Where to get a great deal?

I am looking for a unit in St. Maarten at the Royal Islander La Plage. I have searched several online sites over the last 6-8 months. It appears that most sellers have an inability to get over the fact they overpaid the developer for their unit and will hold out for top dollar. It appears that waiting months, if not years is their plan. Does anyone know where to look for those owners that have finally accepted they overpaid and want to unload their week. I am looking for a week between 47 and 13, excluding Christmas. I have seen some go for as low as $1000. I would say the average asking price for a one bedroom unit is $7000, and they sit and sit and sit.

Many owners have unrealistic expectations of what they can get on the resale market for their developer bought timeshare. Resales typically run 1/3 +- to 1/4 +- of what was paid the developer except for a very few high end timeshares that may return more via resales.

What I would do if I was you is make an offer to ads that you are interested in at what you are willing to pay for the week.

"I have seen some go for as low as $1000. I would say the average asking price for a one bedroom unit is $7000, and they sit and sit and sit."

The reason these units sit and sit is because the sellers have usually paid an upfront fee to a timeshare resale company, on the promise that they would make money or at least break even on what they paid to the developer. The owners that have listed at these inflated prices are only interested in selling if they can "get their money back" from what they origianlly paid. If you check the many web sites that offer timeshare for sale, you will soon realize that there are 100's and sometimes 1000's of listings for most timeshare developments.

There are generally 3 or 4 resale companies (including redweek.com) that list reasonable prices. You should still make an offer to negotiate the price as it truely is a "buyer's" market for timeshare resales.

greg208 wrote:

"I have seen some go for as low as $1000. I would say the average asking price for a one bedroom unit is $7000, and they sit and sit and sit."

The reason these units sit and sit is because the sellers have usually paid an upfront fee to a timeshare resale company, on the promise that they would make money or at least break even on what they paid to the developer. The owners that have listed at these inflated prices are only interested in selling if they can "get their money back" from what they origianlly paid. If you check the many web sites that offer timeshare for sale, you will soon realize that there are 100's and sometimes 1000's of listings for most timeshare developments.

There are generally 3 or 4 resale companies (including redweek.com) that list reasonable prices. You should still make an offer to negotiate the price as it truely is a "buyer's" market for timeshare resales.

eBay is a good source of resale "what they actually sold for information" you can add listings to your "watch list" and they will remain there after the auction completes which will show you the winning bid price. It sad that many "For Sale By Owner" listings on eBay are often way above to market price on the reale market for the units listed, a vane attempt to recoup lost money.