• Selling

How do you sell you time share?

How can you do so without losing out on money?

These are very common questions for timeshare owners who are looking to get out of their timeshare commitment. So what are some cheap effective solutions? Below we have some suggestions.

1. See if the resort/developer will buy it back from you.

2. Try selling it on Ebay

3. There are businesses that specialize in buying/reselling timeshares.

If there is a mail box or a community bulletin board at your home resort, you can put a “For sale” sign. This will pressure the developer specially if they sell it for $20,000 USD and you offer it for $5,000. Sometimes on the fine print of some sale agreements says that the developer has the first right to buy if your place is ever sold. I have heard of developers paying the money (as long as is not too much) just to take the sign out. Timeshares do not have resale value and in most situations you would take a loss in what you paid for, as they resale for less than $2000 USD.

To resale or rent a timeshare is a hard task, the basic rule is not to pay money up-front, don’t be another victim of a scam. Unfortunately over 50% of people that really need to sell their timeshare falls for this resale scams where they charge money upfront and less than 10% of them use their only real option which is to post it or offer it trough free advertising options as much, and as many sites as they can (it is OK to pay a few dollars to post in a great place but no more that $20 to $30).

There are some free classified ads where you can start posting:

http://timeshareownerscommunity.com/

http://craigslist.com

http://ebay.com

http://recycler.com/

http://usfreeads.com/

http://www.inetgiant.com/

Are you trying to get rid of your timeshare?

What options do you have for selling it?

Beside stopping payment or selling, what are the other options?

The first rule when you are selling is: You have to depreciate it from your original purchase price.  A little dramatic but it is very important to discount at least 30% (usually 50% is recommended).

Selling a timeshare can be really tough. You will be lucky to sell it for half of what you bought it for.

If you are looking for some  ways to get out of your timeshare,you might want to list it on ebay and craigslist which are also cheap. If  you want to try to donate the timeshare you could look into  thecharitygroup.com.

Here is some research to do before choosing a company to sell your timeshare.

1. Check the BBB report on the company for any negative feedback
2. Have the company provide traffic and offer reports
3. Act like a buyer on search engines and only inquire with easy to find, top ranked companies

So what will happen if you simply stop paying the maintenance fees? The timeshare company will probably sell the debt to a collection agency. This will ruin your credit rating, it will result in legal consequences, and all of the debt collection calls will definately iritate you. The best course of action is to contact the company to whom you owe money, explain your difficulty in paying, that you are trying to sell your timeshare and work out a payment plan that is do-able for you. 

What if you haven’t paid the principal off on the timeshare yet, and stop paying? Timeshares are treated equal to real estate in the eyes of the law, and it follows the same rules and regulations as a homeowners deed. Make Sure You Read the Fine Print. Your timeshare can foreclose in the same way as your home if you stop making payments – and this does not just mean payments on the principal balance, it also includes yearly maintenance fees. After your first missed payment, whether it be a monthly payment on the principal balance or your maintenance fees, you will start receiving calls from your timeshare resorts collection company attempting to collect a payment. You will also receive information by mail detailing the amount due, including any applicable late fees, and their intentions on reporting your delinquency to the IRS.

The foreclosure will be visible on your credit history. Lenders will take it into consideration that you didn’t pay a debt before loaning you additional money. You will either not get the new loan or will pay a much higher interest rate. It will be reported as a foreclosure.

The timeshare lender will report the foreclosure to the IRS. They will show the amount of money that was still owed at the time of the foreclosure as well as the value of the property at the time it was sold.

Say you paid $10,000 for the timeshare, had a remaining balance of $8000 and the timeshare is now worth $4000. For tax purposes you have a $4000 non-deductible loss (timeshares are personal use property) and a $4000 cancellation of debt income. If you are not insolvent or bankrupt, the $4000 will be added to your income in the year of the foreclosure as ‘other income.’ (The loan is considered separately from the property so the $4000 loss doesn’t reduce the COD income at all.)

For timeshare owners that own their property outright and simply want to get out their timeshare contract due to no longer traveling or not wanting to pay maintenance fees, the best way to go about obtaining a deed in lieu of foreclosure is to simply stop paying your maintenance fees. Eventually your home owners association (or HOA) will turn your account over to a third-party collection agency that will begin to use the traditional routes of communication including letters, email and phone calls in an attempt to collect the money owed. After this collection firm has used up all of their money-collecting ammunition, and it has been made clear that the owner has no intention of bringing the account current or continuing to pay, they will inform you that your home resort will accept a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure to sever all your ties with the timeshare property.

With regards to your credit in the case of obtaining a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, your credit should not be greatly affected at all. It is an excellent idea to obtain a written statement from the lawyer preparing the document to state that the lender and/or timeshare resort property owner will not be recording or reporting this deed to credit agencies. Some lenders/property developers will not agree to this, however, so you should at the very least obtain a signed statement acknowledging that any information reported will be accurate – including the fact that there was no delinquency or default if your payments are current. This document should be signed by the parties to whom you are returning the property, and while it is not a guarantee that the deed in lieu of foreclosure will not be reported to credit agencies, it will come in handy if any errors in reporting to FICO occur.