CHAPTER 2

THINKING ABOUT SELLING

Vacation timeshares usually sound like a good deal in the beginning, but often the shine wears off after a while. They can be costly, with maintenance fees, taxes, and the like, and if you want to try a different timeshare or week, it can be difficult to switch with someone else. Adding insult to injury, once you decide to sell, you may find the process expensive and time-consuming. If any of this sounds familiar, you may want to donate your timeshare to your favorite charity. Donateforacause.org will sell your timeshare and donate the profits to your favorite charity. It costs nothing for the charity, and you get a simple, fast, and socially-responsible way to get rid of your timeshare. You may be surprised to learn that often, donation makes the most financial sense. So if your timeshare is more trouble than it's worth, consider donating it to your favorite charitable cause. You'll support work that you admire and get a tax write-off to boot!  More about this in the next chapter.

The Importance of Advertising

Whether it’s a Web site, advertisement, or other marketing collateral, we’ve heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. Having a visual of the product enhances marketing communication, we’re told, because people don’t have time to read. People seldom fail to read most of the advertising copy they come across, but that’s because of the hype that’s part of most ad copy, not people’s lack of time to read.

In a study of 3,600 consumers, researchers concluded that to get people to notice an ad, text was twice as important as pictures. Buyers of your time share are interested in reading about your services, but you must grab their attention. What’s new about your offering? What’s your story?  Is there news?

What’s most important is that the fluff be ruthlessly eliminated from your ad copy, Web page or other marketing communication. If you include hype and half-truths about the time share that you are selling, you make it nearly impossible for buyers to separate the wheat from the chaff. The result: a lost sale. Ten different studies have shown that when the bull is stripped from what you are selling, consumer interest skyrockets.

Of course, other studies have shown that long ad copy does work when selling products and services. When it comes to selling your time share, though, to improve your buyer’s rate of interest, make every word count. And remember that the “right” words, not just any words, are the ones that sell.

Successful Selling

The best way to get the maximum return from a time share is to use and enjoy it. And if you’re using your time share, don’t sell it!  Except for exceptions that are rare indeed, a seller will take a great loss when selling. However, if you are not using your time share, it is foolish to hang on to it just to avoid facing and accepting the reality that it will sell at a great loss. Often owners will call the resort and will be told the price at which the resort sells them. The seller doesn’t realize or accept that the resale market is a totally different market than the higher new-sales prices a developer can obtain by offering various incentives and while the buyer is “under the ether” of the pleasant surroundings of the resort, and the reassurances of the sales staff.

Following are ways that you can be successful at selling:

• Just accept the fact that time shares sell for 30 to 50 per cent of what was originally paid. And the loss will be even greater than that by the time commissions and closing costs are deducted from the proceeds of the sale. But realize that if you hang on to it for another 10 years, your loss will increase by an average of about $5,000 by the time you pay for maintenance and taxes, which usually add up to $500 per year.
  
  
• Think like a buyer, because it is the buyer who has your money in their pocket. Buyers think of pretty much only one thing – the price. Find out what price at which other sellers are selling units like yours. Then price yours at the bottom of that price range. Buyers pick off the bottom prices of the list, not even a little bit above that. Choose to be the one they pick.
  
  
• Think about how great the savings will be to you for the rest of your life, if you sell it, by NOT having to pay any more maintenance fees or other costs. These fees go on forever! This is a LOT OF MONEY! Think about that money, not the money you will get from the proceeds of the sale!  Pricing it just a little bit too high to sell, will prevent you from keeping all that money!
  
  
• Do not even listen to what anyone has to say about a recommended sales price, if they are connected with a company that has a mandatory up-front listing fee or mandatory upfront appraisal requirement. Beware of any company promising a refund of the upfront fee. Most states have strict trust record guidelines for advance fee refunds. These guidelines and the way timeshare sales really work in real life, make any refund unrealistic.
  
  
• Use a professional licensed company to close your sale. Don’t try to do it yourself. It is amazing how involved it can be to close a timeshare sale and get all the entities involved to responsibly do their part, and to get the resort to get the new owner on their computer.

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