As Jimster points out, there are indeed risks involved. Most people, on inexpensive resale timeshares (less than $5000) are more than willing to accept the risks in return for saving the few hundred dollars. However, just be aware of the risks when you decide.
It's not that you can't copy the seller's deed and record it. That's simple. The risks are that:
1) You don't know for sure that he hasn't banked future usage. The title company will verify that. With some timeshares, they'll sell you an estoppel, where they'll verify all that sort of info. With others, they will only do that with a title company.
2) You don't know that the seller's deed was properly executed, so merely copying it may not be good enough.
3) One very common flaw in many timeshare conveyances regards death of an owner, or divorce situations. So many people believe that if the spouse dies, all that's needed is the remaining spouse to sign the deed; WRONG! Depending on the county, there are always additional requirements. Somehow, either through probate, affidavit, or some other way, you have to record proof that not only did a co-owner die, but also that their share of the property reverted to the survivor. Divorce situations are even worse. If a conveyance from one of the spouses to the other after a divorce is not executed properly, then that ex-spouse is still a partial owner, even after the other spouse transfers the party to you. So they could theoritically show up to use the property, even if you are paying the fees. And you will always be on the hook for the fees, even if you're just a half owner. And that ex-spouse could be buried 2 or 3 owners ago.
3) It's possible that your seller did everything correctly, but somewhere back in the chain someone didn't. Of course, that's not important except in 2 instances; first, if one of the previous owners comes back and tries to claim it (very unlikely) or if someone in the future wants to get title insurance when they buy it from you (unlikely in the case of a cheap timeshare).
Bottom line: If you suspect that getting title insurance will ever be required for you to sell it, or if losing the timeshare would be a devasting loss, carefully consider it. At the very least, do a title search yourself, just to check for glaring deficiencies. The most common deficiency you can find yourself is to make sure that if 2 people signed the deed to buy it, that the same exact 2 people signed it to sell it. This flaw occurs a lot more than you might think, and it isn't the responsibility of the county recorder or the timeshare management company to spot it. You can search the title chain in the county clerk's office, or sometimes on the internet.
