Our resort actually has upfront fee companies recommended on their site!

[rickandcindy23]

Can you believe that our management company is so out of touch with timeshare owners that they would actually seemingly recommend these three companies for owners to sell weeks:

Vacation Network Advertising Corp. 888-534-3800
http://www.vnac1.com

Vacation Property Resales 800-882-0296
http://vpresales.com/timeshare.asp

Sell My Timeshare NOW.com
http://www.sellmytimesharenow.com

All three sites have a form you fill out, they contact you and tell you their upfront fees. When they call you back, they tell you about their exorbitant fees and call over and over again. These people are so convincing because they say things like, "you cannot expect to sell your timeshare without paying to advertise it. This fee puts you on the internet, where almost all timeshare resales are sold." Well, lahdeedah, but they will NOT sell the timeshares. Why would our resort put this information out there for all owners to see, as though these sites are recommended and will successfully sell the weeks?

Am I wrong on this, or are any of these companies okay?

 

[bigrick]

Many people buy a timeshare and then never use it. It becomes an albatross that they just want to unload. Paying someone to sell it for you may be less painful then taking the loss yourself. After all, it's just money! And if they didn't do any research before buying why do research now when they want to sell? Just get it over with, and pay more money.

 

[bigrick]

I just looked at the Vacation Property Resales site. In setting up to search their listings one option is to name your price range. The choices are from $0.00 to $1,000,000.00! Wonder how many buyers they get for that max price?

But if I was anxious to unload my albatross I might feel better knowing I was dealing with a company that may have a selling price of a million. Maybe then I'll get back my original purchase price!

 

[rickandcindy23]

bigrick, no one sells timeshares through these companies at all. That was my point. I just thought someone might think one or more of these companies were more reputable, but I doubt that any are. They may all be the same people, just different company names.

I don't want the older folks that are not internet savvy and not able to check on these three "recommendations" that are resort is touting.

I actually think they will be gone off the site pretty darn soon.

 

[eal]

"I actually think they will be gone off the site pretty darn soon."

I understand from this statement that you have complained to your HOA?

 

[Miss Marty]

Portion of Original Post

Cindy

You seem to have a real problem with free enterprise
If you do not want to see owners pay upfront fees
You should start a business/group & help timeshare owners
Instead of crying about how terrible these companies are

 

[trice01]

Hmmmmmmm....

Would this be you, Marty?



Get Out of that Unwanted Timeshare and Never Pay Maintenance Fees Again.

Martha M. Giggard
Founder of The Mid Atlantic Time Share Group
Licensed Real Estate Broker


Home of Famous timeshare traveler Little Lucky, the long eared bunny rabbit

 

[rickandcindy23]

No one should ever pay an upfront fee. If this is legitimate as a business, I need to hear reasons behind your assertion. If you are making the claim that our owners are going to benefit from these links, you are welcome to defend these companies right here.

Let us never forget the famous TUG warning, the NEVER pay an upfront fee to sell your timeshare. These are upfront fee companies, no doubt. I have filled out the forms and have gotten postcards from several different companies-- like the miscreant Timeshare Relief.

The website for our resort is pretty great, I agree Marti, but what is your beef about what I wrote? :annoyed:

 

[rickandcindy23]

Cindy
You seem to have a real problem with free enterprise
If you do not want to see owners pay upfront fees
You should start a business/group & help timeshare owners
Instead of crying about how terrible these companies are

I have a problem with upfront fees, Timeshare Relief and all of the similar companies. Absolutely, I have a problem with people who take advantage of the naive.

Yes we do have a Yahoo usergroup with ten people registered, most of which are the few board members and the office staff. It is new.

 

[bnoble]

Absolutely, I have a problem with people who take advantage of the naive.

What about resort developers, then, who sell units to folks at ridiculously inflated prices?

Better yet, what about folks who buy resale units for pennies on the dollar from those who bought at a developer tour and now just want out--and probably aren't able to value their unit properly?

That said, I do think that encouraging your resort to find better recommendations for its owners---and to better educate them---will be better for all the owners in the logn run.

 

[Miss Marty]

Deleted...

 

[rickandcindy23]

Marty, this links are to upfront fee companies. That is not going to help any of our owners, getting calls from these unscrupulous brokers who only take your money and never bother to even try to market your timeshare.

Look at the sites, all are dishonest to the core.

 

[rickandcindy23]

What about resort developers, then, who sell units to folks at ridiculously inflated prices?

Better yet, what about folks who buy resale units for pennies on the dollar from those who bought at a developer tour and now just want out--and probably aren't able to value their unit properly?

That said, I do think that encouraging your resort to find better recommendations for its owners---and to better educate them---will be better for all the owners in the logn run.

Yeah, I don't care what the developers have done. Who is defending them? Not me. When people sell their timeshares "for pennies on the dollar," they at least are not paying Timeshare Relief $3,495 to take it off their hands. If they must sell their timeshares, I want our owners to walk away and really be able to say they received their value.

Most of our owners are older. We are 51 and we were two of the five younger owners at the HOA board meeting on November 4th. The management company that designed that website has been our company for the 25 years we have owned it. They should not be putting out links to upfront fee companies and wasting our owners' money. The links are NOT HELPFUL. Those companies will hurt our owners. :annoyed:

Two wrongs do not make a right. Just because developers sell timeshare for outrageous prices and promise the moon does not mean that you have to keep being a sucker when you want to get rid of it. It would be much better for our owners to just give their weeks away.

 

[Carolinian]

Why don't they have links to Bidshares or eBay, instead of ripoff companies that take your money and never produce a buyer????? Is the management company in the pocket of these folks or just plain dumb????

Does your board review content of the website or just let management do what it wants? At my resorts, the HOA board has ultimate control of the website and also approves newsletter content before it is mailed. The legwork on the websites is done by volunteer committee members, not management.

 

[Miss Marty]

Deleted...

 

[Spence]

Why would our resort put this information out there for all owners to see, as though these sites are recommended and will successfully sell the weeks?

Ask a member of the Board of Directors.

 

[Spence]

BS

It does not appear to me that your management company is so out of touch - They are not "recommending" these three companies for owners to sell weeks. They are only posting Various Links for Timeshare Owners

They are tacitly recommending these companies.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Carolinian, I think this is a new addition to the site. I check it all the time.
We are sending out our own newsletter this month and we are considering options for getting rid of loads of weeks, the association owns about 87 weeks (87/1350 of the resort's total weeks)! Many are red, but about half are green.

 

[Jya-Ning]

Not try to defend anyone, but Tug is also on that list, ARDA also is there. Both ARDA and TUG has suggestion on sell although ARDA is pretty hard to find. And both talk about the up-front cost. I don't see anyone in that lists is "pay us and we guarantee to take TS from you (although legally you may or may not still own that TS depends on how quickly we can push it out)" type.

I do have some questions though
1. Does your HOA get advertisement money from listing these three sites, or is someone in the board directly work with them? If so, it is nothing to be upset. You need to discuss with the board to see if you want to continue advertise them or add some more link that talk about up-front charges.
2. I maybe wrong, but I believe FL law forbid upfront-fee for resell TS in FL, is your state has similar law, if so, to put that link there is kind of encourage broke the law.
3. Based on my limited idea about the real estate rule, since listing agent takes the money from the seller, (s)he should try to get the max. for the seller. In today's TS resell market, can a honest agent that charges only commision or back load fee from transaction make a living? Don't forget a lot of eBay $1 bid is from the compay that "relief" owner, or from HOA forclosure that piped through. So, if their seller don't want to take a hugh loss, they can not compete in eBay type of area. If they can not, then sadly the only way to survive at this moment is to allow upfront fee agent but to regulate them. Or to expect a lot of the sellers that willing to take a hug loss.

I never see any add value for these up-front agent, or "relief" company. However, I believe a lot of owner step into TS with little or no idea what they are, and pay no attention to figure out. So when they want out, in a buyer's market, sometime, they may need to take hugh loss or even pay someone to take it out from their hand. For them, "relief" company may mean more value than the up-front agent.

Jya-Ning

 

[rickandcindy23]

This resort is older but most of the weeks are red, with the exception of 16-20 in the spring and 40-46 in the fall. Not too bad, but we sure have a lot of those green weeks right now! It's been a decent trader with II. Doesn't pull Disneys, does pull lots of the Marriotts where we like to go.

Most of the owners have had the weeks for 25 years! They have had time to use them, but most of them do not exchange their weeks, they just use them.

 

[Miss Marty]

Deleted...

 

[Carolinian]

Congrats, madame president!

Gee, Spence, I am on the board of directors (Just call me Prez), yet I get no answers from the management company, of course I just brought it to their attention today. It will be gone by Monday because I am writing a letter to everyone at that management company.

Carolinian, I think this is a new addition to the site. I check it all the time. I have been on the board for a year and have been a little pushy lately, so the president just quit, I nominated myself, it was seconded and a third person chimed in for a aye vote, so I guess I am it. The rest of the board members have been very supportive.

I didn't really want the job because everything at this resort is an absolute disaster (you would not believe it, even if I could share it all. Some of the issues are very sensitive right now), but I really like my remaining board members and plan to work with them in getting communications between owners and the board opened and working. We are sending out our own newsletter this month and we are considering options for getting rid of loads of weeks, the association owns about 87 weeks (87/1350 of the resort's total weeks)! Many are red, but about half are green.

 

[Robert D]

Sounds like either your HOA or someone on the Board is getting a kickback from these companies they are recommending!

 

[rickandcindy23]

Comment retracted.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Sounds like either your HOA or someone on the Board is getting a kickback from these companies they are recommending!

I don't think so.