When you’re ready to sell your time share you’ll want to have some basis on which to establish your asking price. The following guidelines can be applied to coming up with a fair asking price for your time share:

• Typical:  This includes at least 95% of time shares that can viably be resold. The maximum resale prices average approximately 30% to 50% of the developer new price.
  
  
• Special:  This includes Marriott, Hilton, Four Seasons, and other major names where in addition to time share benefits, the owner can use credits for other things such as airline tickets, or accommodations in the chain's hotels worldwide. These special type of units typically resell for 50% to 85% of the developer new price.
  
  
• Mexico Resorts:  Depends on the city, but resale prices are typically slightly lower than category one above, and since the right to use is for a number of years, when the end is near the price drops dramatically
  
  
• Little Or No Demand:  There is very little demand for studio units (no private bedroom), or for off-season (Non Red) weeks. The honest truth is these can be nearly impossible to sell. Don't focus on "what you will get out of it", rather, focus on "what you are getting out of", which is the maintenance fees and taxes which go on forever. Even if you net zero on the sale, focus on the thousands of dollars you'll retain over a few years by enjoying NOT having to pay out further ongoing maintenance costs!!

If you encounter companies proposing substantially higher prices, examine their motive, no matter how impressive the company or sales pitch seems to be. Is their only motive to sell your time share?  Could they be trying to make the price enticing enough to extract some sort of advance fee from you? 

Most typically the motive is to derive a fee to be paid by you in advance of the sale. Such fees could include: online classified ad fees, upfront listing fees, appraisal fees, or referral fees paid back to the timeshare company from the appraisal company. Because the competition for buyers is so severe it is suggested that sellers price at their firm lowest acceptable price, because wisely setting a price is different for timeshare than it is for a house:  Unlike time share, a house is individually unique and irreplaceable, so the seller commonly starts high, and then plans to come down later if needed.

But since time shares are in such abundance, Internet buyers simply search for the lowest price and buy it. The over-priced owner will simply be repeatedly passed-by and never see an offer.

Time Share Commissions

Since most of us are entrenched with the idea that the commission charged on RESIDENTIAL real estate is usually 6 per cent, it warrants discussion why timeshare Brokers charge a higher percentage.

First, realize that 6 per cent on a typical house may be a low percentage, but because the sales price is many times higher than for time share, 6% is a HIGH amount of dollars.

A time share sale involves just as much work and expense as selling a house, sometimes even more, but the commission DOLLAR AMOUNT is so low that most traditional realtors consider it a waste of their time to sell time share.

So yes, the percentage is higher for time share, but the actual dollar amount is far smaller. It is a high-percentage but low dollar-amount commission. Compared to home sales, time share is a completely different industry with very small sales prices and expenses that are proportionately much higher.

It is very difficult and expensive to properly market the sale of a time share. On a new sale from the time share developer, it is well known that the commissions and marketing paid by the buyer as part of the purchase price, total approximately 50 per cent! That is one of the reasons that the resale on a typical time share is only a maximum of about 50 per cent of what was originally paid.

In the time share RESALE industry, brokerage commissions average between 20% to 30%. Time share resorts and time share developers, typically charge 25% to 30% for resale transactions

Also, most licensed timeshare real estate brokers have a mandatory minimum commission amount ranging from a low of about $1,500 to a high of about $2,500, with the average being about $2,000.

Because the average resale price is so low, the mandatory minimum commission is necessary if the broker is to stay in business while paying the proportionately higher expenses pertinent to professionally marketing a time share.

Again, the average commission of $2,000 is not a lot of money compared to the work of initiating the sale, following it through with buyer and seller until it closes, the liability, and the responsibility for the expenses incurred for the whole process.

In conclusion, when considering paying a time share commission, focus on the dollar amount for the job done, and not the commission percentage. And when comparing between brokers, the lowest offered commission may not be the wisest, either.

If the goal is to actually sell the property, the broker with an average commission who expends what it takes and actually sells the time share, is certainly a wiser choice than choosing a broker willing to list it with a low commission but who doesn't do much, and doesn't sell the property.
 
The worst thing a seller can do is to take the attitude where the seller says to the broker, "no way am I going to pay 'that kind of percentage' to sell my time share!" - then they foolishly turn around and pay upfront fees repeatedly to companies who DON'T SELL THEIR TIME SHARE and usually aren't even licensed real estate brokers.

The result is that these sellers end up paying exorbitant fees to NOT SELL IT, rather than a fair commission, to SELL IT.

On a positive note, before the Internet came along, there was virtually no means of marketing a time share resale at any price, but the good news is that there now is a strong market, as long as the price is in accordance with the price for which other sellers are willing to sell identical units.

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here...