Montgomery, IL · Member since 2013 · 13 posts · 0 votes
Need advice on selling or giving away timeshare? My wife bought one years ago, it's paid off but we have never used it and would like to get rid of it. It is in Florida, all you need to pay are the maintenance fees.
Sun Prairie, WI · Member since 2013 · 150 posts · 69 votes
12y
You'll have to find a charity to donate the time share to that hasn't caught on to this strategy. Many charities will no longer accept time shares as they have realized what a money pit they are and how difficult they are to get rid of. Many people that I know end up deeding them back to the association for nothing or having to set up shell companies to deed them to and then abandon the shell companies. These are an absolute nightmare for most people.
Real Estate Investor · Saint Petersburg, FL · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 951 votes
12y
@Javier De La Cruz Check the popular timeshare resale sites and see if there's any value for the one you own. Some have maintenance costs that exceed the value of a comparable stay so people aren't willing to pay anything at all for them. If you don't see much value in selling it then I agree that donating it might be your best bet (if you can find someone to take a timeshare) depending on your income level (if you make $30k a year then you won't get much tax savings so you'd pretty much just be giving it away vs if you make $500k a year you'd get a worthwhile deduction).
I hope you at least got some free Disney passes or something when you guys bought it.
Rental Property Investor · Mercer Island, WA · Member since 2008 · 22k+ posts · 14k+ votes
12y
You could try advertising in eBay. I've looked at a few there before I figured out the maintenance fees were more than you could rent the same property. And you're not locked in. In the right place, though, some of these do have some value. But auctioning it on eBay might generate a buyer.
Real Estate Investor · Saint Petersburg, FL · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 951 votes
12y
As John said, it's definitely over priced. If anything has been on the market for 3 years it's over priced no matter what it is. If the timeshare isn't in a super desirable location (in FL that would be directly on the beach, in Key West, or extremely close to Disney) with a reasonable maintenance fee it may have zero or negative value
SFR Investor · Denver, CO · Member since 2009 · 184 posts · 55 votes
12y
Timeshares probably are the worst real estate investments around. At most timeshare resorts in Colorado, only the 2 weeks at Christmas can be reliably rented for more than the maintenance fee.
Almost twenty years ago, I got three of them for free because I thought I could trade them through RCI and save money on vacations. This strategy worked just OK, but over the years the maintenance fee went up enough to sour me on my "free" timeshares.
I got lucky a few years ago and got rid of two of them through a close friend who actually sells at new timeshare resorts. He didn't charge me a commission, though he earned it. But even a 10% commission would be zero.
ALL the ads you see when you google "sell my timeshare" are shady, ephemeral companies that will charge you $2k-$5k to take it off your hands. Apparently these outfits often don't actually complete the sale and you are still on the hook.
My sale was a win-win-win:
1. The buyer took over the maintenance fees of $360/year/unit.
2. The buyer donates these unrentable weeks with low trading power to his favorite charity, and gets a yearly tax deduction.
The use of the condo for the week isn't worth zero, because if you call up that resort and want to rent that week, they will quote about $1200. So my buyer gets a $1200 tax deduction, and the charity isn't stuck with the maintenance fee obligation.
Why were my weeks unrentable? There is zero demand for a ski condo in Colorado in May (mud season) or October (cold but no snow). So the only loser is the raffle winner or charity volunteer who receives the week. They have to pay their travel costs.
Mechanicsburg, PA · Member since 2013 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
12y
A friend had a time share in Portugal, most of the buyers were from UK or Germany and wanted the warm sunny location just off the ocean.
He couldn't sell his, he had paid $16,000 to buy it. So he defaulted on the maintenance fees and taxes and just didn't pay them anymore and walked away.
Property Manager · Livonia, MI · Member since 2011 · 4k+ posts · 1k+ votes
12y
I have a time share with hilton. I like it very much. I get to travel every year because of it. If I don't. ... I turn the points to hilton hotels, which I never expire.
SFR Investor · Denver, CO · Member since 2009 · 184 posts · 55 votes
11y
My wife owned a timeshare at a resort called Skier's Edge, south of Breckenridge a few miles. She owned a very desirable March (Spring Break) week. Even so, demand is far less than supply, and we are usually unable to rent the week out. Other owners have been experiencing similar issues. For different reasons, many owners don't want to keep their week and would like to sell, but can't, even for zero dollars. So many of them default, which puts the HOA at risk of bankruptcy.
Amazingly, we received a letter last week from the HOA board:
"Pursuant to a properly noticed special meeting of the owners of Skier's
Edge Condominium Association, Inc., the Condominium Project was declared
obsolete and the Board of Managers was authorized to sell the Condominium
Project. At the end of September the Condominium Project was sold. As a
result, there will be no 2015 assessment to the Owners."
This is a great result, but I didn't think it was actually possible. The original cost of the week was $3500, but anything we receive above zero will be welcome.
Mechanicsburg, PA · Member since 2013 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
11y
I truly do not consider time shares to be real estate. Owning the right to use a place for 1 week a year just doesn't sound like real estate, it sounds more like a hotel reservation, which I never call a real estate investment. And since they almost always sell for less than their costs, time share are not even an investment.
The quickest way of getting rid of one save giving it away, if you can find a give, is to stop paying the fees and taxes and let it be sold for the delinquency.
New York City, NY · Member since 2015 · 1 post · 0 votes
11y
I bought a Mayan Palace timeshare and it was one of the worst financial mistakes I ever made. I never intended to buy it, but I cannot suckered into going to a presentation to get free show tickets when I was in Puerto Vallarta. The high-pressure sales person convinced me to sign on the dotted line, and I ended up with a timeshare. It was one of the hardest things to get rid of, and I lost about $20,000 in the process. It was an expensive lesson learned but got out of the timeshare nightmare. I recomend a very good article: http://www.timesharescam.com/blog/206-how-to-get-out-of-a-timeshare/