If you are thinking of selling a vacation time share you've no doubt found that the Internet is literally cluttered with websites offering the seller the opportunity to place an online time share classified ad to sell their time share. To the untrained and unsuspecting, the come-on sounds quite enticing:  Advertise your time share here for a fee, and you keep all the money. No real estate broker fee to pay. The seller pockets more money, the buyer gets a lower price. It is a win-win situation, right?

Wrong. The problem is that in the real-life time share resale, for both the seller and the buyer, the scenario just doesn't work out that way in the vast majority of cases. Following are the reasons why:

• Sellers will NOT necessarily net more money by selling on their own compared to using a real estate professional. A trained time share broker who is experienced at sales techniques and skilled at negotiating offers from buyers can often get a higher price or structure a better deal for sellers than the inexperienced seller could obtain independently.
  
  
• Buyers will NOT necessarily be able to buy at a lower price directly from a seller. Sellers on their own usually price their units way above fair market resale value. Brokers can assist buyers by showing comparable sales to the seller, and factually justifying an offering price that is at fair market value even if it is less than the asking price.

That broker in most cases can actually get a better price for the buyer and the seller wins too because a formerly unsellable listing becomes a sold listing. Since the typical buyer is not experienced, an offer for less than the asking price, with no factual market experience to substantiate the offer, will usually serve only to anger the seller and subsequently that buyer completely loses the opportunity to buy the time share at all!

A buyer and seller who go through a licensed time share broker have a professional who is responsible in seeing that there are no surprises in what is being sold, as to unit description, fees, and all terms of the sale that would not otherwise be verified.

Classified ad time share websites are there to sell ads. They don't provide personal assistance to help you sell your timeshare. They have no licensed real estate agents, not even someone to whom you can personally talk in order to receive counsel as to sales strategy and how to properly price the timeshare so it will sell.

These companies offer zero service and they are not interested in selling your time share.  Their only interest is to charge you to place an online ad that somehow magically is supposed to sell your time share with no one to advise you and no one to prompt and encourage the buyer. Such sites may offer you a link to a closing agency, but they don't disclose hidden costs and the fact that closing agencies do not handle many of the common problems that come up during the escrow sales closing procedure. These web sites are NOT licensed real estate brokers and they do not have to follow the comprehensive laws a licensed broker must follow for your protection.

The majority of buyers simply do not like the idea of dealing directly with a seller. They want to make an offer but they want someone else to do the negotiating because they find it distasteful to deal directly with the seller. An online classified ad will miss these valuable offers from this type of buyer.

Similarly, sellers in reality don't really like negotiating directly with the buyer either. Experience proves that buyers dealing directly with a seller will propose all kinds of "mickey mouse" insecure ways to try to accomplish the transfer and handling of funds, all of which could have been done easily by a trained licensed professional time share broker who knows how to structure the transaction so that it flows smoothly and follows strict real estate laws that are already in place to protect BOTH buyer and seller. Plus, the time share broker services the sale and follows it through from start to finish, expediting the signatures, forms, funds, etc.

Virtually ALL online ads you see on such sites are OVERPRICED, will never sell, and the seller has wasted their money and more importantly their time. Buyers who are browsing these sites until they are cross-eyed, eventually learn the listings are over-priced (or no longer for sale), and the buyers sooner or later narrow their search to the professional sites where there are actually trained professionals they can speak to, as opposed to the speaking to the seller who is obviously biased in his/her own favor.

A broker serves to protect the seller from frivolous offers. There are many many buyers who constantly browse the Internet and make ridiculously low offers to sellers. Such buyers are "bottom fishers" and they are very "brave" sitting behind their computers and sending ridiculous and disgusting offers. They can actually get quite hostile. They will make offers and say things that they would probably never do in person. Kind of like the drivers we've all met who "hide behind the wheel" of an automobile, honking the horn and acting far more aggressively than they would if they were face-to-face with the other person. The seller who wisely has a licensed real estate broker representing the listing, will be shielded from such distasteful buyers.

An online ad is limited because it is only one source of locating a buyer. A licensed real estate broker brings many other sources to the table for you, such as walk-ins to the office, repeat business from previous buyers, referrals of buyers from previous buyers, large databases of proven buyer sources, referrals from timeshare industry related agencies, Internet and print advertising, direct mail, and more. There is just no comparison between an online classified ad, and a dedicated licensed professional time share real estate broker who lives, works, and experiences the business day in and day out.

As a seller, please think it through - is it really to your advantage to try to cut out the professional licensed time share real estate broker?  Do you really want to deal directly with a buyer?  If problems come up during the sale, do you really want an angry buyer on your hands who probably has your home telephone number and address?

What problems, you ask?  Misunderstandings and problems are so common during the sale, it still amazes me even after all these years in the business. And these problems are not handled by the closing agencies. There are many entities involved in a time share transfer, far more than most would realize, and the greater the number of agencies, the more chances for misunderstandings.

The entities include the resort management company, the lender, the exchange companies, the escrow companies, taxing agencies, local governmental agencies and more. Each can represent a problem or misunderstanding.

If you have no broker you are on your own. A broker serves a very important "referee function" and often pays out of his/her own pocket to save sales that would otherwise fall through.

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