Selling your timeshare is worth the effort if you have not used it optimally or don’t see it serving any purpose in the future. But selling timeshares can take some time and you will need quite a bit of patience as buyers are not so easy to come by. You will have to put out a ‘timeshares for sale by owner’ advertisement in offline and online media or look for a timeshare reselling agency. Here are a few aspects that you will need to know about when selling your timeshare.
Upfront fees
If you seek the assistance of an agency when looking for prospective timeshare buyers, it is best to be cautious. There are plenty of bogus agencies that charge their clients an upfront fee and assure them that this is being done in their best interest. In a bid to sell your timeshares, never give in to the appeal of paying an upfront fee to your agency. Advertising fee, booking fee, marketing fee, market analysis fee and appraisal fee are a few terms used by agencies to force you into paying for their services. Once you have made the upfront payment, you may not hear from the agency again.
Estimate property value
When you advertise your timeshare, ensure that you quote a reasonable sale price. Overpricing your timeshare will definitely not attract customers. One good way to decide the resale price would be to enquire about the resale rates of timeshares similar to yours from timeshare owners who have successfully sold their properties. You should know that when you resell your timeshare, you stand to lose around 30{363bd2a98d15c88227082edbeda0d5f103110265c93869472e5f1256b705561e} to 50{363bd2a98d15c88227082edbeda0d5f103110265c93869472e5f1256b705561e} of the money you invested in it, or even more. This is because the price at which you bought the timeshare would have factored in costs incurred by the resort owner such as advertising costs.
Mortgage
You may have taken a mortgage to pay for the timeshare and at the time of reselling, you may not have paid off your loan completely. You may need to close the loan before selling your timeshare, as buyers are unlikely to go through the hassle involved with the mortgage even if you offer the timeshare at a much lower price. In fact, even charities reject timeshares that have an outstanding mortgage on them. You can also opt to close the loan after receiving money from the timeshare resale.
Provide correct information to buyers
When a prospective buyer reads your ‘timeshares for sale by owner’ advertisement, he will naturally have a lot of questions about the timeshare. It is best to provide buyers with as much information as is needed at the outset. When a buyer negotiates, ensure that the price you counter with is reasonable. Keep communication lines between you and the buyer open even if the sale does not materialize in the first attempt. This way, the prospective buyer will know that you are really interested in selling your property.
While timeshares for sale by owner are common, you can also choose to donate your timeshare to charity. This is a noble gesture that also has some tax-write off benefits.
