you are usually spending a lot less of your money to do so.

You can also look at the unfortunate situation at The Legends in a speculative way. This might be an ideal time to purchase a timeshare resale from a current Legends timeshare owner, in anticipation of a positive resolution for the resort and its possible future status.

Gatlinburg, Tennessee is seeking to curb overly enthusiastic timeshare sellers.

“Thank you, I’ve already been asked,” is the badge some tourists will be sporting when they visit the Smokey Mountain resort city of Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Vickie Simms, executive director of the city’s chamber of commerce, told The Mountain Press that they were receiving too many complaints about the “repetitiveness and behavior” of timeshare sales people soliciting on the streets. The chamber’s intention is not to discourage those who are interested in viewing timeshares and attending timeshare sales presentations. However, they do want to offer visitors the choice to request the sticker and hopefully be spared repeated overtures by the OPC’s—the off-premise contacts (or off property contacts) who represent timeshare sales. Simms was quoted as saying, “As the tourism industry is the lifeline of the business community, it is the chamber’s goal to provide our visitors with the most gratifying and memorable experience possible.”

You can also shop for Smokey Mountain timeshare resales and timeshare rentals at www.sellmytimesharenow.com. You will by-pass all the eager OPC’s who want to sign you up for presentations you don’t really want to sit through. Instead, you can browse the inventory of right-priced vacation ownership properties on your own schedule and without any heavy-handed sales pitches trying to sell you something that is not right for you.

More timeshare opportunities in Mexico with Wyndham Resorts.

Taos, New Mexico is as ideal for a summer vacation as it is for a winter ski holiday. Long recognized for both its mystical beauty and its historic charms, Taos is a center for arts and native crafts as well as skiing, white-water rafting, hiking and biking.

Last month, Wyndham Vacation Ownership announced that they are expanding their timeshare vacation properties through the acquisition of the Fechin Inn in Taos from Taos Lodging Associates, LP. Located near the cultural center of historic Taos Plaza, the current property will be renovated and upgraded into timeshare condos. When reconfigured, the original 84 rooms in the Inn, located just behind the Taos Art Museum, will offer studio units, as well as one and two-bedroom timeshare condos. The Wyndham Fechin Inn will become the second Wyndham Vacation Ownership property currently under development in New Mexico. In 2006, Wyndham purchased 22 vacation units north of Taos, at the Riverside Lodge and Cabins in Red River, with plans to also refurbish them as a timeshare vacation resort. Additionally, during the past year, Wyndham Vacation Ownership has opened a sales center in nearby Albuquerque.

If you are interested in a New Mexico timeshare vacation, Sell My Timeshare NOW currently offers resale timeshare condos and cabins at:

• The ski resorts of Angel Fire and Eagle Wing
• Pine Cliff Village, Crown Point Condominiums, and High Sierra, all near Ski Apache
• Tiara Del Sol atop Camelot Mountain, and
• Las Brisas and the Sunterra Resorts, both in Santa Fe.

Visit www.sellmytimesharenow.com to check our constantly changing inventory of resale and rental timeshares and vacation ownership properties.

Timeshare resales online are proving to be the long-awaited solution for timeshare title transfers — whether they’re timeshare sales or timeshare rentals.

Say you don’t necessarily want to stop timesharing altogether, but you’re tired of the resort you’ve been going to for a few years and want to shop around. How would you find out about other resorts? And if you found something you liked, how would you sell what you had to get what you wanted?

You can’t put a sign in the window, like you might with an old car: “timeshares for sale, call 555-5555.” You have to put what you’re selling where people who are interested are going to see it. To sell timeshare effectively, you’ve got to get it under people’s noses, and not just any noses, the right people’s noses. People who really really want to buy your type of timeshare.

Timeshare Resales and the Best Way to Sell Timeshare

It takes a lot of work to get those people who are looking to look in the right place. That’s why we have an entire company dedicated to it. SellMyTimeshareNOW.com makes sure that each timeshare sale is seen by people who really want to buy your timeshare, or campground membership, or even a timeshare houseboat!