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Has anyone been successful? I'm about ready to sell my recently remodeled, Newport, RI, red time, mid June week for $1 with buyer picking up closing fees.
We've had ours at Cocoa Beach on the market for a while. A few bites, but nothing else appreciable. But that's not to say timeshares are not selling. It's all about location, time of year, and most importantly advertising all over the place to match up with the buyer who is out there.
One thing I have noticed is that buyers seem to be more interested in timeshares with points, such as RCI points. Rather than being committed to a particular week, today's timesharers apparently want the flexibility of using points for long weekends or week-long vacations whenever and wherever they choose.
The site is full of information, has an advertising (classified) section, and there's a members forum for asking questions. There is a small membership fee, but for me it's been well-worth paying it. (I believe it's $15/year with a discount if you choose a 3-year membership.)
Last word of advice --- do not pay any upfront fees to any company that promises to sell your timeshare. Believe me, you'll be inundated with them -- both me and my parents (and I know of others) have almost fallen into a bunch of sounds-too-good-to-be-true traps. The TUG website goes into detail about this.
Has anyone been successful? I'm about ready to sell my recently remodeled, Newport, RI, red time, mid June week for $1 with buyer picking up closing fees.
Why would you sell it for $1?? Just curious as I've been looking to see if I would end up saving money by having a timeshare in a place we like and the time of year we like....weighing the maint fee against what a hotel/condo rental would be.
Why would you sell it for $1?? Just curious as I've been looking to see if I would end up saving money by having a timeshare in a place we like and the time of year we like....weighing the maint fee against what a hotel/condo rental would be.
I'm not the original poster, so I can't say why verobeach has set a price at $1, but I can say that's really not unusual. Some listings on ebay, for example, start out at a penny.
It doesn't mean timeshares are worthless. If I was going to sell mine, I'd probably set a very low price because I've definitely gotten my money's worth over the years. Anything over a penny would be sheer profit for me. The price I'd set would be determined by how quickly I wanted to sell.
The asking price may also be dependent on what the seller originally paid. Those who got into timesharing in the early years could have paid $14,000 while others who bought within the past 10 years or so could have paid between $2,000 and $5,000.
As for comparing maintenance fees to hotel/condo rentals, it's sometimes equal, but in most cases, with today's seeming low rates, hotels/condos may appear cheaper. However, what we and many others like about our timeshares is that we know we're guaranteed a rental in a nice place. We own the unit for our week, have an actual deed, which also gives us voting rights in decisions made about our resort. Ours is in Myrtle Beach, and although we could trade our week and vacation in other places, we always use our place and look forward to spending Week 10 there every year.
Our maintenance fee is $580, and dividing that by 7 nights gives a nightly rate of $83. I think that's inexpensive for a resort right on the beach and with all the typical amenities. My parents have a place on Cocoa Beach, maintenance fee $900 (nightly rate $128), which is still worth it because of the unit (3 bedroom with 2 balconies) and the location. They themselves haven't used it much, but they've given their week to family members and have rented it to friends because of its close proximity to Orlando.
Closing costs are generally inexpensive and are usually, in my experience, in the $300-350 range.
Why verobeach is asking $1 plus closing costs could be because 1) their life's path no longer has room for week-long vacations and they just want to unload it, of 2) there's something unpleasant going on at their timeshare resort. But it's quite easy for a buyer to check out resorts to see if they are in a financial hardship or if the infrastructure is crumbling.
Saw a ton of them on Ebay starting at $1, no closing costs just resort transfer fee...I am soooo tempted for one in Myrtle Bch....3 bedrooms..washer & dryer in unit $663 maint fee..first week in Sept
also curious on how floating weeks work..is it difficult to get the week you may want?
I sold my Disney Vacation Club points for a 10% profit a few years after I bought it. Probably one of the few you can do that with. The caveat, I bought when the cost was around $60 a point, they are now up to well over $100.
Congrats annerk on selling for a profit. I love the concept of the points system, but you're right that there's the caveat of the price of points increasing over time. Still, I know that friends of mine, Disney Vacation Club members, have had some fantastic vacations banking their points and then using them for Disney cruises. With the "leftovers" they've taken long-weekend trips to Orlando. My aunt and uncle own a Blue-Green timeshare, and they've also taken great vacations using the Blue-Green points.
njkate - I wish I could say whether it's difficult or not to use floating weeks. Ours is a fixed week, and we've had no interest in trying to trade since we're fully satisfied with the week we own (it's an annual mini family reunion; we own the unit next to my parents and we all look forward to our traditional vacation together). But my parents used to be snow birds and did trade. They owned four timeshare weeks at various places in Florida and for various weeks (both fixed weeks and floating weeks), but would trade them all for back-to-back week-long winter stays at other southern resorts. They never had a problem making arrangements for places and times that they wanted.
I could be wrong, but I think the ease or difficulty of trading weeks within the owned resort or at another resort is partially based on your "collateral" (where you own and the week you own) as well as the popularity (thus availability) of the week you'd like. I believe there are some sort of fees involved when you have a floating week timeshare and want to use a week other than what's on your deed (presuming you have a deeded timeshare and not a right-to-use timeshare).
Congrats annerk on selling for a profit. I love the concept of the points system, but you're right that there's the caveat of the price of points increasing over time. Still, I know that friends of mine, Disney Vacation Club members, have had some fantastic vacations banking their points and then using them for Disney cruises. With the "leftovers" they've taken long-weekend trips to Orlando. My aunt and uncle own a Blue-Green timeshare, and they've also taken great vacations using the Blue-Green points.
njkate - I wish I could say whether it's difficult or not to use floating weeks. Ours is a fixed week, and we've had no interest in trying to trade since we're fully satisfied with the week we own (it's an annual mini family reunion; we own the unit next to my parents and we all look forward to our traditional vacation together). But my parents used to be snow birds and did trade. They owned four timeshare weeks at various places in Florida and for various weeks (both fixed weeks and floating weeks), but would trade them all for back-to-back week-long winter stays at other southern resorts. They never had a problem making arrangements for places and times that they wanted.
I could be wrong, but I think the ease or difficulty of trading weeks within the owned resort or at another resort is partially based on your "collateral" (where you own and the week you own) as well as the popularity (thus availability) of the week you'd like. I believe there are some sort of fees involved when you have a floating week timeshare and want to use a week other than what's on your deed (presuming you have a deeded timeshare and not a right-to-use timeshare).
njkate - yup, I understand the temptation!
saw an even nicer onw on Hilton Head which would be so cool as you also have Savannah to go into....first week of Sept which i would like as kids are back in school so it's quiet and weather is still great...
My ulterior motive here is hubby as he vacillates every year, every vacation..so to have one week more or less carved in stone would be great and there are lots of good deals on ebay now ...hmmmm tempting tempting
Plus a 3 bedroom with washer & dryer in suite for maint fee of $643 is a lot cheaper than hotel as we extra room if we wanted to invite peopel to come with us...
saw an even nicer onw on Hilton Head which would be so cool as you also have Savannah to go into....first week of Sept which i would like as kids are back in school so it's quiet and weather is still great...
My ulterior motive here is hubby as he vacillates every year, every vacation..so to have one week more or less carved in stone would be great and there are lots of good deals on ebay now ...hmmmm tempting tempting
Plus a 3 bedroom with washer & dryer in suite for maint fee of $643 is a lot cheaper than hotel as we extra room if we wanted to invite peopel to come with us...
In bold above, that's what we like, too. We know that regardless of anything else, such as any procrastination or lack of decision making, we're on vacation Week 10 of every year and to a place that we know is great (Week 10 comes just before Spring Break, so the beach is really quiet, thus I understand the desire for a quiet Sept. week :-)
$643 maint. fee for a 3-bedroom with in-unit w/d in Hilton Head is pretty darn good I think.
If your search becomes a truly serious one, do some diligent research about the resort, its owner, its property management company to make sure there are no red flags. For example, a number of years ago my parents owned two units in Hollywood FL that became totally worthless. The property owner and managers ignored maintenance issues for a very long time and the building became condemned -- my parents couldn't use the units, they couldn't trade them, but they were still required to pay the maintenance fees plus incredibly high special assessments. The end result I think was some sort of class action lawsuit that forced the resort owner to take back all the deeds free and clear without foreclosing on timeshare owners.
This ordeal is not a usual circumstance, so don't let it scare you off from thinking about timeshare ownership. My parents learned a lesson the hard way about not doing some and continuing to do some research.
You can start off by doing a simple google search, plugging in the name of the resort and/or the resort owner and/or the property managers and see what comes up with that basic search.
You can also browse the blogs or forums at various timeshare websites such as:
One of the things you want to see is if there are tons of units for sale at the particular resort. If there are many for sale, that's not necessarily a bad indicator at all. But if the bulk of them are foreclosures, then that means the resort owner and property manager are receiving less in maintenance fees and you'll want to know how they're managing the budget with less income.
What's not easy to research, but important, is the maintenance fee history and if there are any special assessments being paid or planned. I'm not certain how all timeshare resorts are set up, but ours has an HOA with a board of directors and all budgets and meeting minutes have to be available to the public.
I know, seems like a lot of work, but it's really not. In the end, if it's a timeshare you want, it's worth the bit of effort to make an informed decision.
We've been timeshare owners for almost 10 years now and without any horrors. We had one special assessment for $50 to offset a huge property insurance bill (back a few years when Hurricane Andrew changed the way insurance companies did business in the south). Other than that, our maintenance fee has remained rather constant, with just a slight increase over the 10 years to adjust for the economy. Our fees have covered new furniture and electronics, new rugs, paint inside and out, balcony maintenance, installation of washers/dryers in all units, elevator replacement, etc. Our resort is well managed, and that's not unusual -- you can find the same in many other resorts.
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