Trade Week’s Advice to Consumers Selling their Timeshare

[tradeweeks]

FACT: Timeshare is a product that is SOLD.

What is meant by this?

Generally speaking Timeshare is not a product that you wake up one day and decide to buy or a product that you see advertised on TV and think “that’s great, I am going to go out today and buy one”. It is, and has been for some time, a product that is sold to you in a direct sale environment on a “One on One” basis.
The Timeshare salesman needs to know about you personally, your holiday habits, your wants and aspirations; this is an absolute MUST in this type of sale

Are there exceptions?

Yes in very few cases when an educated Timeshare owner who owns, say week 30 which he paid £10,000 for, makes an informed decision to purchase week 31 from a newspaper advertisement for £2,000. However, these cases are few and far between!

The majority of Timeshare owners became so by sitting in front of a salesmen at an office or in a resort and being sold to, THAT is a FACT!

WHY should you pay to sell your week?

Having established the facts above, why are so many Timeshare re-sale companies asking Timeshare owners to pay them to market their week (we have seen instances of “registration fees” of as much as £1,200) and then using newspaper advertisement and internet sites to sell the weeks (or attempt to sell!) ?

BECAUSE their business is about taking registration fees from clients who are desperate to sell, that is where they earn their money, not by selling the weeks! There is NOT a reasonable amount of Timeshare sold through newspapers. The only reason the vast majority of resale companies advertise is to attract more registrations and to demonstrate to regulators that “they tried” to sell some weeks. Business failure is failure and not fraud unless intent can be proven. So by placing advertisements, unscrupulous companies keep themselves clear from any possible recriminations.

OUR ADVICE

NEVER EVER pay a Timeshare resale company to market your week! If they are really involved in selling weeks they should make their money as a percentage of the sale.

[GateKeeper]

Some sellers do not have the luxury of giving away 40% of their proceeds to a resale company. There are trade offs between commission only and resale companies that charge a marketing fee. It is not as black and white as you say. However, there are those that would definitely side with the company that does not charge anything up-front, whether a large marketing fee, or a simple fee (< $30) to help support a website to place their ads on. Some cannot afford a 30-40% commission because they owe more on the unit then they'll have left after paying such a hefty price (even if it is after the sale). Those companies taking a marketing fee on the other hand, may not take any commission. If the timeshare is in high demand, this could net the seller considerably more at the end of the transaction.
Buyer and seller beware, know your facts and your situation before making any decision how to market your timeshare. And regardless of what you do, you should place your free ad on TimeshareGateway.com since it costs nothing, and is another avenue to generate leads for your sale.