There’s a little secret going around about time shares and it’s this: the best way to get a deal is to get in on second hand timeshare sales. These are available all over the Internet in places like eBay, individual’s buy and trade sites, and even Craigslist. There is actually quite a market here, because many people for one reason or another have bought in but now want to get out and wonder how to sell my timeshare? Like a used car, as soon as they’ve bought it and “driven it off the lot” it loses a big percentage of its value. That’s where you can come in and but their time-share for anywhere from 50% to 99% off. (Okay, 99% is probably a little unrealistic but it does happen.)
You see, what happens is that lots of people get hooked into buying a time share through a very sophisticated sales process. They may be hooked in through telemarketing to come watch a presentation put on by the sales group. They are enticed by offers of free prizes and even cash giveaways. Or they may get hooked in while they’re actually vacationing somewhere like Florida, Hawaii, or Mexico. Marketers like these types of people because they’re pre-qualified because they’re already showing that they like to vacation in that spot.
These people then show up to the presentation and are marketed to so hard that a high percentage of them end up buying into the timeshare. The problem is that while it is mostly a legit business providing a valuable product, some of these buyers end up not liking the maintenance fees and such that come down the road. Any of a number of things could contribute to them throwing their deeds into the second hand timeshare sales mix.
Now this is the market where you want to be. It is so much better to scoop up these second hand deals while avoiding the big sales process. Sometimes these people are so desperate to get out of their second hand timeshare sales that they’ll actually pay you to take it off their hands.
Obviously whatever you do you have to watch out for fraudsters, but there are definitely a lot of legitimate second hand timeshares on the market today. Make sure to read all the documentation and know what you’re getting into legally. You don’t want to buy into a money drain. Lastly, I would just say don’t make the same mistake that many have made: don’t view a timeshare as an investment.