How to get out of a timeshare???

[bradaz2488]

Hello, I have a couple of friends that purchased timeshares over 15 years ago and they have regretted this decision ever since. They never use the timeshares and the yearly fees have just gotten way too expensive. They really want to get out of them, but it sounds like they will have to pay (1000's of $) to get out from them. They even looked at donating them but it would still cost 100's of $. One of my friends paid $500 to get out of his and it was just a scam. They are at their wits end with these timeshares and just want to get out "legally" and not get scammed. I told them I would post this on this forum to see if anyone had any experiences with getting out of timeshares. Thanks....

 

[Rustward]

I asked the membership about this some years ago and did not get any good advice.
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/disposal-of-vacation-timeshare-52925.html

I do know of one way to accomplish the task, but it is [-]kind of[/-] very distasteful, so I won't even mention it.

Best of luck.

 

[jimnjana]

Give it the sales manager at the time share resort.

 

[Chuckanut]

Nobody wants them. In my area the market for used TimeShares has gone bust. I understand that some people will take them off your hands if YOU PAY THEM TO.

Don't get conned on your timeshare sale | www.clarkhoward.com

 

[Ready]

Where is the timeshare? What is the overall condition of the property? Some timeshares are clearly more valuable than others.

 

[bradaz2488]

Where is the timeshare? What is the overall condition of the property? Some timeshares are clearly more valuable than others.

I believe they bought them here in Arizona.. I do not know the name of the timeshare (resort?) or the condition of the place where they bought.

 

[jon-nyc]

The one guy I know who got rid of his paid for the privilege.

 

[Coolius]

I see timeshares for sale in eBay. Perhaps that might be an option?

Whichever way they go, they will certainly exit with far less than they bought in.

I really dislike TS high pressure sales events where they give one a free gift or some kind of bauble, and sucker one into a TS that eventually becomes a millstone round the neck.

Sad.

 

[Amethyst]

Why do timeshares have no value? Didn't people buy them to have fun using them?

Or did absolutely everyone who bought a timeshare have nothing but resale $$$ in their sights?

Amethyst

 

[Rustward]

My view of the timeshare industry (I believe they are trying to call it "fractional ownership" now -- wow) is that the timeshare is just an annuity for the management and maintenance companies.

 

[jon-nyc]

If they can donate them for 100s it's probably worth it. I know a guy who did something like that.

 

[bradaz2488]

If they can donate them for 100s it's probably worth it. I know a guy who did something like that.

Sorry.. I meant 1000's as well for the donation path, but if they can donate and write it off that would be the better path in my mind too.. They are just afraid of all the scams out there for getting rid of timeshares... I think they are willing to pay to get rid of it, but want to make sure it is 100% legit, legal and as easy as possible.

 

[Sue J]

My sister and BIL bought a week in Hawaii and liked it so much that they bought another week in Cancun. These are with the Starwood system. They put all their expenses on their Starwood charge card and plan an awful lot of their lives around maximizing their Starwood points.

Personally, I thought they were crazy! I've only heard negative things about timeshares. They've only been to Hawaii twice but they use the ownership there to trade for other weeks in other locations. I think they use their Cancun one more often.

The maintenance fees are $3000/yr for both. They can afford it and they love to travel so good for them.

I hope if they ever want to sell that they don't lose too much money on them.

 

[capjak]

i own 4 timeshares all purchased resale from people that did not want theirs, some on ebay and other places. Absolutely the best way to travel, no more 1 room hotels yuck....have full kitchens, living rooms, 2 bedroom, 3 bedrooms...etc...

They can sale it on ebay if they want and get a closing company to complete the deed tranfer. The buyer will pay for closing in most cases.

Timeshare User Group (Tug2.net) has a marketplace and there are several brokers that DO NOT require upfront costs to sale the timeshare.

NEVER NEVER NEVER PAY UPFRONT COSTS these are almost always scams.......

 

[zinger1457]

As was mentioned above TUG (Timeshare Users Group Forums) would be the place to go to ask timeshare related questions. Submit a question on the forum and try and give as much information as you can (name/location of timeshare, week/season owned, maintenance fees, etc.). They'll never get their money back but there might be options available to dispose of a timeshare without costing more money.

 

[Katsmeow]

I've only heard negative things about timeshares.

OK, I can give you a positive timeshare experience but it is very limited to the situation and this is not true of most timeshares which I think is a waste of money. If people like the timeshare experience I've always felt - in general - that they were better off just renting a timeshare week from someone...

Anyway, when my kids were small, we went to Walt Disney World and Disneyland several times so we bought into the Disney Vacation Club. We bought a certain number of points and you could use your points to stay at any Disney property and also at a number of high end non-Disney resorts. You had a "home" resort and I think every other trip had to be to the home resort. Ours was at Boardwalk Villa at WDW.

We used this a number of times. We stayed at Boardwalk Villa a couple of times - in a 2 BR unit with full kitchen - much nicer than a regular room. We also stayed at Disneyland once and went to Tanque Verde Ranch in Arizona once. I think we also stayed at another WDW property once.

Anyway, after a few years of this we decided we wanted to go to other places so we sold our unit on the secondary market. We sold within a matter of days for more than we had paid for the share. I was sort of amazed by it because a DVC timeshare was not forever. It was basically good for, I think, 40 years and we had used some of the years. The big thing that held prices up was that if you get an offer to purchase your share Disney had a right to match the price and purchase the shares and Disney would do it if the price was low. So people made good offers. Of course, when we sold our shares, DVC was selling shares (with a full number of years) for more. But the prices had gone up enough that we still received more than we paid.

This was some years ago so I don't know if they still do it the same way or not.

Of course, what made this work was that Disney is a desirable location and the fact that Disney would come in and buy your points if you were offered a low price. I think that most timeshares don't have those factors so I wouldn't consider one.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I used to bring my calculator to the time share presentations we'd go to for free activity tickets in Hawaii. If you added up the weeks they were selling the condos piecemeal for over 3 times what a single condo would cost if you bought one outright, plus collecting 10 times in annual maintenance fees compared to annual HOA dues on comparable properties.

 

[robnplunder]

Why do timeshares have no value? Didn't people buy them to have fun using them?

Or did absolutely everyone who bought a timeshare have nothing but resale $$$ in their sights?

Amethyst

For 1 or 2 weeks per year you can use TS, the maintenance cost is way too high, and it continues to go up every year. By the time you realize it's a bad investment, there are no buyers and you are stuck with yearly maintenance cost. If you are traveling often, you know it is much cheaper to rent a condo than owning a TS.

 

[Sarpy]

Agree with above posts about visiting TUG (Timeshare Users Group) for advice. Whatever they do, tell them to never pay upfront fees. Some of the scammers are getting pretty savvy at knowing this is an aversion now, so they'll bury it and not bring it out until several steps into the process, such as saying they can't complete the transfer without taxes or transfer fees, etc. being paid.

Also be wary of the donation sites now, as many of those are scams. True donation sites are very selective in what they accept, and you shouldn't have fees. But if you have a name-brand timeshare (Marriott, Westin, Starwood, etc.), why donate it when you can sell it yourself? Don't expect much or any selling price on the non-brand-names, but there are exceptions for prime weeks in prime locations such as coastal resorts, holidays, or ski weeks.

TUG has a Bargain Deals forum where they can post a timeshare for free, plus they could list it on eBay as previously mentioned.

Timeshares are great for the extra room and kitchens, and are really economical vacations, as long as you avoid developer prices and buy resale...AND learn how to use them effectively. Pre-planning is often necessary in order to get the best weeks if you exchange your unit.

 

[Tom52]

I currently own two timeshares, and at one time owned five. All were purchased resale, the three that I sold were for more than I paid for them. We use our timeshares as they allow us to go many places we love to vacation. Our yearly maintenance fees are approx. $1750 but we will vacation in nice condos for about $100 per night.

The information above about TUG2 is good, and you definitely never want to pay upfront "fees", however, there is no "easy" way to dispose of a timeshare unless it is a prime week in a prime destination. There are many that are just dogs in undesireable locations and in off seasons. Your yearly fees must always be current and you will often have to offer to pay next year's maintenance fees to intice someone to take it off your hands.

Hindsight is 20-20 but you should never purchase a timeshare directly from a developer, and why would you ever purchase something that you never use? To address the original poster, if I were able to donate to charity a timeshare I no longer wanted and the cost was a few hundred $ or even a thousand $ I would do it. The problem isn't going away and that maintenance fee bill will still be coming.

 

[mystang52]

Loaded question: What would happen if a timeshare owner just reneged on the maintenance payments? In practice, does the timeshare go after them through the legal process?
For years I have read horror stories about timeshares. I would imagine there are a huge number of owners who have defaulted.

 

[Amethyst]

I think they would be very remiss to other owners if they didn't sue deadbeats! No doubt other owners' maintenance costs go up if they're split amongst fewer payers.

People shouldn't just walk away from their obligations, as if there were nobody else in the world but them.

Amethyst

Loaded question: What would happen if a timeshare owner just reneged on the maintenance payments? In practice, does the timeshare go after them through the legal process?
For years I have read horror stories about timeshares. I would imagine there are a huge number of owners who have defaulted.

 

[NW-Bound]

Count us among people who are original buyers of timeshare from management and pay way too much for it. Yes, we got suckered into it.

On the plus side, the seaside Mexican timeshare that we own is rated sufficiently high on the RCI timeshare exchange that we can often get 2 for 1 when we stayed elsewhere (RCI rates each timeshare with a point system and not all timeshares are worth the same). For example, we once get two suites in Las Vegas, each with a living room, kitchen, and bathroom with Jacuzzi. Lots of room for my children to spread around.

So, we try to make use of the timeshare exchange as much as possible, even when traveling with the motorhome. We would travel to a destination, then park our motorhome while living in a timeshare for a week. Last year, we stayed one week in Banff, and then another week in a coastal town in Northern California.

I have been thinking about getting an exchange for a Spanish Mediterranean seaside timeshare. It's time to revisit Spain.

PS. Forgot that last year, we also got a one-week stay in a timeshare in the big island of Hawaii. That makes it 3 weeks total.

 

[Al in Ohio]

I inherited a Wyndham Timeshare (points based) about 8 years ago. The annual maint fee is about $1200 for us and we do use it almost every year for our main family vacation. Because it is points based we can pick and choose a variety of locations to visit. One year it might be Daytona Beach or Orlando and the next it might be San Diego ( Oceanside is our current favorite). While we make good use of it now, I often wonder how to unload it 10-15 years from now when we might not want it anymore. I will say this, I am glad I did not pay the $20k or so my parents did to get this originally as it is IMO just worth the yearly fee and no more upfront. The other trick is to avoid the impending "annual checkup" with the sales staff each time you visit a property. I have became quite forceful at telling them heck no when they try to convince me to buy more points.

Timeshare owners constantly get bombarded with offers to buy your timeshare and the vast majority are scams. I have heard that one thing to consider is to just work something out with the timeshare org and turn your week or points back over to them free of charge in exchange for taking you off the title.

What we like about ours is that it's about $1200. / year and I get a week in a spacious condo with a full kitchen, 2 baths and 2 bedrooms usually with a walkout balcony that say in San Diego or Florida often overlooks the ocean. So I get all that for about $170 per night. Could I swing that same deal from other timeshare owners willing to rent me their week for about the same amount? Probably and in fact, prior to inheriting this one I actually often did. A big part of me accepting the title transfer form my parents was that in their age (70's then and now over 80) they grew tired of it and paying the yearly fee, so I agreed to take it off their hands.

 

[retiredatfifty]

Never been interested in having a timeshare, but we are heading down to Orlando today to stay in one ... SIL bought one & has not been able to use it this year and has a lot of points that will expire at end of year .... so "Merry Christmas to us!"

We usually find a place through VRBO when we travel.