[ 2014 ] Buying from Sellmytimesharenow.com

Looking to make our first resale purchase. Has anybody had buying experience from Sellmytimesharenow? Any info on how they operate would useful.
Thanks, Joe

Linden said:

Looking to make our first resale purchase. Has anybody had buying experience from Sellmytimesharenow? Any info on how they operate would useful.
Thanks, Joe

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Never used them, BUT be sure to send them your money via U.S. Mail. Don't use a wire transfer or credit/debit card (or PayPal) to ever pay anyone.

Why U.S. Mail ? Simple; By using the U.S. Mail system you can bring mail fraud charges against them should they fail to perform, and you will have free assistance (you'll have the U.S. Postal Inspectors behind you).

If they won't accept a payment by mail then you shouldn't do business with them.





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Linden said:

Looking to make our first resale purchase. Has anybody had buying experience from Sellmytimesharenow? Any info on how they operate would useful.
Thanks, Joe

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Sellmytimesharenow is a listing site. They charge owners very high prices to list with the promise of higher resale values. Owners probably paid in the $1000-$2000 range to list with some paying less and some more. You can offer less but the owners their may still think their TS is worth much more than it is or they may have come to the realization that they are not getting the offers they were hoping for.

I think sending payment by mail is kind of silly. You just want to make sure you are using a reputable closing agent (with escrow if the price warrants it).

tschwa2 said:

Sellmytimesharenow is a listing site. They charge owners very high prices to list with the promise of higher resale values. Owners probably paid in the $1000-$2000 range to list with some paying less and some more. You can offer less but the owners their may still think their TS is worth much more than it is or they may have come to the realization that they are not getting the offers they were hoping for.

I think sending payment by mail is kind of silly. You just want to make sure you are using a reputable closing agent (with escrow if the price warrants it).

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Kind of silly? Read all these threads from the poor suckers who have been waiting for months and months to receive their deeds for that which they have paid for (presuming using methods other than the US Mail).

Additionally, you establish some type of physical address instead of an electronic email address.

Mail Fraud is a Federal Crime, and has a bigger bite to it then trying to chase someone down to get your money back (which is likely long gone anyways). Potential criminal charges or jail time makes money appear out of nowhere……





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That is because they bought of ebay and didn't use a reputable closing agent because they had to use the ebay in house closing agent. That is a different situation from someone buying directly from an owner or a for sale by owner site like redweek ( a low fee one), or Tug (a very low fee site), or sellmytimeshare now ( a very high listing site).



I have no experience with a mail fraud case but wouldn't you still have to actually go through the trouble and expense of bringing a case against the person. Using a reputable closing agent and escrow would mean they never had the money and the closing agent would return it to you if the deal didn't go through.

All I can say is they suck. I tried them years ago as both a seller and then as a buyer. They list timeshares are higher than anyone will pay fees and when a buyer is interested in something, they try to sell them something else.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

presley said:

All I can say is they suck. I tried them years ago as both a seller and then as a buyer. They list timeshares are higher than anyone will pay fees and when a buyer is interested in something, they try to sell them something else.

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Isn't their parent company / affiliation Timeshare Broker Services??? I find them to be really expensive, some selling prices almost dillusional. I have spoken with a few brokers as a buyer and they are not very willing to help you negotiate (as it keeps their commission higher??). I have yet to act on anything as once again, I feel their listing prices are too high. I also find that by hanging out on TUG I have (sadly) had more knowledge than the broker, and I by no means consider myself an expert. I'd go elsewhere unless they have the week you are looking for and you can't get it anywhere else.

As was relayed to me just a few weeks ago, apparently SMTN was sold to the individuals who run Timeshare Closing Services, CJ Timeshares, etc.

I used them to buy a timeshare. The closing costs are higher than most other places. In retrospect, I could have paid more per dvc point, paid less closing, and came out ahead with better customer service elsewhere. That being said, they sold me something that I wanted and I got it.

ptlohmysoul said:

I used them to buy a timeshare. The closing costs are higher than most other places. In retrospect, I could have paid more per dvc point, paid less closing, and came out ahead with better customer service elsewhere. That being said, they sold me something that I wanted and I got it.

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I have found it is hard to really get the buy price you want with them. I was recently offered an SVV 44,000 SO for $1500 + closing costs. Even 81,000 SO routinely goes for less.

We were unable to reach a deal. They wanted a 1000.00 dollars for closing. Was not allowed to talk with seller themselves. We bought from Sumday vacations for a fraction of the cost. Thanks Tug

I found a listing on SMTSN that I am happy with the price for a Wyndham CWA contract.

The price is good but the fees seem high.
This is my first resale.

What is legit/bogus and or can be negotiated.
Or am I just stuck paying them?

$425 Title closing cost
$299 Wyndham Transfer Fee
$195 Administrative Fees

Thanks

mjr0483 said:

I found a listing on SMTSN that I am happy with the price for a Wyndham CWA contract.

The price is good but the fees seem high.
This is my first resale.

What is legit/bogus and or can be negotiated.
Or am I just stuck paying them?

$425 Title closing cost
$299 Wyndham Transfer Fee
$195 Administrative Fees

Thanks

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The Wyndham fee is Legit - the others are excessive - it's just the seller padding their fees.

mjr0483 said:

I found a listing on SMTSN that I am happy with the price for a Wyndham CWA contract.

The price is good but the fees seem high.
This is my first resale.

What is legit/bogus and or can be negotiated.
Or am I just stuck paying them?

$425 Title closing cost
$299 Wyndham Transfer Fee
$195 Administrative Fees

Thanks

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Negotiate these .. of course, expect the agent to say those are fixed and say, "FINE .. I will buy from someone else ... Have a Nice day!"

And then hang up.

You can always call back later and ask for a supervisor OR ask during your first phone call.

DeniseM said:

The Wyndham fee is Legit - the others are excessive - it's just the seller padding their fees.

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Thanks

Seems the title company is related and same address.

Think these are negotiatable?
If not, should I walk?
What's fair for closing?
The admin fee seems like it should be renamed to profit fee.

mjr0483 said:

Thanks

Seems the title company is related and same address.

Think these are negotiatable?
If not, should I walk?
What's fair for closing?
The admin fee seems like it should be renamed to profit fee.

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Exactly - the seller is doing the closing as well. The company that I use, LT Transfers, does closing for about $150.

However many ebay resellers do this: sell the TS share cheap/free, and make their profit on closing. It's typical of the ebay resellers. Usually, they don't want to negotiate, because that's where they are making their money.

Before I discovered timeshares for low cost (maybe even free) with sellers paying all closing costs, I corresponded last year with an agent from "sellmytimesharenow" about a week 31 for sale at Grandview Las Vegas for $99. (I had just returned from a timeshare presentation at Grandview - didn't buy THAT time - and I was curious about the resale market. This was the day the light bulb went off and I realized what my other time share - which I did buy from a developer - was really worth financially.) This $99 timeshare looked like the same thing that a salesman had just tried to sell me for big, big bucks.

Here are the closing costs the agent gave me that I would have to pay for the $99 timeshare, and it didn't sound like there was any room for negotiation over this:

$1195 "administrative fee;
$325 "transfer fee/letter"; and
$599 for some other closing expense.

In other words, the seller of this unit did not want to pay any closing costs, either completely or sharing them with a buyer, which, of course, is understandable if not entirely realistic.

Overall, of course, these costs were much, much lower than what the resort tried to sell me at the presentation. But I didn't take him up on the deal.

Ace said:

Here are the closing costs the agent gave me that I would have to pay for the $99 timeshare, and it didn't sound like there was any room for negotiation over this:

$1195 "administrative fee;
$325 "transfer fee/letter"; and
$599 for some other closing expense.

In other words, the seller of this unit did not want to pay any closing costs, either completely or sharing them with a buyer, which, of course, is understandable if not entirely realistic.

Overall, of course, these costs were much, much lower than what the resort tried to sell me at the presentation. But I didn't take him up on the deal.

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The problem with the extra fees is not really the seller. It's the fact that this "agent" is involved in the deal. Most of those fees are padded profits for this "agent" and the promise made to the seller that the listing fee was worth it.

Anything is better than buying from the resort but there are still much better places to buy resales.

My problem with this company and others like it, is that they don't appear to be honest with their customers about what their timeshares are actually worth. They must charge these people large upfront fees and justify them by letting people believe that they can get $15,000 for a timeshare that is barely worth $2,000 (or maybe even less).

When I have talked to a couple of reps from here in the past for a week I was interested in...but not at listing price of $10K - $12K...but more for like the $2,000 it was worth, they got kind of snippy with me, like I was some cheap skate trying to kneecap the existing owner (they used the word kneecap, not me). I should have never bothered even calling them. I bought the unit I was looking for on Redweek for the very fair going rate of $1,600 from an owner (I paid a higher price than some other owners were asking but I liked the owner who was selling, and he was very helpful so I bought his more expensive week).

I can't name the agent here I don't think because I am not sure of the rules against posts sounding like advertising, but there is a guy who I have worked with in the past on Marriott weeks. Ironically I never actually bought from him but he was really good at negotiating a price for the Seller and Buyer that would legitimately pass ROFR and finding stuff I was interested in. I almost bought a Platinum season Monarch oceanfront unit from him. He understood what true market value was and negotiated a fair price from there. In other words a really good agent. There are some others like him out there, some of the guys have listings on Redweek and they are straight shooters.

I guess what I am saying is that in my experience (far more limited than others here) there are bunch of other people that would be better to deal with (in my opinion). I personally have some Ebay sellers I trust more and would rather deal with.

JMO.

Unfortunately, sometimes there is no better option. For example, my FIL is looking for a specific week at a specific resort in a specific unit, so there is only ONE owner out there that would be a match, so I told him chances were slim to none.

Then I did some more looking and lo and behold, it's currently listed on SellMyTimeshareNow. Sigh. I am helping them through the process, but yes it's difficult and he will end up paying a higher price, though in his case it's not an issue as they are happy to pay it to get such a specific week.

Gaozhen said:

Unfortunately, sometimes there is no better option. For example, my FIL is looking for a specific week at a specific resort in a specific unit, so there is only ONE owner out there that would be a match, so I told him chances were slim to none.

Then I did some more looking and lo and behold, it's currently listed on SellMyTimeshareNow. Sigh. I am helping them through the process, but yes it's difficult and he will end up paying a higher price, though in his case it's not an issue as they are happy to pay it to get such a specific week.

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1. I would start a new Gmail account (for spam/anonymity)
2. Advertise on TUG/Redweek etc... Wanted: " xxxx "
3. Wait for call

I bet you'll get one. Maybe from SMTN or ???

Go for lowball $$$

Gaozhen said:

Unfortunately, sometimes there is no better option. For example, my FIL is looking for a specific week at a specific resort in a specific unit, so there is only ONE owner out there that would be a match, so I told him chances were slim to none.

Then I did some more looking and lo and behold, it's currently listed on SellMyTimeshareNow. Sigh. I am helping them through the process, but yes it's difficult and he will end up paying a higher price, though in his case it's not an issue as they are happy to pay it to get such a specific week.

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Just a side note on this type of situation. When you start a process like this you are not necessarily forced to buy "through" selltimesharenow. Since the goal is a fixed week and unit you can look up the specific deed and contact the owner directly and make an offer.

I know a tugger one time was after a certain floating unit so they looked up all the deeds and mailed out offer letters to the existing owners.

taterhed said:

1. I would start a new Gmail account (for spam/anonymity)
2. Advertise on TUG/Redweek etc... Wanted: " xxxx "
3. Wait for call

I bet you'll get one. Maybe from SMTN or ???

Go for lowball $$$

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Definitely used my junk-email account! I didn't know he was looking until a couple weeks ago, and then found the SMTN listing the same day, so hadn't bothered advertising on TUG or Redweek, good idea. Thanks! And unfortunately his idea of a lowball offer is a bit higher than mine, but it's still a deal compared to developer and if he's happy with the price who am I to argue!

Saintsfanfl said:

Just a side note on this type of situation. When you start a process like this you are not necessarily forced to buy "through" selltimesharenow. Since the goal is a fixed week and unit you can look up the specific deed and contact the owner directly and make an offer.

I know a tugger one time was after a certain floating unit so they looked up all the deeds and mailed out offer letters to the existing owners.

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Also a great idea - any idea how to find the deed for a property in St. Maarten? (They own Belair Beach Hotel weeks 11 & 12, and are looking for week 10, unit 406 so they don't have to move. Also looking for week 9. If they can't get week 10 in 406, then they may consider week 9 and 10 in another 40X unit so they only have to move once.)

Gaozhen said:

...any idea how to find the deed for a property in St. Maarten? (They own Belair Beach Hotel weeks 11 & 12, and are looking for week 10, unit 406 so they don't have to move. Also looking for week 9. If they can't get week 10 in 406, then they may consider week 9 and 10 in another 40X unit so they only have to move once.)

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Never mind - it's a RTU property so looks like just a lease, no deed. And the SMTN unit apparently sold a couple years ago (but stayed listed 'cause laziness). Oh well, the hunt continues.