When you purchased your timeshare, you probably never really considered that there might be a day in the future when you’d want to sell it.  The reason for selling could be one of many.  Perhaps your health has deteriorated, and traveling is just too much of an effort.  Or, perhaps you have made a permanent move into the area in which your timeshare is located, and since you now live in paradise, you have no need for a timeshare there.  Maybe you’ve found that the system in which you own your timeshare is just too complicated, or takes too much planning in advance.   Perhaps you feel that the maintenance fees are too much of a financial burden.

Whatever your reasons for wanting to sell, rest assured that you are not alone.  Many people come to the conclusion that they would be better off without their timeshare, just as many people decide they want to sell a house, or a piece of  property.

However, unlike those other items, a timeshare is going to be worth significantly less than what you paid for it when you go to sell it. You need to realize that you can only recover somewhere between 5-10% of the original cost, if that.  Even if you purchased your timeshare on the resale market, given the current economic conditions you can not expect to get what you paid for it.  Some timeshares, like Disney Vacation Club, sell for higher prices because Disney can exercise the right of first refusal (ROFR).  This means that if they feel the offer is too low, Disney will buy it back for that price, and the buyer is out of luck.

Possibly after researching what you might get for your timeshare, you might better learn how to use it and enjoy some wonderful vacations.  We love timesharing and on this site we try to help people get the most out of their timeshares. Think about it!  But if you have given it some thought and decided to sell, what is the best way to accomplish your goal of selling your timeshare?

1. Sell it to family, friends, or coworkers. If you enjoyed it, why not let others know how you used it for great vacations and they also can enjoy great trips.  Talk to family members, friends, and people you come in contact with and see if any of them are interested.  Post it at work, in church bulletins, etc.

2. Try to sell it locally. List it on Craig’s List.  Put an ad in all local newspapers and on the radio in your area and surrounding towns.  You might just get lucky.

3. Sell it to someone at your resort. If you go to your resort, talk to people and see if anyone is interested. People have  sometimes announced at a welcome breakfast that they have a week to sell. Also, people have posted a sign or even a 3×5 card with the information around the resort.

4. Contact the resort. They often have a newsletter where they list weeks for sale.  Also, many resorts have a local realtor that does resales for the resort.

5. Sell it on eBay. We have written a post on selling your timeshare on eBay that you should read.  Just click to read that post.

6. Post it on some timeshare sites. They might cost you a little to run an ad, but again you might just luck out.  Try Tug,  Red Week, Bid Shares or Vacation Timeshare and Rentals.

7. Contact some timeshare resale companies that will work with you to sell your timeshare. DO NOT pay any fees upfront. There are many timeshare people and companies who are a big rip off.  They take your upfront money and run and you are left with your timeshare and loss of your money. Talk to people who have sold or bought with some of these companies and go with one that gets a good report.

It really is possible to sell a timeshare, but it is not easy. You might also consider donating it to a charity organization.  Yes, you’d be out the money that you paid for it, but at least you’d be free of the maintenance fees.  Good Luck!

People often ask:  Whats the value of timeshare to you and your family? We would like to take a look at some of the ideas and issues that come to light when we think about “timeshare value”.

First, we  should state upfront, that to buy and own timeshares is not a saving or an investment strategy. We frequently hear sales people talk about the idea of buying a timeshare as an investment.  It is not, and you will probably not get what you paid for your timeshare when you go to sell, unless you have purchased your timeshare on the resale market.

We recommend that you not buy from the developer and suggest you read some of our posts on buying a timeshare.  “Timeshare Resales”,  “A Tip for Purchasing Timeshare” and “Buying Timeshares” are three to get you started.  Along those same lines, you get no value from your timeshare if you do not use it.  If you do not use all your weeks or points but instead let them expire, you are losing value and money.

When we look at the value of timeshares, we usually figure that you can probably sell most of your timeshares close to what you paid for them if you buy them all resale.   So in calculating the  timeshare value, we assume the purchase price to be a wash. So the yearly costs become your maintenance fees, membership dues to a trading company (RCI, II, etc), and the exchange fees you pay.  It is a good idea to keep track of these expenses.  We use a spread sheet on the computer to log these expenses. It then becomes an easy task to look at the totals for the year and divide by the number of weeks or days you spend in timeshares to get your costs.

We have found over the years that our costs  run from $300.00 to $500.00 per week or $43.00 to $72.00 per day. This depends on how much we can maximize our weeks using some of the ideas we have written about previously in our Wyndham posts.   Also, this cost varies based on if you go to a home resort or trade through one of the trading companies where you must pay an exchange fee.

When you compare this to the cost of hotels or condo rentals, we think we see an excellent value in timesharing.  Also, keep in mind many of the other advantages we have talked about in the timeshare experience: better and larger accommodations, amenities and activities at the resorts, and the great people you meet.  We have written several posts about timesharing and how superior we think it is compared to other travel methods.  Take a look at “Why we timeshare” and “Timeshare Vacations-A Guide to Healthy Living”.

Don’t get as wrong, we think there are other travel options that can provide a unique experience at a fair cost. We have tried some of these and have enjoyed them.  We have taken several cruises, found some great hotel deals, and have gone to some non- timeshare resorts that have provided a great value. We  recommend that you  look for these values and book them when you see a deal.  Be sure to do a cost analysis of days of vacations vs. dollar amounts and compare the experience and costs of your timeshare vacations.

We  think that timesharing is the best value in dollars for what you get. At any rate, have fun and enjoy!

Help! I need to sell my timeshare– what do you suggest?  This is probably the number one question we get as we travel on the 18 timeshare vacations we take every year.  We have written a couple of posts about selling a timeshare and you might want to read both of these for some background information.   One is titled How Do I Sell My Timeshare? The other one is Selling a Timeshare.

One of the most popular ways people are selling their timeshares is by using eBay, and we thought we would give a summary of how to go about it. First you should ( if you are not already a member) join the eBay community.  It is easy and doesn’t cost you anything to sign-up.  I would then spend some time looking at current listings of timeshares. You need to do a search for timeshares and begin to study some of the ads for timeshares.  You can also search for your own resort that you are interested in selling, and again read and study those.  Another suggestion is to do an advanced search and get a list of completed auctions. This would show you what timeshares have sold and for how much.

At this point you should have an idea of what you might get for your own timeshare if you try to sell it on eBay.  If you are not discouraged by that price, you could follow a couple of different routes.  One is to select a company that would take over everything and sell it for you. They take care of writing and posting the ads and working with the entire process.  This makes it easier, but of course they take a cut.

One company we worked with in the past takes the first $399.00 of the sale.  So if  it sold for $1000.00, they would take $399.99 and you would get $601.00.  But if it sold for $300.00, they would get $300.00 and you would get nothing.  But of course you would no longer own your timeshare and have those yearly maintenance fees, which is the reason that many people need to sell their timeshare.

Most of these companies use a closing company that handles the transaction after the auction has ended so neither the buyer or the seller can be ripped off.  I would look closely at both companies’ feedback scores and read comments that people have given to make sure you are getting a good company to work with.  If still interested, I would call them and discuss the process and get a feel for that company before you go ahead. As we have indicated in previous posts, DO NOT pay any money up front to sell your timeshare.

The second choice would be for you to list it yourself.  Again, you must do your homework and study the  listings and create your ad.  You can use current ads for a basic structure and go from there.  You can also get pictures of your resort off the internet to use in your own ad.   You will need to think about and decide a number of issues:  length of the auction, starting bid,  closing costs, etc.  I would recommend that if you go the route of listing your timeshare yourself, that you select a closing company. I don’t think many people would bid on your timeshare if you don’t.

Given the current economic situation, and more importantly, the housing industry in general, it is not a good time to be selling a timeshare. But  many  have no choice.  We wish you luck and suggest you move slowly.  If you have additional questions feel free to leave a comment and we will get back to you.

This is a question we get at most timeshares we have stayed at for the past several years. We would like to take a look at some of the issues that come to mind when we get this question, and try to show what your options might be.

• Do you really want to sell your timeshare? You might just need help on how to get the most out of the timeshare you own rather than trying to sell it. We try to help people understand their system and use their timeshare to enjoy vacations. That is one of the  main purposes of this web site.  Also, the internet is full of web sites that are helping to educate folks on the entire timeshare concept and how to use the timeshare they own.

• There might be family or friends that could share use of the timeshare. We have reserved weeks for family members on several occasions and they have had a wonderful timeshare vacation. We also have included friends on many of our trips to timeshares.   We often ask family and friends to share in some of the costs in setting up the vacations.   All have been very willing to pay their share because of the wonderful accommodations.

• You might want to rent your timeshare. We have written a post on renting a timeshare from the renter’s point of view.  Take a look at the post and that could be an option if you cannot use your timeshare for a year or two. That might include a health problem, financial problems or you have a few years to work before you retire. So in off years, try to rent it.

• Find the Value.  The best way is to go to E-bay. Do a search for your resort using the season of the year and size of unit that you own. See what you come up with  You can also do a search for completed sales on E-bay which lets you know what they have actually sold for. Use this information as a guide in determining a price range for your timeshare.

• Call the resort or the company that you own your timeshare with. They often have a system in place to help you sell your timeshare. There might be a person or a realty company that will list your timeshare and help you sell it. They work with you, the resort and owners and guests at the resort to help to sell your timeshare. They know the market value and have potential buyers. This has worked well over the years especially for resorts that are sold out.

• You can try to sell it yourself. You might run an ad in your local newspaper. You could post it at work on a bulletin board or in a company or church newsletter. Another idea is to list an ad on one of the timeshare sites like TUG or Red Week. Also you could list in on E-Bay yourself.

• Turn it over to someone else to sell it. NEVER pay anyone up front to sell your timeshare. There are numerous rip-off timeshare sales companies that take your timeshare and you get nothing , or end up having to pay them to sell it.   Most of these companies work over the internet and you need to carefully check out their feedback scores and comments, costs, procedures and how they do business.

I think that covers most of the key issues for someone to think about if they are interested in selling their timeshare. Wish you luck.

Okay, so you’ve been kicking yourself for quite awhile now about buying that timeshare.  “What was I thinking?” goes through your brain over and over again.

What you thought was going to turn into sun-kissed days on the beach and warm, starry nights sitting on the deck with a pina colada has just not materialized. The reason could be one of many:

* You never could plan ahead very well.

* You can never get enough time off

* Your mother-in-law became deathly ill the day before your vacation started.

And so on.

Or, maybe you just never took the time to read all the paperwork and find out what you really had signed up for. At any rate, you’ve made the decision to sell the sucker.  The question is, how?

Many people have the misconception that they should be able to sell their timeshare for what they paid for it, or even a bit more—kind of like a house.  Mistake #1!  If you bought from the developer, you would probably be very lucky to recoup even 25% of what you paid for it.

If you bought it resale, you might be able to recover close to what you paid, depending on several factors which we’ll discuss in a bit.  So right away, you need to realize that you are not going to make scads of money on this deal.

Of course, one alternative to selling is to perhaps give it another try.  Read the paperwork, find out what you own, and change some of the problems that have surfaced when you try to use it. (This site will hopefully give you some ideas on how to do that.)

Another alternative would be to try to rent it. This comes with its own set of problems, and to be honest, we haven’t done much of that.  Hopefully some of our readers can chime in on this.

But if you are determined to sell, you need to wrap your mind around the fact that if you do, you will not have to pay those maintenance fees every year! That alone will save you a lot of money, which eventually will make it worth your while to sell, even if you don’t get much money up front.

So, what are your options?

1)  Do some research on what timeshares are selling for. Good places to look are E-Bay and Bidshares.  Decide on your price and your bottom line.

2)  Get the word out. Talk to friends, co-workers, anyone that you think might be interested.

3)  Advertise inexpensively on Timeshare User Group or Redweek.  Bidshares is free.

4)  Advertise locally on the radio and/or  newspaper.

5)  Contact a realtor.

6)  Post your timeshare on E-Bay.

7)  Contact your timeshare company and see if they will buy it back.

There is another avenue you can explore if you are really desperate, and that is to contact what we call a postcard company.  You can find these if you check the E-Bay timeshare listings.  These companies charge you to take your timeshare off your hands–yes, you have to pay them money to sell it, and they keep the money from the sale! We would advise against paying anyone to sell your timeshare, but if you are really desperate. . .

You can also donate your timeshare, which will give you a tax break, but no money.

Keep in mind that the desirability of your timeshare will have a great deal of bearing on whether or not you sell it.  The old location, location, location rule applies here. A timeshare in Iowa will probably be tough to sell.  So will a week 2 in Hilton Head.