Selling timeshare at Polo Towers

Friends: Years ago my mother was talked into buying a week at the Villas at Polo Towers. She fell on hard times and was not making her payments, so I and a friend took over ownership. I’ve enjoyed it for about 6 years now, managing to trade it for several nice spots (Aruba, Hawaii 2x, etc.) however I’d like to let it go. I was hoping that someone on the Board may be able to offer some thoughts on the best way of going about selling it. I’m already resigned to taking a hit, probably a steep one, on the price but want to make sure I don’t end up adding to my loss. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Hope you read this 3Cats!

 

I suggest you go to the timeshare user group. It can tell you all about timeshares and selling etc. It's not a commercial.

Tug2.net

 

As you already know, it is incredibly difficult to sell a time share. I've heard of some people successfully donating them to certain charities, but you have to find a charity that would be willing to take it over.

If I were in your shoes, I would check out TimeshareExitTeam.com. I have no experience with them, but Dave Ramsey endorses them on his radio show, so I would expect that they are one of the better companies out there for this sort of thing. Obviously you will have to pay them for their services, but they guarantee to get rid of your time share or you get your money back. Depending on their costs in your particular situation, it might be best to go this route.

Good luck!

 

I bought mine at Hilton through a broker on myresortnetwork.com and was very happy. You can get a valuation on there and maybe contact some brokers, advertise it yourself or there is a link to a charity for donations. Have you considered renting it to cover your maintenance fees?

 

Not my intention to piss on your cornflakes, but there are four Polo timeshares on eBay right now @ $1. One unit is an even year use (week 49) and the seller pays closing, transfer, and will give the buyer a $100 prepaid Visa card. $1,300 maintenance fees every other year.

Obviously, I don't know all the facts relating to this purchase, but it really bothers me to hear stories like this. One of my colleagues vacationed in Orlando at a Sheraton time share, it was one of those $249 four day specials in exchange for a 90 minute presentation. He flew back home with his family and came to his senses and cancelled the contract.

There are some folks on the board who own, trade, and have positive experiences. But, it seems to me that these are the exception, not the rule. I've rented timeshares on eBay and they have all been great experiences. I just don't want to own one.

 

Agree Hammie I have rented the time shares lots of time and I love doing it. I have done presentations to get gift cards and the such but I never bought and went in with the intention of never buying. Nothing better than being screamed at by a salesman!

I would look into renting it, post it on ebay or Redweek. At least do that when you are trying to sell it to make some cash back.

 

One of the eBay stores I have used on two occasions deals exclusively in Wyndham time shares, we rented a 2bed/2bath unit in Atlantic City. The unit was immaculate and they didn't really pressure guests to attend the sales presentation. The seller is solid, legit, and has 2,600 transactions and 100% positive feedback.

 

I probably used the same person for Wisconsin Dells!

I have also used Redweek as well. You for sure need to be careful when you rent as there are scammers out there. Every unit I got was great.

Same on presentation. When I need to to sales office to get my parking pass and "welcome gift" I think in a few minutes they can tell I am not interested but must go through the sell anyway. I have had em leave messages on the phone in the room for me, I usually give em a fake cell number though so I do not get added to the call list.

 

How much did she pay for it? A guy I work with went to vegas and did the presentation to get a $100 or $200, he said it was something like 60K for the timeshare, I thought that was crazy.

 

When I bought mine at Hilton on the Internet I paid about $13,000 which gave me 7000 points and 5 weeks in a studio for $1000 maintenance per annum. The same thing at the presentation is at least three times as much.

 

Buying a timeshare in Vegas of all places always seemed crazy to me. For what your annual maintenance fees are, you can probably run the same amount through a slot machine at a CET joint and get free rooms whenever you want. Even ignoring that, the rack rate for lodging in Vegas is so cheap that I don't know how you can make sense of a timeshare. At least somewhere like Orlando or Miami you're comparing it to paying $200+ a night for a basic hotel room. You can stay at a 4 Star resort in Vegas for about $50-125/night depending on the time of the year and what's going on. And that's walking in off the street with no play history.

Hopefully the OP can find a solution, but as others have pointed out, the value of a timeshare is typically just the money saved in annual fees being paid by someone else. If you aren't going to use it the meantime, I'd try renting it on Ebay as others have said. At least you'll get a portion of your costs covered.

 

Not sure if you were looking to get rid of the timeshare or not, but if you are check these guys out. I've never dealt with them first hand, but have heard good things. They can legally get you out of your contact.

timeshareexitteam.com

 

Former Timeshare owner here...

You're probably going to lose money on this no matter what you do. Resale of a time timeshare is next to impossible, just look on ebay. I've seen some ads that pretty much say "I'll pay you to take this off my hands" (so I don't have to keep making these monthly maintenance fees [which go UP every year])

However, some timeshare companies will take their timeshare back for nothing (of course you get nothing in return but you're no longer making those $100 -$300 a month maintenance fees either). A phone call doesn't cost much so why not give that a try?

 

We did a few presentations over the years. Almost got sucked in with a Hilton one with all the points they were offering. Glad we passed.

It is just as easy to PAY for hotel rooms each year. No swapping weeks. No worry about maint. fees, etc.

And, that is why you see so many for sale for $1.

 

I second this suggestion. The forums are full of friendly folks who are experienced and can answer almost any question. I'm one of the rare folks who seem to be happy with their timeshare, but I did a lot of research before I bought. That board helped a lot!

 

I'm more than happy with mine too. Coming from the UK it's saved a fortune over nightly hotel bills with only a few nights each trip being comped. If I stop going to Vegas so often though it would be a waste of money for sure.

 

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I appreciate the feedback.