Timeshare Sales

As the real estate market has grown tougher for home sales, the residential real estate industry has been driven to rethinking strategies for making the most of their marketing dollars. It doesn’t surprise us at Sell My Timeshare NOW that recent statistics from the Center for Media Research show that real estate agents have increased their internet advertising and marketing and decreased their print dollar.

Total ad spending on real estate has declined 3 percent in 2007, while during the same period, the online segment has grown a whopping 25.8 percent. People who want to market and sell residential real estate are discovering that good internet marketing reaches more people, more effectively than any other tool you can use.

The profound truth about reselling real estate, timeshare, vacation homes or any other type of property is that nothing, absolutely nothing, beats the type of exposure your resale will get when it is well advertised on the internet.

Selecting a Company to Help you Sell Real Estate or Sell Timeshare

If you want to sell your home, look for a real estate agency that will market your property on the World Wide Web. And if you want to sell timeshare, or use your vacation ownership property as a timeshare rental, then look for a timeshare resale and timeshare advertising company that has a powerful and dominating presence in cyberspace.

Pick a timeshare resale advertising company that will feature your timeshare property to the broadest possible marketplace. Pick a timeshare company whose presence is everywhere on the internet!

When potential timeshare buyers or timeshare renters go online, searching for timeshare deals, you want the timeshare company you choose to market your property to be visible everywhere that buyer may be looking. The timeshare advertising company you choose should be the easiest timeshare company to find on the web, no matter what search terms a timeshare buyer might use to look for them.

It is not enough to provide good service and fair pricing. If you want to sell timeshare, you need your timeshare to be advertised by the most visible timeshare company on the World Wide Web; you need Sell My Timeshare NOW.

To read the full Borrell Report on the changing trends in real estate advertising, click here. And here’s what the Chicago Tribune has to say about online vs. print advertising for real estate.

There are always many topics to blog about in the world of timeshares and vacation ownership, but there are some questions that come up so frequently, I want to take a few blog posts and really focus on them.

So here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions that I receive about timeshares, timeshare resale, timeshare rental, and the whole industry of vacation ownership.

Q. Can I trust the timeshare industry? I’ve heard about timeshare fraud and unethical practices.

A. YES you can safely buy timeshare and sell timeshare! Timeshares in the US (and for the most part worldwide) are a highly regulated industry. I think timeshares got off to a rocky start because 30 to 40 years ago, when the first timeshares were established, they were an entirely new business model. There just weren’t existing laws in place to regulate their development and sale because there had previously been no product like them.

Because of this, there were growing pains, while developers, management companies, hoteliers, consumers, and legislative agencies worked out what types of guidelines and restrictions needed to be implemented. Today, in the US, every single state has laws on the books to protect the consumer in buying and selling timeshare.

Some states wrote new laws unique to timeshares and vacation ownership, while other states adapted for the timeshare industry, laws and guidelines that govern other types of real estate transactions.

Yes, there have been scam artists along the way, but these types of people exist in every industry. There are also people who use heavy-handed sales tactics, and other approaches that do not put the consumer first in the transaction. But most of those people go out of business when faced with the competition of legitimate companies, offering worthwhile and straight up opportunities to people who want to buy timeshare.

In fact, often, when you hear about timeshare scam today the fraudulent business is not about the sale of individual timeshares to buyers, but refers to schemes designed to entice people into investing in the development of timeshare resorts.

I am not dancing around the fact that there are still disreputable people in the timeshare industry. There are also disreputable doctors, lawyers, ministers, schoolteachers, and pizza delivery boys. No industry, no matter how tightly regulated it becomes, can entirely eliminate shysters. Sadly, crooks will always find a new angle as long as there are consumers who buy in haste, don’t research what they are getting into, and fail to get reliable answers to important questions.

The warning “caveat emptor” used so frequently in real estate transactions applies just as much when you want to buy timeshare or sell timeshare. Caveat emptor means literally, let the buyer beware.

Important Tips about Timeshare Resales

So here are some important tips you can apply to help you make wise decisions when you buy timeshare or timeshare resales or you look for a company to help you sell timeshare you already own:

1. Contact the Office of the Attorney General for the state in which a timeshare company is located and check that the company has a clean record, without complaints filed against them. If you have never done this before, it’s simple to do, because consumer protection is one of the main purposes of this division of state government. You will find the Attorney General’s Office to be easily assessable and very helpful.
2. Go on line and search the timeshare company by name. Look at their website. Find out how long they have been in business. Read the comments of actual timeshare owners and learn from their experience.
3. If you buy new timeshare from a timeshare developer, don’t let anyone rush you into your decision. Study the contract. Ask questions. If the deal seems “wrong” or “too good to be true” – walk away from it.
4. Before you sign a contract to buy timeshare, know the rescission laws for timeshare transactions in the state or country in which you are buying. In some states, you may have only 24 hours to change your mind. In others states, you will have longer. Know this information before you sign the contract.
5. When you buy timeshare in other countries, be doubly cautious. The laws that protect you in the US, do not protect you when you sign contracts in foreign countries.
6. Above all else, take your time. There are many opportunities to buy timeshare and to buy timeshare resales. You can purchase from a developer, from a timeshare broker, or directly from the current owner. Shop around. There are too many options in timesharing and too many different types of timeshares on the market for you to settle for something that is not a perfect fit for you.

Timeshares are one of the fastest growing segments of the hospitality and leisure industry. Don’t let the old image of timesharing stand in the way of you enjoying one of the best opportunities in vacation accommodations available today.

Check back in on Monday. I’ll be continuing in the next Timeshare Owners Blog post, responding to frequently asked questions.

Do you have Labor Day plans? Will you let this last chance for summer relaxation slip unobserved into the cool weather of autumn, or will you take advantage of a holiday timeshare vacation?

For many people, the long Labor Day weekend marks the end of summer vacation. Kids get ready to go back to school, beach time gets scare, and the picnic basket is packed away until next season.

But you may still have time to book a timeshare rental at a fabulous price and enjoy one last weekend of summer. Act fast and you may be able to take advantage of the opportunities in timeshare resales and timeshare rentals and plan a wonderful holiday timeshare vacation.

Many people just don’t realize that timeshare rentals are available. They incorrectly assume one has to buy a timeshare or join a vacation club in order to enjoy the wonderful locations and fabulous amenities timeshare resorts offer. But Sell My Timeshare NOW advertises great deals on timeshare rentals and timeshare resales. These are resort properties that you rent or buy directly from the person who actually owns them—no developer acting as the middleman and adding on extra fees. And while you have probably waited too late to book a Labor Day weekend hotel or motel, and you may still be able to rent a Labor Day holiday timeshare.

Timeshare rentals become available because the timeshare owner is unable to use his or her timeshare unit. Many property owners opt to rent their timeshare as a way to offset their annual fees, which they must pay whether they personally use the timeshare unit or not. Unlike hotels and vacation cottage rentals, which will always charge you the highest fee they can command, many timeshare owners are only looking to offset their own annual expense by renting all or part of their timeshare interval.

And renting timeshare at the last minute, even waiting until now to plan a Labor Day holiday timeshare vacation, can still mean you are on track to enjoy an incredible timeshare deal.

A recent Hotwire.com survey lists the following locations as the top-ten destinations for Labor Day 2007:

1. Chicago, Illinois
2. New York City, New York
3. Atlanta, Georgia
4. St. Louis, Missouri
5. Boston, Massachusetts
6. San Francisco, California
7. New Orleans, Louisiana
8. Las Vegas, Nevada
9. San Diego, California
10. Norfolk-Virginia Beach, Virginia

If you are interested in exploring timeshare rentals (or timeshares resales) at these popular destinations, here are some links to Sell My Timeshare NOW timeshare rentals:

• Illinois timeshare resale and Illinois timeshare rental
• New York timeshare resale and New York timeshare rental
• Georgia timeshare resale and Georgia timeshare rental
• Missouri timeshare resales and Missouri timeshare rentals
• Massachusetts timeshare resale and Massachusetts timeshare rental
• California timeshare resale and California timeshare rental
• Louisiana timeshare resales and Louisiana timeshare rentals
• Nevada timeshare resale and Nevada timeshare rental
• Virginia timeshare resale and Virginia timeshare rental

Boomer women, that’s females born between the years 1946 and 1964, have become a dominating force in the US economy. Today’s midlife female directs 80 percent of consumer spending, according to the research of Mary Brown and Carol Orsborn, Ph.D., in their new book, simply titled, “BOOM”.

While some people may think that middle-age individuals and timeshare vacation properties are both out-of-date and passed their prime, that assumption could not be further from the truth. Today’s boomer woman represents the generation who has seen more change in the roles and opportunities of women than any previous age group. They are the best-educated and highest income earning generation of women ever.

As younger women, many carried protest signs to spark social and political change. Today they are more likely to use petitions, speaking before legislative bodies, and the focused spending power of their dollar to achieve their objectives. They may be older, but they are definitely not taking a back seat to anyone.

Like boomer women, timeshares were just starting out in the 1970’s. They too, have changed and evolved tremendously over the years. Timeshares, as an industry, have “grown up”. They are now carefully regulated in the US. Around the globe, laws to protect timeshare buyers and timeshare owners are improving every year.

Where timeshares were once inflexible and limited to the same week at the same resort, year after year, that too, has changed, affording vacation property owners the chance to pick their leisure time, use it in increments that fit their schedule, and exchange or bank it for other venues and other times. And I don’t have to tell you how much the timeshare industry has gained from the ever-increasing involvement of big hoteliers and chains that brought with them the power of brand recognition and consumer confidence.

But why boomer women and timeshares?

Consider that 67 percent of the wealth in America today is controlled by boomer women and that they have not yet reached their income earning potential. Boomer women also stand to inherit money from their own parents, their spouse who they will statistically outlive, and indirectly from their in-laws. Just as importantly, boomer women represent a demographic with a proven commitment to carving out time for well-earned vacations and time spent with family and friends. With those facts in mind, it isn’t hard to imagine that boomer women potentially could take sales over the top for the already-booming industries of timeshares and vacation property ownership.

Here’s a You-Tube trip down memory lane for all the Baby Boomers.