Buying Timeshares on eBay

Even with the bad economy, timeshares are selling on eBay. All the big names are there, Disney, Hilton Head, Wyndham, plus timeshares in exotic locales like Aruba and Los Cabos. Many of them are listed for less than $100. Some of them for a little as $1. Uneducated buyers are hoping to get lucky and win the vacation spot of a lifetime.

You might be as lucky as one buyer. He bought a timeshare in the Catskills for $2. What he got was a $75 resort fee, a $400 closing fee and an $800 maintenance fee. He had to pay all of that before he could use the timeshare. Then it wasn’t quite what he had in mind for a yearly vacation, so he had to pay more to join an exchange club. Now he pays over $1000 a year for a beautiful vacation spot that he doesn’t use. He’s so lucky that he will have to pay fees on this timeshare for the rest of his life or until he can unload it on another unsuspecting eBay buyer.

EBay is known for its bargains. Timeshare sellers are jumping aboard and hoping to purge themselves of yearly fees and unwanted mortgages. Right now there are over 1,700 timeshares listed. Before you go off half-cocked at the sight of a real bargain – understand that a timeshare is never a bargain, even at the unbelievable price of $1. -- M. Beddingfield

Timeshares and the Bad Economy

The bad economy will have an affect on any timeshares that you own, and that affect will not be good. Even if you have been responsible and have always paid your timeshare fees and timeshare loans on time, you are going to end up paying more because of those people who don't:

1. Your fees will increase. When people stop paying their timeshare fees and their timeshare ends up getting foreclosed on, the timeshare resort loses money. They have to make up that lost money somewhere and it is usually in the form of higher fees for all the other timeshare owners.

2. You will Likely see timeshare surcharge fees: With less of a base to support the timeshare and a credit crunch that is making it hard to finance the timeshare projects the timeshare resorts already have going, you will likely see special surcharges added to your yearly bills to help defray these timeshare resort costs.

3. Your timeshare is worth less: It wasn't worth a whole lot before, but it is worth even less now. Very few people want to buy (or can afford) a timeshare in a bad economy and that means prices of timeshares are falling like a rock to the ocean floor.

These are some of the reasons that the faltering economy will mean your timeshare costs you even more money...

Selling Timeshares Through Family Guilt

Timeshare salespeople are selling the concept of family this holiday season. With sales growth down, salespeople are hitting the public where it smarts the most, in the guilt department. They are pushing the idea of family vacations, family holidays, spending more time with your family and so on.

I’ve perused several timeshare websites and they are really promoting the family value message. One said that vacations are a necessity for stressed out families and that timeshare owners take more vacations. Another quoted that during tough economic times we need to bring the family together more than ever and that if you owned a timeshare that would be easier to do.

I don’t disagree that family is important, but it’s just wrong to use the idea of spending more time with your family as a way to sell timeshares. This is just another example of how they use hard hitting, underhanded sales tactics that play on the emotions. If timeshares are so great, wouldn’t they sell well without high pressure methods? -- M. Beddingfield

Timeshare Deliquencies Rise

With tougher economic times, it really shouldn't come as a surprise that more and more people are having issues with the timeshares that they own. While more and more want to sell, it seems like a lot are finding that they just can't afford them anymore and are missing their scheduled payments.

Standard & Poor's reports that total timeshare delinquencies rose to a new high of 4.2% in September 2008 and averaged 3.9% during the entire third-quarter.

If you are having trouble keeping up with timeshare payments, it's time to swallow that bitter pill and realize that you aren't going to get back any of the money that you used to purchase the timeshare resort unit. As the economic crisis worsens, it's going to be even more difficult to get rid of your timeshare, so mark it up to an expensive financial lesson and do whatever it takes to sell it now.

Navigator Beach Club - Ongoing Investigation

By M. Beddingfield

Developer Robert Reposa started building Navigator Beach Club in Dennisport, Massachusetts, more than two years ago. He sold dozens of people a year-round timeshare. They thought they were buying into a luxury resort with all sorts of amenities. But Reposa never completed building and now the property is in foreclosure.

According to Boston Channel Team 5, there have been at least 50 complaints on this and another timeshare property owned by Reposa to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office. The Attorney General’s office is refusing to comment because it is an ongoing investigation.

Meanwhile, those who spent their hard owned cash on this timeshare promise will have to wait for the courts to decide if and when, they will get their money back.

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Timeshare vs Vacation Club

By M. Beddingfield

Are vacation clubs timeshares in disguise?

Ed Perkins of SmarterTravel.com has a way of peeling back the allure of a free vacation to get to the truth. In this article by USA Today, a reader asks about vacation club promos. Mr. Perkins says a vacation club is usually no more than a timeshare in a different costume. With a so called, Vacation Club, you’re buying into a program that gives you access to a condo or resort at certain times. Sounds like a description for a timeshare doesn’t it? Vacation club or timeshare – either way you could be out thousands with little to show.

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Paying Upfront Fees to Sell A Timeshare

If you're going to sell a timeshare, you don't want to pay any upfront fees to get is sold because doing so is taking money out of your wallet that will never come back. The main reason is there is absolutely no incentive for a company to sell your timeshare if they receive an upfront fee. If they don't sell it, they can charge you another upfront fee. Why should they spend time marketing your timeshare if they already have the money? They simply spend their time looking for more people to pay upfront fees to them.

As the IndiaPost makes clear:

Your instincts are right. Do not use that agency. Do not pay that upfront fee. Odds are great that you'll be ripped off.Some of these legit-sounding companies working time share-resale scams typically request a deposit of $100 to $700 that they say is a refundable marketing fee, appraisal fee, listing fee or some such nonsense. They even assure you that, like magic, they have buyers standing by to make a down payment on your week(s).

Then "poof," they make your money disappear.Another scam involves companies offering to pay you more than what you're asking for your week. You just have to wait until their check from a foreign bank "clears" and then refund them the difference. But their check to you will eventually bounce long after your check to them has been cashed.In fact, any companies that promise amazingly good prices and quick sales are probably con artists.

If you come across someone that demands an upfront fee to sell your timeshare, walk on by...